Minnesota school tip line law

Does Minnesota require schools to have a tip line?

Yes, for school districts and charter schools, on a set timeline. By June 30, 2027, every school district or charter school board must adopt a policy at a board meeting to implement an anonymous threat reporting system. By July 1, 2028, districts and charter schools must implement either their own local system or the statewide one. The section, Minn. Stat. § 121A.0361, takes effect July 1, 2026.

What must a local system do?

It must take anonymous reports 24 hours a day by mobile app, website and toll-free hotline. It must take anonymous tips about dangerous, violent, threatening or potentially harmful activity on school property or involving students or school staff. It must forward reports to designated school staff, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and local law enforcement. A district or charter school may hire an outside provider to build and run its local system. A district or charter school that already had a local system before July 1, 2026 may keep using it even if it does not meet the new requirements, as long as it immediately forwards reports to designated school staff, the BCA and local law enforcement.

What must schools do to run it?

A school with a local system must designate staff to receive and respond to reports. It must require training for those staff, including on coordinating with the BCA and local law enforcement. It must post information about the system on the district's or charter school's website. It must notify parents every year that the system is available.

What if a school uses the statewide system?

A school without a local system must give students, families, employees and the school community information about the Department of Public Safety (DPS) statewide system and how to use it. At a minimum, it must notify parents every year that the statewide system is available. The BCA's "See it, Say it, Send it" app is free and accepts anonymous tips. DPS says that for school tips, the BCA triages them, notifies local law enforcement, and works with the Minnesota School Safety Center, the Department of Education and schools on tips that are not about crime. DPS tells tipsters that emergencies needing an immediate response go to 911, not the app; its page states no hours of monitoring.

Do students have to learn how to report?

A district or charter school that runs active shooter drills must give middle and high school students at least one hour, or one class period, of violence prevention training each year. That training must teach students how to report dangerous or threatening activity, including information about the statewide anonymous threat reporting system and any local system.

Are tips kept confidential?

Information about a school's local system is "security information" under Minnesota's data practices law, § 13.37. Anonymous threat reporting system data are confidential or protected nonpublic (not open to the public) while the report is active. Active data may be shared among the school, DPS, the Department of Education, law enforcement and noncriminal justice partners. Data become inactive, at the latest, two years after the last related report.

What about false reports?

Minnesota's general false-reporting crime, which is not specific to tip lines, makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly give false information to a law enforcement officer about the conduct of others, intending the officer to act on it. A second or later conviction for falsely reporting a crime is a gross misdemeanor.

Does the state track compliance and tips?

Starting January 15, 2028, the commissioner of education must report to the legislature every year on which districts and charter schools have complied. The BCA superintendent's annual Minnesota Fusion Center report to the legislature must include how many tips came in through DPS's anonymous threat reporting system, including the See It, Say It, Send It app, and how many the Fusion Center processed.

How can schools pay for it?

The 2026 law puts $4,000,000 in FY2027 with DPS's Homeland Security and Emergency Management division (HSEM) for grants to schools for anonymous threat reporting systems. Districts, charter schools, cooperative units, Tribal contract schools and nonpublic schools may apply. Grants are capped at $10,000 per district or cooperative unit and $2,500 per charter, Tribal contract or nonpublic school. The grant money is a one-time appropriation, available until June 30, 2029. After each grant year, the Minnesota School Safety Center, HSEM and DPS must report grant awards to the legislature. The law also puts $1,000,000 in FY2027 with the BCA for threat assessment and investigations staffing and operations.

When did it pass?

The law is HF 2433, signed by the governor on May 27, 2026, as Laws 2026, chapter 117. The House repassed it as amended by the Senate on May 16, 2026, and it was presented to the governor on May 20.