Missouri school visitor management law
Missouri requires anti-intruder locks on interior school doors, but no district or charter school has to install them until the General Assembly specifically appropriates money for all the costs.
Every fact checked against the official source by an independent reviewer · Last verified October 26, 2026
What does the Missouri law require?
Each school district and charter school "shall equip each interior door with an anti-intruder door lock," except as the section otherwise provides. Before or along with installing the locks, each district and charter school must develop and carry out building access policies and practices that control access to individual classrooms. Each district board and charter school governing board must make sure a physical security site assessment is completed at each facility every year. DESE (the state education department) must set standards for that assessment using nationally accepted methodology.
What counts as an anti-intruder door lock?
A mechanical or electronic lock on an interior door, designed to keep an intruder from entering an interior room. It must lock or unlock from inside the room without a key or special knowledge or effort, and unlock from outside with a key or other approved means. A district or charter school may also add master key boxes holding keys and access tools for fire and law enforcement. A master key box is an exterior secure box that meets Underwriters Laboratories Standard 1037.
Are there rules for who may visit?
Under a separate law, some parents, guardians or custodians who are sex offenders may be present only with permission from the superintendent or school board, or from the principal at a private school. At a public school, if permission is granted, the superintendent or school board president must tell the principal of the school where the person will be present.
When did it take effect, and what are the deadlines?
Section 160.663 was enacted by 2025 Senate Bill 68, which the Governor signed, and took effect August 28, 2025. Each interior door installed after August 28, 2029, must be equipped with an anti-intruder door lock, subject to the funding condition below.
How can schools pay for it?
A district or charter school is not required to install the locks unless the General Assembly specifically appropriates money to cover all costs. Districts and charter schools may receive donated locks and money to buy them. The FY2026 and FY2027 DESE budgets fund safe schools programs, including resources and training related to physical site assessments.
How can QuickSecure help?
Visitors sign themselves in at an iPad kiosk in your front office by scanning their driver's license or state ID.
Each visitor gets a printed badge, and checks out by scanning the badge's code on the way out.
Visitors are checked against the sex-offender registry and your school's own block list before they're let in.
When a visitor needs a second look, front-office staff get an alert and approve or deny entry from their phones.
Only guardians and contacts your school has authorized can pick up a student. A one-time exception needs an administrator's approval, and it's logged.
Every visit is kept in a log your administrators can search.
This is not a statement that any product satisfies Missouri's requirements; that reading belongs to your district and its counsel.