The third entry in the School Safety Series provides an overview of campus safety protocols including visitor management rules, and an update on Governor Abbott’s School and Firearm Safety Plan. Additionally, TEA has promulgated new rules pertaining to the grievance process for school visitor ejections.

Governor Abbott Issues School and Firearm Safety Action Plan

Governor Abbott released his School and Firearm Safety Action Plan containing several dozen recommendations and proposals to increase safety on campuses across the state. The plan calls for steps such as immediately increasing law enforcement presence at schools, providing mental evaluations to identify students at risk of harming others, expanding on-campus counseling, and using digital technology to prevent the attacks. The plan also calls for a “study for a protective order law to keep guns out of the hands of those mentally unfit to bear arms, but only after legal due process is allowed to ensure Second Amendment rights are not violated.” In addition, the plan calls for strengthening Texas’ safe firearm storage law.

Regulating Persons on School Property

Texas school districts have the authority to regulate students, personnel, and members of the public on school property. One of the most important, as well as most common, school safety measures involve the regulation of access to school property during district hours. This includes locking doors on campus during school hours, and requiring parents and third parties to check-in at a designated location, typically the front office. Some districts take additional measures such as requiring the visitor to wear a name badge or showing identification.

Texas Education Code section 38.022 allows districts to require a person who enters campus to display the person’s driver’s license or another form of identification containing the person’s photograph issued by a governmental entity. In addition, districts may establish an electronic database for the purpose of storing information concerning visitors to district campuses. However, information stored in the electronic database may be used only for the purpose of school district security and may not be sold or otherwise disseminated to a third party for any purpose. Districts may verify whether a visitor to a district campus is a sex offender registered with the computerized central database maintained by the Department of Public Safety or any other database accessible by the district.

Finally, we recommend Districts avoid posting campus floor plans in order to prevent that information from becoming available to potential campus safety threats.

TEA Update on Ejections from School Property

TEA has adopted the rules regarding ejections from school property. The agency changed the rule to allow for the use of a district’s current grievance process, but limited the time to get in front of a district’s board of trustees to 90 days unless the appeal is granted before the expiration of 90 days. Therefore, we recommend the following:

  1. Start the appeal of an ejection at Level II (in a 3 level appeal process) or Level III (in a 4 level appeal process) in order to comply with timelines and avoid the board having to call a special meeting.
  2. Modify board policies FNG (LOCAL), GF (LOCAL), and DGBA (LOCAL) to reflect the timeline of the appeal for ejections as soon as possible.
  3. Update your district’s website to reflect the revised process; and
  4. Create a handout that reflects the new policy and appeals process to give to persons who are ejected.

Conclusion

Texas districts have a number of options available for campus safety and security. Make sure your district has protocols and that those protocols are well known to campus employees. As always, contact your district’s school law attorney if you have any questions regarding school district and/or campus safety.

Read Part 1 Here

Read Part 2 Here

Prepared by the offices of Richard Abernathy, this article should not be construed as legal advice related to any specific facts or circumstances. Although this article covers legal subjects, it is intended to educate readers and not to provide advice that will be the basis for action or inaction in any specific circumstance. Viewing these materials does not create an attorney-client relationship between Abernathy, Roeder, Boyd & Hullett, P.C. and the reader or the reader’s institution. For circumstance-specific legal advice, please directly contact a licensed attorney.