Sponsors (18)
The bill strengthens school emergency preparedness, mapping, and federal coordination—potentially improving response and targeting resources—but does so at increased cost, with privacy and interoperability risks and possible federal-local tensions and uneven adoption across districts.
Students, teachers, school staff, and first responders will gain stronger, evidence-based preparedness and response (actionable training, individualized consulting, standardized "master plans," annual walkthroughs, and evidence-based evaluations) that should improve prevention and reduce harm in school emergencies.
Schools, hospitals, and public-safety agencies get interoperable, updatable emergency site maps stored in U.S. data centers and shared via authenticated APIs, improving on-site coordination, control over sensitive site information, and reducing foreign data-access risks.
A National School Safety Data Center / Clearinghouse with standardized reporting, subject-matter experts, and annual briefings to Congress increases federal coordination, transparency, and the ability to target prevention resources based on national data.
Expanding Clearinghouse duties, procuring and hosting compliant maps, annual reporting, and preparing master plans/walkthroughs will raise federal, state, local, and school administrative costs and staff burdens.
Collecting detailed incident data and broader map access combined with an expanded DHS role increases privacy and data-security risks for students, staff, and site owners and raises concerns about unauthorized dissemination or sensitive information exposure.
Emphasis on validated panic alarms, hardware, and equipment standards risks shifting investment away from behavioral and mental-health prevention programs that address root causes of violence.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Expands federal Clearinghouse authority to conduct school-safety research, training, and panic‑alarm tech work; sets strict digital emergency-map standards and requires national master‑plan reporting.
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Burgess Owens · Last progress December 17, 2025
Expands the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety to run public education, research, testing, and training programs (including work on panic-alarm technology) and to hire staff and contractors with school-safety expertise. Sets detailed national requirements for digital emergency-response maps used in federal procurements, requires a federal strategy to procure and distribute compliant maps for federal sites, and establishes recurring federal reporting on statewide “master plans” for school safety and their costs and effectiveness. The bill preserves that the Clearinghouse cannot promulgate regulations and defines key terms and covered entities.