Sponsors (25)
Official title: To amend title 18, United States Code, to reauthorize and expand the National Threat Assessment Center of the Department of Homeland Security.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Mario Diaz-Balart · Last progress February 13, 2025
The bill invests federal support and funding to expand evidence-based threat assessment, training, research, and consultation to help prevent targeted school violence and reduce student arrests, while raising significant privacy and due-process concerns and imposing costs and some constraints on local schools and officials.
Students and school staff nationwide gain access to evidence-based threat-assessment tools and training that help identify concerning behavior early, reduce targeted school violence, and can divert students from the criminal justice system.
Local and state officials, school administrators, and law enforcement receive increased expert consultation and coordinated-response support for complex threat cases, improving local ability to manage and de-escalate potential attacks.
Research and published findings will build a nationwide evidence base on what prevents targeted violence, informing policy and practice for schools and communities.
Students and families may face increased privacy and due-process risks because broader information-sharing and law-enforcement involvement — and a federal center with access to sensitive case data — could expose behavioral or mental-health details and lead to disciplinary or criminal consequences if misapplied.
Schools and local agencies will likely need to devote staff time and other resources to implement and maintain threat-assessment protocols and trainings, imposing direct costs and capacity strains on districts and municipalities.
Some local officials and educators may perceive federal involvement as overreach into local education decisions, creating tension over control of school-safety policies and practices.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a statutory National Threat Assessment Center in the U.S. Secret Service with a Safe School Initiative, funds it $10M/year for FY2026–2030, and requires staffing, plans, and reports.
Creates a permanent National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) inside the U.S. Secret Service to research, train, consult, share information, and build evidence-based programs to prevent targeted violence, with a particular Safe School Initiative focused on preventing school-targeted attacks. Authorizes $10 million per year for FY2026–2030, requires hiring of subject-matter experts, a State-by-State training plan within one year, reporting to Congress within two years, and prohibits use of funds for firearms training; the authority sunsets on September 30, 2030.