Governor Abbott Releases School Safety Action Plan Summary

AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott today released a School Safety Action Plan Summary, which details actions taken over the summer by school districts across Texas to improve and expand school safety measures. The actions taken by these school districts follow the Governor’s call to adopt and implement multidisciplinary school safety strategies outlined in his School and Firearm Safety Action Plan released earlier this year.

“Elected leaders, community members, students, teachers, parents and everyday Texans all share the common goal of making schools a safe place for our children,” said Governor Abbott. “Our goal is being realized as school districts across the state continue to put immediate and long term plans aimed at prevention and protection in place. While progress is being made, there is still much work to be done and I encourage everyone in Texas to continue the discussion surrounding school safety to ensure that we put in place measures that will benefit the safety and well-being of our state’s greatest resource – our children.”

As Governor Abbott and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) continue to work with school districts to develop long-term safety plans, the immediate measures taken over the summer are directed at keeping Texas students safe this school year.

Highlights from the School Safety Action Plan Summer Summary include:

• 1,705 public school employees attended Mental Health First Aid training courses during June and July. This is a 90% increase from the summer of 2017.
• The Department of Public Safety immediately expanded the iWatchTexas program to include school incidents as reported via mobile app, internet[1], or phone by students, teachers, parents, and others in the statewide centralized system that will provide law enforcement the opportunity to detect and prevent an attack.
• The Texas School Safety Center has worked with the Texas Commission On Law Enforcement to provide introductory school-based law enforcement, behavioral threat assessment, and emergency operations plan development courses to more than 500 people.
• As of August 17, an additional 92 school marshals have been appointed, with 73 prospective marshals in the training process. This training effort has already more than tripled the number of trained and licensed school marshals.
• The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program at Texas State University has provided direct training to nearly 1,300 police officers, firefighters, dispatchers, EMS personnel, and others since May 18, 2018.

Read the full School Safety Action Plan Summary.