Emergency Preparedness Requirements
for Texas Schools
As K-12 schools and higher education institutions face rising threats, including active shooter incidents, severe weather, health outbreaks, and more, underserved districts and campuses must have access to the tools needed to keep their communities safe.
Texas Representatives recently proposed House Bill 669, which would require Texas school districts to have Silent Panic Alert Technology (SPAT) within their facilities. A vital component of the rule’s requirements is a panic alert device — either physical or digital — to trigger communication with law enforcement.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) updated the Texas school safety standards to amend certain school safety requirements, including modifications structurally and systematically for school districts to adopt.
Structural Requirements:
Walls or fences must be at least six (6) feet high and have unscalable measures or be eight (8) feet tall.
Gates can only be accessed outside with a key or system to unlock them.
Every exterior door to a school building must be labeled in a counterclockwise sequence.
The main entrance is the first, and a layout of the numbered doors to the school is both in print and electronic format.
Schools must structurally modify doors to be intruder-resistant, and exterior glass windows must be harder to break.
All exterior doors need to have closed, latched, and locked statuses that are magnetic and still allow for emergency exits.
Locked doors that are not locked must trigger an alarm, so the school is aware.
Primary entrances must be able to identify visitors visually, have check-ins and check-outs, and have a physical barrier that keeps people from entering the school without someone from the school staff letting them in.
Systematic Requirements:
All schools must have Silent Panic Alert Technology (SPAT) within their facilities.
There must be at least one master key for law enforcement and emergency responders.
Alert systems must be triggered by staff and 911 phone calls.
Two-way radios must be able to function in the majority of the school building.
Panic Button Solutions
To improve campus safety around Texas, your customers need access to mass notification and communication solutions that meet these new potential requirements. You can leverage your partnership with Alertus by offering our full suite of silent duress solutions to your customers.
USB Multi Panic Button
Trigger emergency notifications through a slim module with eight customizable incident buttons.
WiFi Panic Button
This pocket-sized device can send location, so assistance gets there faster.
Activation Buttons
Wall-mounted devices instantly activate pre-set alerts from the Alertus System through a single point.
Rapid Response Console
A sleek, wall-mounted tablet that allows multiple authorized users to activate the Alertus System.
Safe In Seconds Initiative
Alertus believes all schools, regardless of budget or resources, should have access to mass notification and communication solutions to help save lives.
Alertus actively works to reach local and international communities that need more preparation for an emergency or disaster event. Through the Alertus Grants Program, organizations can enhance their emergency preparedness strategies with free hardware and software solutions from Alertus. This program is an extension of the Alertus Safe in Seconds initiative, which has provided over 700 non-profit organizations worldwide with the Alertus Desktop Notification tool.
About Alertus Technologies
Since 2002, Alertus has pioneered the emergency mass notification space, helping organizations find innovative notification solutions for disaster risk reduction. Alertus believes that all organizations and communities vulnerable to potential violence or natural disaster should have access to life-saving mass notification solutions, regardless of available resources. Through raising awareness, sharing technical expertise, and granting its solutions to at-need organizations, Alertus is committed to supporting the creation of disaster-resilient societies worldwide.