New school safety system launches in Texas

(The Center Square) – A new school safety system has launched in Texas through the Texas Education Agency.

“As a new school year approaches, the safety of students, school faculty, and staff across Texas remains a top priority,” Gov. Greg Abbott said. “To bolster school safety standards, we are launching Sentinel – a new, sweeping system to enhance the safety and security of students and teachers across our great state. This cutting-edge technology is available to all schools in Texas and will expand the state’s threat assessments process, improve real-time communication capabilities, and better safeguard our children, teachers, and school communities.”

Abbott thanked the head of the TEA’s Office of School Safety and Security, John Scott, for working with superintendents and school safety personnel across the state to create and implement the new system.

Abbott created the role and appointed Scott in 2022 after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde to ensure that all public schools in Texas are implementing school safety policies and using best practices to safeguard against school shootings or other dangers.

Scott previously served as assistant special agent in charge for the U.S. Secret Service Dallas/North Texas District. He’s been the single point of contact for coordinating school safety and security efforts statewide, working with the Texas School Safety Center, the Department of Public Safety, the Health and Human Services Commission, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, and the Advance Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center, school districts, and other entities.

Since he was brought on, several new policies have been implemented. Scott said his office “continues to search for ways to better support the 1,200 school systems in Texas and their efforts in keeping students and staff safe. The launch of Sentinel represents this continued focus, and I'm grateful for the Governor's support in getting this critical safety infrastructure off the ground and operational."

Sentinel is an innovative and comprehensive system designed to enhance the safety and security of students, faculty, and staff in school buildings statewide. The TEA provides it for free to all schools in Texas. It enables robust monitoring of school systems’ implementation and operation of safety and security policies and improves the threat assessment process.

Sentinel was designed to standardize Behavioral Threat Assessments (BTAs) into a single reporting mechanism to enable schools to have a clear way of conducting BTAs and managing threats. This uniform approach helps school systems identify, assess and mitigate risks to students and staff.

Sentinel is also part of statewide emergency operations providing state leaders with timely and accurate information and informing schools about local or statewide emergencies through a mass communication capability. The communications capability will also enable the TEA to securely communicate guidance, resources, or other information to schools.

Sentinel was developed after the Texas legislature passed two bills that Abbott signed into law last June.

House Bill 3, filed by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, strengthened state monitoring of school safety and increased the school safety allotment. It became effective last September. Senate Bill 30, filed by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, provided an additional $1.1 billion for school systems to bolster the safety of their facilities. It became effective last June.

The Texas School Safety Center has also extended its school safety reviews to ensure all public schools are following the appropriate procedures to maximize school safety. Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training programs have also expanded training to all school districts, prioritizing school-based law enforcement.

State agencies are also expanding their ability to report suspicious activity through the iWatchTexas reporting system as well as expanding public awareness through public safety campaigns.