How a new Texas school security database is meant to streamline safety measures

The Texas Education Agency is launching a statewide digital system to house resources, reporting tools and information about school safety for school district administrators and state officials in charge of ensuring that new security legislation protects students on campuses.

The system, called Sentinel, is a piece of the $1.4 billion in school safety funding passed during the 2023 legislative session in the wake of the 2022 Uvalde school mass shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead.

Sentinel will create a centralized system for reporting and housing training and information, said John Scott, TEA's school safety and security chief.

"I really think that Sentinel is going to go a long way to professionalizing school safety across the state of Texas," Scott said.

The Sentinel system was developed as part of House Bill 3, a $300 million package passed last year to improve school safety. In addition to requiring enhanced physical safety features for school buildings, the law mandates an armed security guard at every school campus.

The bill also allocated about $15,000 per campus for security-related funding and increased per student safety funding from $9.72 to $10.

While supporters of HB 3 applauded the stricter focus on hardened school safety features, many district leaders worried the law created an unfunded mandate with its armed security requirement. Democrats and Republican lawmakers also clashed about the effectiveness of having an armed guard on a campus during a shooting event.

The bill also requires the state to conduct regular vulnerability assessments of each school district.

The Sentinel program keeps track of that kind of information, such as schools' required door handle checks and intruder detection audits, Scott said.

The program is also meant to streamline communication with the more than 1,200 school districts across Texas, Scott said. Different districts typically keep safety information and records in different ways.

"Maybe the superintendent has some information," Scott said. "Maybe the maintenance folks have some. Maybe the principal has some."

School districts should begin using the Sentinel system in the upcoming school year.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How a new Texas school security database is meant to streamline safety measures