AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — State officials are ordering local school districts across Texas to audit and correct security deficiencies at their schools before the start of the next school year.
The Texas Education Agency issued directives Thursday "to support the safety and security of public schools."
State lawmakers have targeted school security and mental health issues without further regulating firearms access.
The order especially targets how secure exterior doors are.
This entails weekly sweeps to make sure they are locked and closed.
The directives come more than a month after an 18-year-old gunman entered a Uvalde elementary school's unlocked door and shot and killed 19 children and two teachers.
The agency added that districts' multi-hazard emergency operations and active threat plans must be reviewed, emergency procedures must be taught to all district staff, substitutes, and district threat assessment teams, and they must schedule all mandatory drills for the upcoming school year before school begins.
A survey, which certifies that the directives’ measures have been completed, must also be finished and submitted by Sept. 9 to the Texas School Safety Center.
