As I walked my legislative district last year, one of the subjects people would ask me about is school security. My response was that we need to approach school security in several different ways, including implementing an anonymous student supporting system; installing classroom panic buttons; supporting mental health services; and creating a single point of entry/exit for school buildings.
Last Session, House Republicans put forward an initiative to keep the children of Kansas safe and secure at school that was signed into law in May 2018 . The Safe and Secure Schools Act requires the State Board of Education to work with other agencies to develop statewide standards for safety and craft security plans for each school district in the state. Since its enactment, the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and the State Board of Education have worked on creating, refining, and adopting standards.
They also have looked through the funding requests from 156 USDs, as a total of $5 million was allocated in FY 2019 to help schools make their buildings more secure. The districts requested a total of $13 million in improvements, but unfortunately, the Governor recommended defunding this program entirely in her proposed budget for FY 20. I believe this is a step in the wrong direction.
For more info1mation on this subject go to the website KSDE created for schools to get more information on the Safe and Secure Schools initiative: https://www.ksde.org/Kansas-SafeSchools. The website provides a listing of the 9 adopted standards, free online courses, planning documents, and other resources to consult.