Senate committee advances 'Ricky and Alyssa's Law' to require classroom panic alarms and school mapping

Senate Bill 17, known in committee as "Ricky and Alyssa's Law," was advanced out of the Senate Education and Youth Committee after sponsors and multiple witnesses described two core requirements: mobile/silent panic alarms for classrooms and a statewide school-mapping program to help first responders find rooms, equipment and access points during emergencies.

The bill’s author said the wearable alarm systems, which can be triggered discreetly, connect directly to public-safety answering points and are already in use in more than half of Georgia schools and in the state capitol. The author told the committee the mapping component would include building floor plans, aerial imagery and labeled locations of utility boxes, AEDs and other key infrastructure so that responding agencies can access that data quickly.

Why it matters: supporters said the measures shorten response time in active-threat and medical-emergency situations and improve situational awareness for responders who may be unfamiliar with a campus. "Time equals life," Bridal Hadeff, founder of the nonprofit Make Our Schools Safe and mother of Alyssa Alhadeff, said in testimony in support of the bill.

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