State agencies brief joint education committee on school safety, data-sharing and behavioral threat teams

The Joint Senate and House Education Committee heard a multi-agency briefing on school safety, including threat reporting, behavioral threat assessment teams and mental-health supports for students. Linda Kriblay, deputy director of Homeland Security with the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA), Justin Hill, deputy superintendent for the office of whole child at the Georgia Department of Education (DOE), and Kevin Tanner, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD), described programs, data and gaps the state is trying to close.

GEMA told lawmakers the agency is treating school safety as a statewide priority and has built an intelligence and training capability around school threats. “We have 10 sworn law enforcement officers post certified that are distributed throughout the state that work almost exclusively on school safety,” Kriblay said. She said the agency operates a school safety intelligence unit and has rolled out training, intruder‑alert drill reporting and an endorsement for school safety professionals following the 2023 Safe Schools Act.

Why it matters: agency officials said school threats have risen and can come from many sources — not just active‑shooter plots — and that the state lacks a comprehensive, statewide system that collects and links threat reports across jurisdictions. Kriblay told the committee the state logged 214 validated school safety threats in the first quarter of the 2024–25 academic year, compared with 20 in the same period the prior year, and said those counts likely understate the problem because reporting to GEMA is voluntary.

Officials emphasized two programs they view as central to preventing violence. First, better information sharing among schools, law enforcement and state agencies so “we can collect the dots,” Kriblay said. “Quite simply, we're not collecting the dots, so we can't expect our superintendents and sheriffs to connect the dots.” She said legal work will be required to build systems that comply with FERPA and HIPAA but called the technical problems solvable.

Second, agencies are expanding behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) teams that use multidisciplinary panels to evaluate and intervene with students identified as at risk. Kriblay said GEMA has trained nearly 1,300 school officials and law enforcement officers in BTAM concepts, is running a 6‑hour implementation course, and has active local implementations in about 8 school systems and trainings delivered in about 40 counties. “We have a 1 hour overview course to get people's heads around the concept. We've trained over a thousand, close to 1,300 school officials and law enforcement officers,” she said.

Health and mental‑health services are a third pillar. Commissioner Kevin Tanner described the Apex program, which places licensed clinicians in school systems and can bill Medicaid and private insurance. “Apex is a clinician who is placed in the school system. They're a licensed clinician and they have the ability to bill Medicaid, bill private insurance,” Tanner said. He reported Apex‑funded positions (468 budgeted) and related telehealth and regional collaborations to reach rural areas, but he and other officials said clinician turnover and a limited statewide clinician workforce remain constraints.

Committee members asked whether the agencies had actionable findings from the Apalachee High School shooting. Kriblay said GEMA first learned the shooter's name only after the attack and used that example to emphasize the information‑sharing gap: “The first time GEMA Homeland Security heard the name … of the juvenile shooter at Apalachee was after he had conducted his heinous act of violence,” she said.

Lawmakers also asked about detection technology and school hardening. Kriblay said detection tools — metal detectors, thermal systems and other technology — can play a role, but most school threats come from people with access to buildings, so prevention and mental‑health work are vital. Justin Hill and Kriblay described joint programs such as the READY Georgia Seal of Preparedness and a joint webinar series for school officials that pairs GEMA and DOE guidance on grant use and school preparedness.

Next steps described to the committee included continued rollout of BTAM training, expanding the intelligence and tip intake systems that feed schools and law enforcement, and pilot programs to test tele‑mental‑health and facilitator positions in rural schools. Officials repeatedly said further work will require legal review, more provider capacity and ongoing coordination among GEMA, DOE, DBHDD, local school districts and law enforcement.

Ending: Committee leadership moved on to a scheduled literacy briefing after roughly two hours of safety remarks and Q&A; no new legislation was voted on during the school safety discussion.