Committee approves amendments and sends anonymous threat-reporting, grant bill to Public Safety

The House Education Policy Committee on March 18 adopted two amendments and voted to re-refer House File 19-01, a bill to fund anonymous threat-reporting systems for schools and to require limited reporting of active-shooter threats or incidents, to the House Public Safety, Finance and Policy Committee.

"The focus of this bill is to keep our students and staff safe from violence and also to prevent suicide," Representative Mueller told the committee as she described the bill's components. She said Section 4 appropriates grant funding for schools to implement anonymous threat-reporting systems and that sections 2 and 3 would require schools to report active shooter threats or incidents to the Fusion Center and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) for inclusion in the Fusion Center's annual report to the legislature.

Representative Mueller said the reporting requirement is narrow and that the BCA would provide a short form for districts to complete. She also noted language in the bill was reworked to remove any cost to the Minnesota Department of Education; the only cost would be the grants, which "will come out of the Public Safety's budget," she said.

Holly Ryan, a nationally certified school psychologist whose written testimony was read into the record, described anonymous reporting systems as removing barriers that prevent students and staff from reporting concerns — including fear of retaliation and being labeled a "snitch" — and said such systems allow trained professionals to assess risk and intervene earlier. Representative Greene said she supported the measure and asked whether safe-storage education could be included; Representative Mueller said she would welcome bipartisan work on that point.

Committee members adopted the A2 amendment (incorporating feedback from Chair Novotny and Representative Witte) and the A3 amendment (which aligned reporting language with grant eligibility and preserves an opportunity to add tribal schools at a later step). By voice vote the committee agreed to re-refer House File 19-01 as amended to the Public Safety, Finance and Policy Committee.

The committee's transcript shows the actions were taken by voice vote; no roll-call tallies appear in the record. The bill, if advanced, would create a grant program administered from public safety funds and add a narrowly defined reporting duty to the BCA and Fusion Center.