Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Committee advances bill creating Office of School Safety, streamlines school-safety functions and adjusts fire/inspection rules
Summary
Lawmakers advanced a bill to move school-safety functions into the Department of Homeland Security, create an Office of School Safety, add roles to county school safety commissions and change certain fire and building code review processes; stakeholders urged minor additions and technical amendments.
A House committee on Monday advanced a comprehensive public-safety bill that creates an Office of School Safety within the Department of Homeland Security (IDHS), transfers existing school-safety staff from the Department of Education, and consolidates grant and school-safety functions under one agency.
Sponsor Chairman Steve Bartels said the bill formalizes a governor-led initiative to streamline school-safety work already performed by both the Department of Education and IDHS. Under the proposal, staff and funding currently housed at the Department of Education would transfer to IDHS, with no net increase in government head count, and the secure school safety board’s director would become the director of the new Office of School Safety. The proposal also adds four specialized positions to the board and adds the fire-chief designee…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
