Committee advances plan for statewide, standardized school maps for emergency responders
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Summary
Rep. Rick Ladd described a plan to use a portion of a $10 million public-school infrastructure appropriation to fund a statewide mapping RFP and vendor work to create live, GPS-enabled school maps and five years of maintenance; the department and vendors described data security, cross-platform formats and a summer implementation window.
Representative Rick Ladd told the committee HB 15-03 would let the Department of Education allocate existing Public School Infrastructure Fund dollars to create standardized, live maps of school facilities for emergency responders. He said the Public School Infrastructure Fund already includes $10 million in HB2 and that an estimated $2.8 million would cover mapping statewide with vendor maintenance; the committee was told the remainder would continue to be available for grants covering locks, cameras and other access-control measures.
Nate Green of the Department of Education outlined technical requirements the RFP will include: vendors must deliver maps compatible with the various software systems used by fire, police, EMS and 9-1-1 dispatch, produce live GPS-enabled maps that overlay a uniform grid (A1, B2, etc.) and conduct in-person walk-throughs to verify building layouts. Green said the RFP would be released in the coming weeks, with proposal review and governor/executive council approval likely taking 3'4 months; the department expects the bulk of mapping work to occur during summer months and estimates two years for initial completion.
Committee members asked about data security, where maps will be stored and long-term update costs. Green said the RFP will require U.S.-based vendors, storage on U.S. servers, vendor plans for cybersecurity and an initial five years of maintenance at no cost to the schools; after that period districts would likely pay for updates or additions at modest cost. Lawmakers also sought clarification about whether classrooms would need to be renumbered; the department explained the mapping uses a standardized overlay grid so local room names would not necessarily have to change.
No vote was taken; the committee closed the hearing and asked the department to finalize RFP language and provide additional implementation information to members.
