Tennessee passed a new law to improve school safety at K-12 public and private schools across the state. Tennessee also appropriated $40M for public schools and $14M for private schools in available grant funds to support a wide range of activities to improve school safety, including implementing Life Check systems.
Tennessee’s new school safety law (TCA 49-6-817) requires all K-12 public and private schools to keep exterior doors locked and restrict access to one secure entrance.
The legislation authorizes law enforcement to perform more unannounced inspections to ensure compliance. It imposes financial penalties for violations.
If a school violates the locked door requirements two or more times in a school year, they must implement a corrective action plan, or lose 2% of its annual state funds, increasing by 2% for each violation, up to 10%.
Notifications about security violations must be issued within 24 hours to administrators, district leaders, the PTO, and state officials.
The legislation does not allow officers to check private school doors. There are no financial penalties for private schools.
The state is providing over $54,000,000 in grant funding to support products and services that enhance school safety, including implementing Life Check Systems for Schools.
Life Check Systems is a simple, affordable technology solution for schools that puts control in your hands to guarantee compliance with your security policies. It creates accountability to ensure doors are locked and monitored.
All-in fees for a three-year contract with Life Check are estimated to be only about half of what a state grant would award.
Public School allocations are announced and each public school finds out how much of the $40M they received. This is the first day your public school can apply for the grant.
The last day to file grant applications for your public school is September 29.
Get in touch with us and schedule your free demo to see how our simple and affordable technology can create a safer learning environment for you and your students.
Private schools must file their “intent to apply“ by August 4.
Private School allocations are announced and each private school finds out how much of the $14M they received. This is the first day your private school can apply for the grant.
The last day to file grant applications for your private school is October 27.
“White County Schools in Tennessee is proud to be the first school district in the country to employ the Life Check System in all of our schools. The onboarding process was quick and easy, and we were up and running in no time. Our entire school community feels (and is) safer with this system in place.”
We can show you how Life Check can help increase accountability at your facility – no pressure or obligation. Plus, it’s probably more affordable than you think!
