Safer Schools Act of 2025

Key Points

• The bill creates a federal pilot grant program run by the Attorney General to help public schools pay for professional security assessments and physical safety upgrades. The program must be up and running within 120 days of the bill becoming law, with grants flowing within 180 days.
• Schools receiving upgrade grants must install silent panic alarms if they do not already have them. These alarms connect directly to the nearest police station and send an immediate signal without making any sound inside the building, so an attacker would not know law enforcement has been alerted.
• Schools that have experienced a mass violence event get top priority for grants, and the government must personally contact them within 30 days of an incident to offer help applying. Schools can only receive one grant every five years unless they experience another violent event.
• The program authorizes up to $1.2 billion over five years, split with 70% going toward physical security upgrades and 30% toward security assessments. Schools must cover at least half the cost of physical upgrades, though the Attorney General can waive this for schools with financial need.
• The pilot program automatically expires five years after it launches. Before that, grant recipients must report back on how many security weaknesses they found, what percentage they fixed, and survey results on how safe students and staff feel before and after the improvements.