Updated Safety and Security Guidelines for K-12 Schools by Partner Alliance for Safer Schools for the year 2025
The Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) has released the seventh edition of its Safety and Security Guidelines for K-12 Schools. This latest edition offers comprehensive and updated recommendations to address evolving school security challenges in 2025.
The guidelines maintain foundational safety approaches while embracing new technologies, structured into five physical layers: districtwide, digital infrastructure, campus perimeter, building perimeter, and classroom/interior. Each layer includes detailed recommendations on policies, people (roles and training), architectural components, communication, access control, video surveillance, detection, and alarms.
One of the key updates in the seventh edition is the addition of a new "digital infrastructure" layer. This layer focuses on integrating emerging technologies such as cloud computing, power over ethernet, and wireless systems with traditional security methods. The aim is to enhance threat assessments and comprehensive safety plans tailored specifically for K-12 environments.
The new Digital Infrastructure Layer recognises the importance of cybersecurity and digital systems management. It provides guidance on key safety and security components, such as policies and procedures, people (roles and training), architectural components, communication, access control, video surveillance and detection, and alarms.
The guidelines also expand information on panic alarm systems and cover door locks and door devices with great nuance, addressing school-specific lock requirements. Notably, the Property Perimeter and Parking Lot Layers have been unified into the new Campus Perimeter Layer.
The seventh edition of the PASS Safety and Security Guidelines is designed to help stakeholders distinguish needed and effective solutions from sales pitches or unnecessary products. It offers vetted security practices specific to K-12 environments, along with objective and reliable information on available safety and security technology.
The guidelines provide a roadmap for enhancing school environment safety and prioritising needs. They are available for free to education and public safety professionals on the PASS website. Since 2020, the PASS guidelines have been available on SchoolSafety.gov, the federal government's clearinghouse for school safety information.
Chuck Wilson, chair of the PASS Board of Directors, stated that the seventh edition embraces emerging technologies while maintaining fundamental methods and solutions. He encourages education professionals, public safety personnel, and security solutions providers to take advantage of these free resources.
For more information or to become a partner in support of PASS's mission to protect schools, visit the PASS website at https://passk12.org/.
- To ensure a safer and more secure learning environment in K-12 schools, the seventh edition of the PASS Safety and Security Guidelines advocates for the integration of online education and learning into traditional security methods, as part of the new Digital Infrastructure Layer.
- Recognizing the increasing importance of education-and-self-development in the digital age, the guidelines promote the use of updated policies, people (roles and training), architectural components, communication, access control, video surveillance and detection, and alarms, to safeguard online-education platforms in K-12 environments.
