Arkansas school safety

School mapping requirements & grants in Arkansas

Yes. Under the Safe Schools Initiative Act, every Arkansas public school must give first responders current floor plans and emergency contact information, updated every year and after any major building change. That floor-plan obligation is already live, so the only real question is whether yours is accurate enough to act on.

Arkansas law requires every public school to give first responders current campus floor plans and emergency contact information by October 1, 2021, updated annually and after major building changes, with the data exempt from public disclosure. A related statute requires panic-button systems tied into the statewide Smart911 system so schools can geo-fence campuses and push floor plans to responders during 911 calls.^[1]

Why this matters in Arkansas

Why do Arkansas schools need responder-ready maps now?

Arkansas has required current floor plans in responders' hands since 2021, yet across 1,101 public schools most of those plans are static files that drift out of date the day a wall moves. With a statewide school-safety formula putting roughly $25,000 plus $19 per student behind each district, the early movers fund an accurate model now rather than discover the gap during a 911 call.

The mandate

What does Arkansas law require?

Law

Safe Schools Initiative Act, as amended by Act 620 of 2021 (and related Act 648 of 2021)^[1]

Statute

Ark. Code Ann. § 6-15-1303 (floor plans/emergency info to first responders); related § 6-15-1302 (panic-button alert + Smart911 floor-plan management)^[2]

Compliance

October 1, 2021 (initial floor-plan/emergency-info submission to first responders under § 6-15-1303); thereafter updated annually and on substantial building changes. Effective date of Act 620 of 2021: July 28, 2021.^[1]

What schools must provide: Under Ark. Code Ann. § 6-15-1303, on or before October 1, 2021 every public school must provide current floor plans and pertinent emergency contact information to appropriate first responders, and must provide updated information annually and whenever substantial building modifications or changes are made. The information is exempt from public-records disclosure. The companion statute § 6-15-1302 (amended by Act 648 of 2021) requires a panic-button alert system that integrates with the statewide Smart911 system, which lets a school geo-fence its campus and provide and manage floor plans and other documents that automatically display to emergency responders during a 911 call (subject to funding availability). The statute specifies floor plans and emergency contact information to first responders; it does not prescribe a single interoperable digital 'critical incident mapping' data standard (data fields/format) the way some other states' mapping laws do.^[1]

Funding

What grants help Arkansas schools pay for mapping?

Arkansas districts often combine state and federal programs to fund first-responder mapping, AI threat detection, and emergency communications. We list only currently open or recurring programs; amounts and deadlines change, so confirm each at its official source before applying.

Federal programs (available nationwide)

COPS School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP)Closed

Funding FY26: up to $73,000,000 total available; maximum federal share of $500,000 per award; approximately 200 awards anticipated; 36-month period of performance starting October 1, 2026. A local cash match of at least 25 percent is required unless a waiver is requested and approved. Approximately $1,000,000 was reserved for microgrants of up to $100,000 for rural, tribal, and low-resourced school districts. These are the closed FY26 figures, not a forecast for FY27.

Funds school security technology and equipment, including systems that speed law-enforcement notification during an emergency. (U.S. Department of Justice - Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office))

Most recent cycle closed. Confirm the next cycle at the official source.Listing: 16.710Full program details ^[3]

STOP School Violence Program (BJA) - Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School ViolenceClosed

Funding FY25 solicitation (the most recent on record): award ceiling $2,000,000, award floor $0, 79 awards anticipated. UNVERIFIED: the total program funding figure and the Category 1 / Category 2 split. The Grants.gov synopsis records total program funding as $2,000,000 against 79 awards at a $2,000,000 ceiling, which is internally inconsistent and appears to be a data-entry artefact, and the previously published ~$83,000,000 total and category breakdown could not be re-confirmed on a primary source in this pass. Treat the per-award ceiling as the reliable figure.

Funds evidence-based violence prevention: threat assessment, anonymous reporting, and law-enforcement coordination (cannot fund cameras, locks, or fencing). (U.S. Department of Justice - Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs)

Most recent cycle closed. Confirm the next cycle at the official source.Listing: 16.839Full program details ^[4]

Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence)Rolling

Funding Awards are sized to the incident and vary widely; there is no published per-award cap and no match requirement. The ten published FY2026 awards range from $25,434 (Lower Kuskokwim School District, AK) to $439,630 (Anchorage School District, AK). FY2025 awards ranged from $12,989 to $1,252,000. Two tiers exist, both at the Secretary's discretion and subject to appropriations: Immediate Services (emergency short-term assistance) and Extended Services (longer recovery).

Funds short-term recovery services, including security measures, after a school experiences a violent or traumatic event. (U.S. Department of Education - Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), Safe and Supportive Schools)

Deadline: No fixed deadline, event-driven. LEAs and IHEs apply on a rolling basis after a qualifying traumatic event by contacting the Department of Education. The program now lists separate contacts for school-violence SERV and natural-disaster SERV; get the current contact from the official program page rather than a cached address.Listing: 84.184SFull program details ^[5]

See full details on each federal funding program, including eligibility, deadlines, and how each can apply to responder-ready mapping.

How schools comply

How do Arkansas schools go from paper plans to a map responders can actually use?

Most Arkansas districts meet the letter of the law with static PDFs that go stale the moment a wall moves. Ark replaces them with a live 3D digital twin built from a single-day LiDAR and drone scan, so the plan responders see always matches the building that exists today. Static PDFs go stale the moment a building changes, and they cannot be shared live with arriving units.

Ark Strategic builds a live 3D digital twin of a campus from a LiDAR and drone scan, often completed in a single day though larger campuses can take longer, with every room, exit, utility shutoff, AED, and access point labeled. Responders reach it two ways, neither of which requires anything new to install: through RapidSOS, the platform already connected to the vast majority of US 911 centers, or in any web browser, since the twin runs in the cloud. Either way, your 911 center and on-scene units see the campus inside tools they already have.

A flat floor plan tells responders where the walls are. A digital twin shows them where to go. The platform and setup are bundled into one deployment, often grant-funded, so there is no separate software line item for the district. See how the K-12 platform works.

FAQ

What else do Arkansas districts ask about school mapping?

Does Arkansas require school safety mapping?

Yes. Under the Safe Schools Initiative Act, every Arkansas public school must give first responders current floor plans and emergency contact information, updated every year and after any major building change. That floor-plan obligation is already live, so the only real question is whether yours is accurate enough to act on. Arkansas law requires every public school to give first responders current campus floor plans and emergency contact information by October 1, 2021, updated annually and after major building changes, with the data exempt from public disclosure. A related statute requires panic-button systems tied into the statewide Smart911 system so schools can geo-fence campuses and push floor plans to responders during 911 calls.

What does Safe Schools Initiative Act, as amended by Act 620 of 2021 (and related Act 648 of 2021) require?

Under Ark. Code Ann. § 6-15-1303, on or before October 1, 2021 every public school must provide current floor plans and pertinent emergency contact information to appropriate first responders, and must provide updated information annually and whenever substantial building modifications or changes are made. The information is exempt from public-records disclosure. The companion statute § 6-15-1302 (amended by Act 648 of 2021) requires a panic-button alert system that integrates with the statewide Smart911 system, which lets a school geo-fence its campus and provide and manage floor plans and other documents that automatically display to emergency responders during a 911 call (subject to funding availability). The statute specifies floor plans and emergency contact information to first responders; it does not prescribe a single interoperable digital 'critical incident mapping' data standard (data fields/format) the way some other states' mapping laws do.

When must Arkansas schools comply?

October 1, 2021 (initial floor-plan/emergency-info submission to first responders under § 6-15-1303); thereafter updated annually and on substantial building changes. Effective date of Act 620 of 2021: July 28, 2021. Safe Schools Initiative Act, as amended by Act 620 of 2021 (and related Act 648 of 2021). Districts should confirm current timelines with their state education agency.

What grants help Arkansas schools pay for safety mapping?

Arkansas districts may be eligible for programs including Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence). Eligibility, amounts, and deadlines vary by program and should be confirmed at each program's official source.

What is critical incident mapping?

Critical incident mapping is the practice of giving first responders accurate, current digital maps of a building, with rooms, exits, utility shutoffs, AEDs, and access points labeled and shareable in real time, so police, fire, and EMS can navigate an unfamiliar campus during an emergency.

New to the terms? See the school safety mapping glossary for plain-language, sourced definitions, or the national FAQ for the questions districts ask most.

Sources

Where does every claim on this page come from?

We do not ask you to take our word for any of this. Each numbered citation above links to its primary government source below, with the date we last verified it. Programs and deadlines change, so confirm current rules at the source. How we verify.

FindLaw - Arkansas Code Title 6 § 6-15-1303 (Safe Schools Initiative Act, 2024 code); corroborated by Justia 2024 Arkansas Code §§ 6-15-1302/1303 verified 2026-06-23
FindLaw - Arkansas Code Title 6 § 6-15-1303 (Safe Schools Initiative Act, 2024 code); corroborated by Justia 2024 Arkansas Code §§ 6-15-1302/1303 verified 2026-06-23
COPS Office - School Violence Prevention Program (official program page) verified 2026-09-01
Bureau of Justice Assistance - Available Funding (current open opportunities listing) verified 2026-09-01
U.S. Department of Education - Project SERV (official program page) verified 2026-09-01

Compare across state lines

What do the states bordering Arkansas require?

School safety mapping varies by state line. See where the states next door stand.

See how the rest of the South region compares on school safety mapping.

Free brief

Want the Arkansas brief on one page?

A printable summary of Arkansas’s mapping mandate, the grants that fund it, the buyer-side standard, and a district readiness checklist. Built to forward to your board.

→ Mandate status and key deadlines
→ State and federal grants that pay for it
→ Readiness checklist, every claim cited

Which Arkansas grants does your district actually qualify for?

A free 15-minute review of how your district can meet Safe Schools Initiative Act, as amended by Act 620 of 2021 (and related Act 648 of 2021) and which Arkansas grants will pay for it.

→ First responder pre-registration included
→ One scan, one school day, zero disruption to classes
→ Grant guidance for Arkansas districts