Indiana school safety

School mapping requirements & grants in Indiana

Yes. Indiana Code 10-21-1-10 requires every school's safety plan to put accurate building data in responders' hands, either detailed floor plans to local police and fire or critical incident digital mapping shared with police, fire, and the statewide 911 system.

Indiana law requires every school's safety plan to give first responders accurate building data: schools must either supply detailed floor plans to local law enforcement and fire, or perform critical incident digital mapping (accurate floor plans over aerial imagery, room/door/utility/AED detail, interoperable with public-safety systems) shared with police, fire, and the statewide 911 system.^[1]

Why this matters in Indiana

Why do Indiana schools need responder-ready maps now?

Indiana's law already obligates all 1,917 public schools to put interoperable building data in responders' hands, so the only open question is whether yours is a stale floor plan or a verified 3D twin. The FY2027 Secured School Safety Grant closes June 30, 2026, which makes this the window to fund a single LiDAR scan that satisfies every clause of the statute and reaches police, fire, and the statewide 911 system at once.

The mandate

What does Indiana law require?

Law

Indiana School Safety law (IC 10-21-1; school safety plan provisions enacted/amended via SEA 296-2022 and related acts)^[1]

Statute

Ind. Code 10-21-1-10 (school safety plan requirements); definition at Ind. Code 10-21-1-1^[1]

Compliance

Charter schools in operation on July 1, 2023 were required to comply with the school safety plan requirements by July 1, 2024 (per IC 10-21-1-10); the floor-plan/critical-incident-mapping requirement is an ongoing component of each school safety plan.^[1]

What schools must provide: Every school corporation, charter school, and accredited nonpublic school must adopt a school safety plan that includes EITHER (a) providing a copy of floor plans for each building on school property to the law enforcement agency and fire department with jurisdiction (clearly indicating each entrance/exit, interior rooms and hallways, and the location of any hazardous materials), OR (b) conducting 'critical incidence digital mapping' for each school building and providing that mapping to the jurisdictional law enforcement agency, fire department, and the statewide 911 system. Per IC 10-21-1-1, critical incidence digital mapping must: include accurate floor plans overlaid on current aerial imagery of the building and surrounding grounds; show building structure (room labels, hallway names, room numbers, external doors, interior doors, stairwell numbers, locations of hazardous materials, key utility locations, key boxes, AEDs, trauma kits) and grounds (parking areas, athletic fields, surrounding roads, neighboring properties); be compatible with platforms and applications used by local, state, and federal public safety agencies; be verified for accuracy through a physical walk-through; not require the purchase of additional software for use; and be kept confidential / withheld from public disclosure.^[1]

Funding

What grants help Indiana schools pay for mapping?

Indiana 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 ^[2]

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 ^[3]

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 ^[4]

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 Indiana schools go from paper plans to a map responders can actually use?

Indiana's statute even spells out the deliverable: floor plans over aerial imagery, room and door and utility detail, interoperable with public-safety systems, walk-through verified, and requiring no new software to purchase. A LiDAR-scanned 3D digital twin satisfies every clause and pairs naturally with the Secured School Safety Grant. 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 Indiana districts ask about school mapping?

Does Indiana require school safety mapping?

Yes. Indiana Code 10-21-1-10 requires every school's safety plan to put accurate building data in responders' hands, either detailed floor plans to local police and fire or critical incident digital mapping shared with police, fire, and the statewide 911 system. Indiana law requires every school's safety plan to give first responders accurate building data: schools must either supply detailed floor plans to local law enforcement and fire, or perform critical incident digital mapping (accurate floor plans over aerial imagery, room/door/utility/AED detail, interoperable with public-safety systems) shared with police, fire, and the statewide 911 system.

What does Indiana School Safety law (IC 10-21-1; school safety plan provisions enacted/amended via SEA 296-2022 and related acts) require?

Every school corporation, charter school, and accredited nonpublic school must adopt a school safety plan that includes EITHER (a) providing a copy of floor plans for each building on school property to the law enforcement agency and fire department with jurisdiction (clearly indicating each entrance/exit, interior rooms and hallways, and the location of any hazardous materials), OR (b) conducting 'critical incidence digital mapping' for each school building and providing that mapping to the jurisdictional law enforcement agency, fire department, and the statewide 911 system. Per IC 10-21-1-1, critical incidence digital mapping must: include accurate floor plans overlaid on current aerial imagery of the building and surrounding grounds; show building structure (room labels, hallway names, room numbers, external doors, interior doors, stairwell numbers, locations of hazardous materials, key utility locations, key boxes, AEDs, trauma kits) and grounds (parking areas, athletic fields, surrounding roads, neighboring properties); be compatible with platforms and applications used by local, state, and federal public safety agencies; be verified for accuracy through a physical walk-through; not require the purchase of additional software for use; and be kept confidential / withheld from public disclosure.

When must Indiana schools comply?

Charter schools in operation on July 1, 2023 were required to comply with the school safety plan requirements by July 1, 2024 (per IC 10-21-1-10); the floor-plan/critical-incident-mapping requirement is an ongoing component of each school safety plan. Indiana School Safety law (IC 10-21-1; school safety plan provisions enacted/amended via SEA 296-2022 and related acts). Districts should confirm current timelines with their state education agency.

What grants help Indiana schools pay for safety mapping?

Indiana 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.

2024 Indiana Code, IC 10-21-1-10 (School Safety Plan; Requirements) via Justia 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 Indiana require?

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

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

Free brief

Want the Indiana brief on one page?

A printable summary of Indiana’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 Indiana grants does your district actually qualify for?

A free 15-minute review of how your district can meet Indiana School Safety law (IC 10-21-1; school safety plan provisions enacted/amended via SEA 296-2022 and related acts) and which Indiana grants will pay for it.

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