Virginia school safety

School mapping requirements & grants in Virginia

Yes. As part of its annual school safety audit, every Virginia school board must create a detailed, accurate floor plan for each building, or certify the existing one holds up. With audits running every year, an out-of-date plan is a recurring liability, not a one-time fix.

Virginia law requires every local school board, as part of its annual school safety audit, to create a detailed and accurate floor plan for each public school building (or certify an existing one is sufficient). These plans support law-enforcement and first-responder emergency planning and may be withheld from public release for security reasons.^[1]

Why this matters in Virginia

Why do Virginia schools need responder-ready maps now?

Virginia's annual safety audit forces every school board to certify an accurate floor plan each year, so a stale plan is a recurring liability across 2,132 schools, not a one-time fix. The state's DCJS program reimburses up to $3,500 per school on a rolling, still-open basis, so a district can turn that recurring obligation into a live model responders trust the moment they reach an unfamiliar building.

The mandate

What does Virginia law require?

Law

House Bill 741 (2022); Chapter 57, 2022 Acts of Assembly (amending the school safety audit statute)^[2]

Statute

Va. Code Ann. § 22.1-279.8^[1]

Compliance

Tied to the annual school safety audit cycle (audits are required annually). HB 741 was enacted in the 2022 session (effective with the 2022 reenactment of the statute); no separate one-time floor-plan deadline date is specified in the statute beyond the annual audit requirement.^[2]

What schools must provide: As part of each annual school safety audit, every local school board must create a detailed and accurate floor plan for each public school building in the division, OR certify that the existing floor plan for each such school is sufficiently detailed and accurate. The floor plan (and other security components) may be withheld from public disclosure under FOIA. School safety audits are conducted in cooperation with local law enforcement; each school's crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan must be developed with the chief law-enforcement officer, fire chief, EMS officials, and local emergency management official. The statute does not prescribe specific digital data fields, file formats, or interoperability standards for the floor plan itself.^[1]

Funding

What grants help Virginia schools pay for mapping?

Virginia 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.

Virginia state programs

Digital Mapping Program for Virginia K-12 Schools (DCJS)Rolling

Funding Funding is available to school divisions in an amount not to exceed $3,500 multiplied by the number of schools in the division that are mapped.

Virginia public K-12 school divisions; applications submitted by an authorized school division representative, in collaboration with local first responders / law enforcement, using a state-approved vendor to produce a digital map to the standard DCJS specifies.

Recurring program, confirm the current cycle at the source^[3]

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 ^[4]

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 ^[5]

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 ^[6]

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

Virginia even funds the work: its DCJS digital mapping program reimburses per school mapped, on a rolling basis. Ark uses that to deliver a live 3D digital twin from a single-day LiDAR and drone scan, so the floor plan you certify each year is the building as it stands, not as it was drawn. 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 Virginia districts ask about school mapping?

Does Virginia require school safety mapping?

Yes. As part of its annual school safety audit, every Virginia school board must create a detailed, accurate floor plan for each building, or certify the existing one holds up. With audits running every year, an out-of-date plan is a recurring liability, not a one-time fix. Virginia law requires every local school board, as part of its annual school safety audit, to create a detailed and accurate floor plan for each public school building (or certify an existing one is sufficient). These plans support law-enforcement and first-responder emergency planning and may be withheld from public release for security reasons.

What does House Bill 741 (2022); Chapter 57, 2022 Acts of Assembly (amending the school safety audit statute) require?

As part of each annual school safety audit, every local school board must create a detailed and accurate floor plan for each public school building in the division, OR certify that the existing floor plan for each such school is sufficiently detailed and accurate. The floor plan (and other security components) may be withheld from public disclosure under FOIA. School safety audits are conducted in cooperation with local law enforcement; each school's crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan must be developed with the chief law-enforcement officer, fire chief, EMS officials, and local emergency management official. The statute does not prescribe specific digital data fields, file formats, or interoperability standards for the floor plan itself.

When must Virginia schools comply?

Tied to the annual school safety audit cycle (audits are required annually). HB 741 was enacted in the 2022 session (effective with the 2022 reenactment of the statute); no separate one-time floor-plan deadline date is specified in the statute beyond the annual audit requirement. House Bill 741 (2022); Chapter 57, 2022 Acts of Assembly (amending the school safety audit statute). Districts should confirm current timelines with their state education agency.

What grants help Virginia schools pay for safety mapping?

Virginia districts may be eligible for programs including Digital Mapping Program for Virginia K-12 Schools (DCJS), 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.

Code of Virginia § 22.1-279.8 (Virginia Legislative Information System, official statute) verified 2026-06-23
Code of Virginia § 22.1-279.8 (Virginia Legislative Information System, official statute) verified 2026-06-23
Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) - Digital Mapping Program for Virginia K-12 Schools verified 2026-09-01
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 Virginia 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 Virginia brief on one page?

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

A free 15-minute review of how your district can meet House Bill 741 (2022); Chapter 57, 2022 Acts of Assembly (amending the school safety audit statute) and which Virginia grants will pay for it.

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