HR2259-119

What This Bill Does

The National Strategy for School Security Act of 2025 adds a new section 2220F to the Homeland Security Act. Within one year, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Education and heads of appropriate federal agencies, must submit a national school security strategy to four congressional committees: House Homeland Security, House Education and Workforce, Senate Homeland Security, and Senate HELP. DHS must brief those committees on the strategy, update it annually through 2033 if appropriate, brief committees on updates, or certify when no update is made. The strategy must describe all federal programs, projects, activities, authorities, and spending levels used to secure elementary and secondary schools from terrorism; identify specific school-security vulnerabilities in the United States; set goals for closing those vulnerabilities; describe actions and resources needed; reform or streamline existing efforts for the current threat environment; and build on existing evaluations without duplicating other DHS school-security work.

Who Benefits and How

Elementary schools, secondary schools, school district security directors, state education agencies, local emergency managers, school resource officers, parents of K-12 students, DHS school-safety offices, Education Department school-safety staff, House Homeland Security Committee staff, House Education Committee staff, Senate Homeland Security Committee staff, and Senate HELP Committee staff benefit because the bill creates a federal inventory, vulnerability analysis, spending map, goals, annual updates, and congressional briefings focused on terrorism threats to schools.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Secretary of Homeland Security, DHS strategy staff, the Secretary of Education, Education Department policy staff, heads of participating federal agencies, federal grant-program administrators, DHS briefing teams, school districts asked for security data, and taxpayers bear burdens because the strategy requires interagency coordination, spending-level accounting, vulnerability identification, annual update decisions through 2033, no-update certifications, congressional briefings, and potential reform or streamlining of existing school-security efforts.

Key Provisions

• Requires DHS to submit a national school security strategy to House and Senate committees within one year.
• Requires the strategy to account for federal programs, projects, activities, authorities, and spending levels used to secure K-12 schools from terrorism.
• Requires the strategy to identify school-security vulnerabilities, set goals, and describe actions and resources needed to close those vulnerabilities.
• Requires DHS to build on existing evaluations and avoid duplicating prior school-security working groups or commissions.
• Requires annual updates and congressional briefings through 2033, or certifications when no update is made.