Arizona school safety

School safety mapping laws & grants in Arizona

Yes. To win funding from Arizona's School Safety Program, every district and charter must hand current building blueprints, floor plans, and safety assessments to local law enforcement, EMS, and fire (A.R.S. 15-154). With proposals due April 15, the maps you submit are part of the application, not an afterthought.

Arizona requires schools that apply for the state-funded School Safety Program to give their current building blueprints, floor plans, and safety assessments to local law enforcement, EMS, and fire departments (A.R.S. § 15-154, as amended by 2025 HB2074). It is a grant-participation condition, and the statute does not mandate a specific digital or interoperable critical-incident-mapping format.[1]

Why this matters in Arizona

Why Arizona schools need this now

Across Arizona's 2,427 public schools, the blueprints handed to police, EMS, and fire are usually flat PDFs that can't show a responder where they are inside an unfamiliar building. The April 15 proposal cycle means the maps you submit are scored as part of the application, so the districts that bring a true digital twin now win funding and set the bar before the rest catch up.

The mandate

What Arizona law requires

Law
HB2074 (2025), Chapter 129 - amending the Arizona School Safety Program statute[2]
Statute
A.R.S. § 15-154(B)(2), (C)(2) and (O)[1]
Compliance
Tied to the annual School Safety Program proposal cycle: districts/charters submit program proposals by April 15 each year to participate (up to three fiscal years per application; the current cycle runs school years 2026/2027 through 2029/2030). HB2074 was signed by Gov. Hobbs and filed May 6, 2025 (Chapter 129) and took effect on the 2025 session general effective date. Separately, all local education agencies must comply with ADE's 2024 Minimum Requirements for Emergency Operations Plans no later than the start of the 2026-2027 school year. There is no single statewide all-schools 'map by date X' deadline distinct from the grant-proposal cycle.[1]

What schools must provide: A school district or charter school that applies to participate in the state School Safety Program must include in its program proposal 'a plan to provide the current school building blueprints, floor plans and school safety assessments for each school site to the local law enforcement agency, emergency medical services provider and fire department that provides services to the school site.' The same requirement appears in both the SRO/officer track (subsection B) and the counselor/social-worker track (subsection C). Under subsection O, those blueprints and floor plans are NOT public records and are exempt from public-records disclosure (Title 39, Chapter 1). The statute prescribes WHO must receive the data (local law enforcement, EMS, fire) and WHAT must be shared (current blueprints, floor plans, safety assessments) but does NOT prescribe a specific digital format, data-field schema, or interoperability standard for the maps.[1]

Funding

Grants that help Arizona schools pay for it

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.

Arizona state programs

Arizona School Safety Program (SSP)Annual
Funding No fixed per-school cap published in statute; competitive, state-appropriated funding awarded per program proposal. HB2074 itself was scored with no anticipated state General Fund fiscal impact. Funding levels are set by annual legislative appropriation (see ARS 15-155). Confirm current-cycle award amounts with ADE.
Arizona public school districts and charter schools. Funds support placing school resource officers, juvenile probation officers, school safety officers, school counselors, and school social workers; schools with an unfilled position may submit alternative proposals for safety technology, training, and infrastructure improvements. The blueprints/floor-plans/safety-assessment-to-first-responders plan is a required element of every program proposal.
Recurring program, confirm the current cycle at the source[1]

Federal programs (available nationwide)

COPS School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP)Annual
Funding FY26: up to $73,000,000 total available, awarded over a 3-year (36-month) period with at least a 25% local cash match required (waiver possible) and approximately $1,000,000 reserved for microgrants of up to $100,000 for rural, tribal, and low-resourced school districts. Confirm the current per-award cap directly on the official COPS SVPP program page before applying, as the FY26 figure is being finalized.
Coordination with law enforcement; training for school personnel and local law enforcement officers to prevent student violence against others and self; placement/use of metal detectors, locks, lighting and other deterrent measures; acquisition and installation of technology for expedited notification of local law enforcement during an emergency; other Director-approved security improvements at K-12 schools and on school grounds. (This is the COPS-administered arm of the STOP School Violence Act of 2018, focused on security equipment/technology and training.) (U.S. Department of Justice - Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office))
Deadline: FY26: Grants.gov SF-424 by Aug 4, 2026 4:59 PM ET; JustGrants by Aug 11, 2026 4:59 PM ET. Annual competitive cycle (typically opens spring/summer each fiscal year).Listing: 16.710[3]
Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence)Rolling
Funding Two tiers, both at Secretary's discretion (subject to appropriations) sized to the incident: Immediate Services (emergency short-term assistance) and Extended Services (longer recovery). No fixed published cap on the official ed.gov page; funding amounts and project periods are established case-by-case to reflect the scope of the incident and recovery needs.
Short-term education-related services to help schools/campuses recover from and respond to a violent or traumatic event and restore the learning environment (e.g., mental health/counseling support, security and safety measures during recovery, substitute staffing, overtime, communication). Qualifying events: school shootings, suicide clusters, terrorism, natural disasters, school bus accidents, student homicides, hate crimes (non-exhaustive). (U.S. Department of Education - Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), Safe and Supportive Schools)
Recurring program, confirm the current cycle at the sourceListing: 84.184S[4]

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

How schools comply

From paper plans to a map responders can actually use

Arizona names who gets the data and what it must contain, but leaves the format open, which is exactly where a flat PDF falls short. Ark turns one day of LiDAR and drone scanning into a live 3D digital twin that law enforcement, EMS, and fire can all open, satisfying the statute with a single shared source rather than three stale paper sets. 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

Arizona school safety, answered

Does Arizona require school safety mapping?
Yes. To win funding from Arizona's School Safety Program, every district and charter must hand current building blueprints, floor plans, and safety assessments to local law enforcement, EMS, and fire (A.R.S. 15-154). With proposals due April 15, the maps you submit are part of the application, not an afterthought. Arizona requires schools that apply for the state-funded School Safety Program to give their current building blueprints, floor plans, and safety assessments to local law enforcement, EMS, and fire departments (A.R.S. § 15-154, as amended by 2025 HB2074). It is a grant-participation condition, and the statute does not mandate a specific digital or interoperable critical-incident-mapping format.
What does HB2074 (2025), Chapter 129 - amending the Arizona School Safety Program statute require?
A school district or charter school that applies to participate in the state School Safety Program must include in its program proposal 'a plan to provide the current school building blueprints, floor plans and school safety assessments for each school site to the local law enforcement agency, emergency medical services provider and fire department that provides services to the school site.' The same requirement appears in both the SRO/officer track (subsection B) and the counselor/social-worker track (subsection C). Under subsection O, those blueprints and floor plans are NOT public records and are exempt from public-records disclosure (Title 39, Chapter 1). The statute prescribes WHO must receive the data (local law enforcement, EMS, fire) and WHAT must be shared (current blueprints, floor plans, safety assessments) but does NOT prescribe a specific digital format, data-field schema, or interoperability standard for the maps.
When must Arizona schools comply?
Tied to the annual School Safety Program proposal cycle: districts/charters submit program proposals by April 15 each year to participate (up to three fiscal years per application; the current cycle runs school years 2026/2027 through 2029/2030). HB2074 was signed by Gov. Hobbs and filed May 6, 2025 (Chapter 129) and took effect on the 2025 session general effective date. Separately, all local education agencies must comply with ADE's 2024 Minimum Requirements for Emergency Operations Plans no later than the start of the 2026-2027 school year. There is no single statewide all-schools 'map by date X' deadline distinct from the grant-proposal cycle. HB2074 (2025), Chapter 129 - amending the Arizona School Safety Program statute. Districts should confirm current timelines with their state education agency.
What grants help Arizona schools pay for safety mapping?
Arizona districts may be eligible for programs including Arizona School Safety Program (SSP), COPS School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP), 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

Every claim, cited

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.

  1. Arizona Revised Statutes § 15-154 (azleg.gov, official statute) verified 2026-06-23
  2. Arizona Revised Statutes § 15-154 (azleg.gov, official statute) verified 2026-06-23
  3. COPS Office - School Violence Prevention Program (official program page) verified 2026-06-23
  4. U.S. Department of Education - Project SERV (official program page) verified 2026-06-23
Compare across state lines

Neighboring states

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

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

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