Virginia school safety

School safety mapping laws & 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 With audits running every year, an out-of-date plan is a recurring liability, not a one-time fix.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 Virginia schools need this 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 Virginia law requires

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

Grants that help Virginia 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.

Virginia state programs

Digital Mapping Program for Virginia K-12 Schools (DCJS)Rolling
Funding Up to $3,500 per school mapped (reimbursement "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 an approved vendor to produce a digital map (Collaborative Response Graphics / CRG standard).
Recurring program, confirm the current cycle at the source[3]

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[4]
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[5]

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

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

Virginia school safety, answered

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), 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. Code of Virginia § 22.1-279.8 (Virginia Legislative Information System, official statute) verified 2026-06-23
  2. Code of Virginia § 22.1-279.8 (Virginia Legislative Information System, official statute) verified 2026-06-23
  3. Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) - Digital Mapping Program for Virginia K-12 Schools verified 2026-06-23
  4. COPS Office - School Violence Prevention Program (official program page) verified 2026-06-23
  5. 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 South region compares on school safety mapping.

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