H.R. 6809 — Alyssa’s Act of 2025

This section expands the Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Evidence-Based Practices under the Homeland Security Act by directing or authorizing the Secretary of Homeland Security to (1) conduct public education efforts, including programs and research, on tools and processes to prevent and respond to school emergencies (including school shootings); (2) provide training, technical assistance, and individualized consulting to schools on Clearinghouse practices and recommendations; (3) hire personnel and contractors with school safety and administration expertise; (4) develop, test, and evaluate panic alarm technology for schools and first responders (without manufacturing or selling equipment except for testing), including related studies, research, and cost-benefit assistance; (5) conduct development, testing, and demonstration projects for new school safety technologies and methods; (6) assist with research on rural school emergency prevention and response; (7) align Clearinghouse guidance with that of other federal agencies (including the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services), states, localities, and private entities; and (8) establish, not later than one year after enactment, a National School Safety Data Center through SchoolSafety.gov to select, analyze, publish, and disseminate data on school emergency prevention, occurrence, and control.

This section prohibits the use of federal funds in FY2026 or any fiscal year thereafter to procure emergency response maps that fail to meet specified requirements, including: (1) digital geospatial format accessible on laptop, tablet, smartphone, or other mobile platforms, printable and electronically shareable, and updatable in real time; (2) interoperability with emergency response systems using common standards; (3) symbology per National Association of Public Safety GIS guidelines; (4) data ownership by the site owner with rights to copy, display, distribute, transmit, and adapt for emergency services; (5) data sharing via secured, authenticated API not stored outside the United States; (6) true north orientation and coordinate grid format; (7) display of any floor via overlaid aerial imagery; (8) annual accuracy verification by local educational agency walkthrough; and (9) post-procurement availability without restriction to the procurer and covered public safety agencies serving the site. This section further requires the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services, to submit to the appropriate congressional committees, not later than one year after enactment, a strategy for procuring and distributing compliant maps for federally owned or leased critical sites and, not later than 180 days after strategy submission, to brief the committees on the strategy.

This section directs the Secretary to submit to the appropriate congressional committees, not later than four years after the date of enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, a report on the establishment and effectiveness of master plans throughout the United States. The report must include (1) a summary of the extent and quality of master planning activities; (2) a summary and evaluation of master plans prepared by states and political subdivisions, considering for each plan the jurisdiction's population density and distribution, geographic location, per capita rates of shootings, shooting-related injuries, and shooting-related deaths, and characteristics of political subdivisions, as well as the approach to developing and implementing the plan; (3) an evaluation of the best approaches to developing and implementing master plans, such as central planning by a state department of education and public safety, regionalized planning coordinated by a state agency, or local planning supplemented and coordinated by a state agency; and (4) an assessment of the costs and benefits of master plans.

This section provides a rule of construction stating that nothing in this Act grants any rulemaking or other regulatory authority to the Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Evidence-based Practices.

This section defines terms for purposes of the Act, including: (1) appropriate congressional committees (i.e., specified committees in the House and Senate on Appropriations, Education and Workforce/Health Education Labor and Pensions, Energy and Commerce, and Homeland Security/Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs); (2) covered public safety agency (i.e., a federal, state, or local emergency response agency or SLTT entity, as defined in the Homeland Security Act of 2002); (3) emergency response map (i.e., a map of a school site for use by such agencies during emergencies); (4) local educational agency, as defined in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; (5) master plan (i.e., a comprehensive school shooting prevention and response plan that includes a survey of safety resources and personnel, analyses of safety standards and needs, a needs implementation plan, cost and financing estimates, and anticipated implementation problems); (6) Secretary (i.e., the Secretary of Homeland Security, acting through the Director of the Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Evidence-based Practices); (7) site (i.e., a school building, campus, or facility); and (8) State (i.e., any state, the District of Columbia, or U.S. territory or possession).