Texas school districts are set to receive nearly $8 million from the Justice Department to improve campus security this year through funding from the bipartisan gun safety law passed this summer. That includes nearly half a million for Uvalde.

The gun safety law allocates $100 million for a DOJ grant program for school districts to invest in safety programs and technology. Twenty-eight Texas school districts were awarded grants through the program, totaling $7,923,719. The grants are distributed via the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services based on districts’ fiscal needs and security proposals.

More school districts were awarded grants in Texas than in any other state. Still, with over 1,000 public school districts in the state, the grants touched only a sliver of Texas’ schools.

But for some of the recipients, the grants are a major boost in security funding. Uvalde received $442,400 from the grant program — more than the $435,270 the school district allocated for security and monitoring in its 2021-22 budget. In addition to Uvalde, the recipients include some of the biggest urban school districts in the state, such as Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth. Houston-area school districts received a total of over $1 million, as did North Texas districts.

Uvalde received $69,000 in 2020 to “harden” its schools from a Texas Education Agency grant program as part of a after the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School. Those efforts , but Republicans in both Congress and Texas are digging their heels into school-hardening efforts to prevent future tragedies.

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath that the agency planned to review the entry points of every school in the state — which amounts to over 3,000 campuses and as many as 80,000 buildings. U.S. Rep. , R-Los Indios, introduced legislation just before the October recess to redirect $11 billion from the Internal Revenue Service toward state grants for school mental health programs, security and other violence-prevention measures. That includes an additional $300 million for the COPS grants program.

Democrats, on the other hand, have criticized school hardening as secondary to gun control reform. Bridging the two priorities was a central pillar in the bipartisan gun safety legislation, spearheaded by Sen. . It was the and goes far beyond the scope of school safety, including a provision to tighten access to guns for those convicted of domestic abuse. Still, it fell short on several Democratic priorities, including universal background checks, raising the legal age to purchase firearms and the a ban on assault weapons. The bill passed in the Senate on a wide bipartisan basis.

Other Texas Republicans, however, were less supportive of the legislation. Sen. did not vote for the bill, nor did any Texas Republicans in the House except for Rep. , R-San Antonio. Gonzales’ district includes Uvalde.

The gun safety law also allocates a further $200 million to help schools with student and faculty training and other violence-prevention efforts.

“No parent should fear for the safety of their student when they drop them off at school, and no student should be afraid when they walk into the classroom,” Cornyn said in a statement. “In the aftermath of the tragedy in Uvalde, I’m grateful that meaningful solutions are starting to be delivered through this funding to prevent violence, provide training to school personnel and students, and apply evidence-based threat assessments in Texas schools.”

This article originally appeared in , a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Pacing along bookcases that came up to his chest, a man, dressed in a black hoodie and carrying a long gun, charged into Walsh Middle School’s library.

He fired rounds into the carpet — loud booms and eruptions of smoke punctuating each shot. Within seconds, two armed educators pursued the gunman, shooting him with fake ammunition, forcing him to the ground and securing his gun.

A school police officer arrived a moment later and yelled at all three to raise their hands in the air.

“School marshal, school marshal,” the two educators yelled.

This Round Rock event is an example of the scenario-based training Texas uses to prepare educators to carry firearms on campus.

, namely through the school marshal program, but few districts opted in. Only 256 employees are trained to carry a gun onto campuses as marshals, representing a fraction of the state’s nearly 750,000 public school staffers.

Since the school shooting in Uvalde, the state agency overseeing the marshal program is urging more districts to arm educators, and proponents believe more money and training opportunities are crucial to expanded access. State leaders are calling for better school security through physical upgrades and by increasing the number of armed personnel.

“We all have concerns about putting guns in our schools, but at the same time, we know that these events are on the rise,” said Huffman Superintendent Benny Soileau, who serves as a school marshal in his 3,400-student district near Houston. “We’ve got to have a way of combating this. And in the event something like this were to happen, we want to be well prepared to protect our kids.”

Gov. Greg Abbott to encourage schools to increase “the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses.”

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement doubled the number of training opportunities this summer from two to four so that school districts can add marshals. The agency is focused on expanding availability of the program even further.

The marshal program has existed for almost a decade. Private schools and community colleges can also participate. Only 62 of the state’s more than 1,000 school districts have marshals.

The names of districts and employees participating in either school marshals or the guardian plan are confidential, though some officials, such as Soileau, have publicly discussed implementing the programs.

In recent weeks, more school leaders have called the commission asking for details about how the marshal program works. Cullen Grissom, the commission’s deputy chief, said he couldn’t quantify the increase.

Having an armed staff member on campus doesn’t guarantee a school shooter will be stopped or prevented from carrying out an attack.

School marshals have no legal obligation to act during a threat.

During the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, an armed school resource officer never went inside the school or attempted to engage the gunman.

In Uvalde, state and federal officials are investigating why more than a dozen officers remained in the hallway as the gunman shot at students and teachers in a nearby classroom for more than an hour.

The educators who enter the program often have a distinct drive to protect their students, Grissom emphasized.

“A marshal or a peace officer’s job in the event of an active shooter is to isolate, distract and neutralize the threat,” Grissom said.

What training looks like

Huffman County school leaders — who have had the marshal program in place since 2018, — actively identify educators they believe are qualified for the role.

“We’ll go through and talk with them extensively about the pros and cons and some of the things that they may face in the program to make sure that they are a good fit,” Soileau said. “We’re very careful with our selections.”

A variety of school staffers enter the state’s marshal training program, Grissom said. Some have background in the military, law enforcement or private security while others have limited related preparation.

Trainees must have a state handgun license and, therefore, experience working with guns. They also must be an employee of the school district and pass a psychological exam.

If they meet those requirements, they can begin training.

School marshals are required to undergo an 80-hour program, completed over a course of eight- to 10-hour days, Grissom said. Two providers offer the program across the state, including the West Central Texas Law Enforcement Academy in Abilene.

Would-be marshals learn about weapons handling and basic marksmanship. The handgun training is almost identical to that of a peace officer, Grissom said.

They must also participate in simulated events that mirror circumstances marshals may face including chasing down a gunman on campus.

“We try to simulate as best we can an active shooter coming into a school district, going after the children, doing the bad things that they do and how our school marshals will respond, using their tactics, using what they’re trained to do,” said Janna Atkins, the criminal justice manager and training coordinator with the Abilene law enforcement academy. Atkins also serves as a Texas Commission on Law Enforcement commissioner.

Some don’t make it through training.

“Not everybody’s cut out to be a school marshal. Not all educators or staff are cut out to lead an armed lifestyle inside a school,” Grissom stressed. “Some people come to the training and … remove themselves from the process because they don’t feel comfortable.”

Others may fail the written exam or simulated training scenarios, Atkins said.

Every two years after they are certified, marshals have to brush up on training and undergo a new psychological exam.

The state has not modified its preparation courses based on what happened in Uvalde, Grissom said. Since the deadly shooting, conflicting reports about the role of police officers have emerged calling into question whether protocols were followed and if lives could have been saved.

Grissom said the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement wants to look into whether the issues in Uvalde were because of problematic training or a misapplication of training.

Obstacles to implementation

A creates roadblocks for some schools interested in the marshal program, officials say.

The state covers the cost of the training course through a grant, but districts foot the bill for employees’ travel to sessions. They also must decide whether to pay employees for the training time and if staffers are provided guns or must bring their own.

Huffman school marshals receive a small stipend for their role. They often purchase their own equipment with the money, Soileau said.

The superintendent added that more state funding would aid schools in their rollout. But, he emphasized, it is important for local communities to decide whether to add marshals to school campuses.

, and teacher groups have criticized calls to arm educators as a response to school shootings.

“We don’t need more guns in schools,” wrote Zeph Capo, president of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, in a letter to members. “We don’t need another roundtable to explore options; we’ve done that. We need legislation that addresses common-sense issues and ensures our children and their teachers can learn and work without constant fear for their lives.”

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement has no record of marshals discharging their weapons at inappropriate times, Grissom said. It’s also hard to pinpoint how the marshal program has made a difference, if any, during active shooter events.

“I don’t know any of the active shooter events that we’ve had that we’ve actually had a school marshal stop it,” said Atkins, the commissioner.

In Huffman, one of the benefits of having marshals on campus is cutting down on a potentially lengthy response time. Located in an unincorporated area of northeast Harris County, the district established a school police department with officers based on campuses just a few months ago, said Police Chief David Williams.

Marshals should supplement their response, Williams said.

“The benefit we see behind that is rather than having to wait for police response, which could be several minutes away, and then you have to worry about your approach into the school and breaching is always an issue, we have people inserted inside the school ready to respond,” he said.

This originally appeared at  and is published here in partnership with the .

The Uvalde school board is formally urging Gov. to call state lawmakers back to Austin so they can raise the legal age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21, more than two months after a gunman used such a weapon to kill 19 elementary school students and two teachers days after he turned 18.

Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District trustees approved the largely symbolic resolution in a unanimous vote on the same night they voted to delay the start of the school year. Trustees moved the first day of school from Aug. 15 to Sept. 6 so that more security improvements can be made to campuses and district staffers can receive trauma-informed training.

Uvalde County commissioners Abbott, who in June asked the Texas Legislature to form to make recommendations in the aftermath of the shooting, to call a special session to increase the legal age to buy an assault rifle. Democrats have made similar calls since the May 24 shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary. The governor is the only Texas official with the power to call special legislative sessions.

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In an emailed response to The Texas Tribune, a spokesperson from Abbott’s office said the governor “has taken immediate action to address all aspects” of the massacre in Uvalde.

“As Governor Abbott has said from day one, all options remain on the table as he continues working with state and local leaders to prevent future tragedies and deploy all available resources to support the Uvalde community as they heal,” the spokesperson said. “More announcements are expected in the coming days and weeks as the legislature deliberates proposed solutions.”

The vote on both items comes more than a week after detailed a series of “systemic failures” that allowed for the gunman to enter Robb Elementary in Uvalde and remain inside two adjoined classrooms for more than 73 minutes before law enforcement confronted him. Nearly 400 officers from numerous agencies responded to the campus that day. At least , the gunman had threatened women, carried around a dead cat and been nicknamed “school shooter,” according to the investigation.

At a school board meeting last week, Uvalde residents called for district officials to fire district police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was among the first officers to arrive at the school the day of the shooting. School board members were scheduled to discuss that Saturday, but the school district postponed the meeting at the request of the police chief’s lawyer.

For weeks, state leaders have said Arredondo was the incident commander and blamed him for law enforcement waiting more than an hour to confront the gunman. Arredondo, who was placed on administrative leave last month, that he did not consider himself the incident commander. The school district’s active-shooter response plan that he co-authored, though, says the chief will “become the person in control of the efforts of all law enforcement and first responders that arrive at the scene.”

The House report explains how the gunman — who also shot and wounded his grandmother, Celia Gonzales, before storming the school — was able to stockpile military-style rifles, accessories and ammunition without arousing suspicion from authorities, then enter a supposedly secure school unimpeded.

The report also revealed that, “while the school had adopted security policies to lock exterior doors and internal classroom doors, there was a regrettable culture of noncompliance by school personnel who frequently propped doors open and deliberately circumvented locks.” In violation of school policy, the report said, three exterior doors to the west building of the school were unlocked on the day of the shooting — one of which the gunman walked through with ease just moments before entering classrooms 111 and 112.

Trustees said Monday that they plan to add extra police officers, install bullet-proof windows, put up metal detectors and create single points of entry for visitors. School officials have also requested that state troopers be on every campus at the beginning of the school year.

Residents at the meeting questioned what additional police officers would accomplish when there were already hundreds who responded to Robb Elementary on the day of the shooting.

“Just remember it’s not about extra security,” one resident said to the school board. “Over 400 officers and 77 minutes later already proved where that got us.”

The House report also concluded that alerts set to reach the phones of school personnel in emergency situations also failed to do so in a timely manner during the shooting because of “low quality internet service, poor mobile phone coverage, and varying habits of mobile phone usage.”

School officials said they would continue training for their emergency alert system. They also said they would soon begin a Wi-Fi audit across campuses.

The investigation said frequent “bailout-related” alerts — which come when officers chase a vehicle containing suspected undocumented migrants, who then purposely crash and scatter to avoid apprehension — led teachers and administrators to respond to cautionary messages with less urgency. The predominantly Hispanic city is about 50 miles east of the border with Mexico and sits at the intersection of major highways from the border cities of Del Rio and Eagle Pass.

, who’s been reluctant to entertain changes to the state’s gun laws, has since called the House committee’s findings “beyond disturbing” and said there are critical changes needed as a result.

This article originally appeared in , a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Read reporter Linda Jacobson’s coverage of the hearing.

Watch the testimony below: 

The witnesses were scheduled to include fourth grader Miah Cerrillo of Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were gunned down at Robb Elementary School on May 24. Her harrowing story of having to cover herself in her friend’s blood in order to appear dead to the 18-year-old gunman has gripped Americans, including lawmakers. 

Felix and Kimberly Rubio, parents of Lexi Rubio, a 10-year-old student at Robb Elementary School who was killed in the mass shooting, also spoke before lawmakers.

Zeneta Everhart, a survivor of a mass shooting May 14 by a white supremacist in Buffalo, New York, . Everhart was at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood with her son, Zaire Goodman, who was shot in the neck.