The massacre of 21 people – 19 children and 2 adults – at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas has brought new scrutiny to the debates around school safety plans and hopes for possible prevention of future mass shootings.

According to CNN, the school district has its own safety plan that includes its own police force, social media monitoring and a threat-reporting system.

Investigations are underway as to what succeeded and failed during the May 24th shooting, where a teenage gunman was able to gain access to the elementary school and began firing an AR-15-style rifle.

The local police chief and department are also facing scrutiny for their response to the shooting, as well as the conflicting timelines of events.

The Uvalde shooting deeply rattled other school districts across the U.S.

Los Angeles Unified School District, the country’s second largest school district, announced it would be expanding on-campus safety measures, including conducting access assessments to ensure reduced points of entry on campuses. The district is also exploring using mobile apps with GPS to enable first responders’ access to critical incidents.

New York City Public Schools, the nation’s largest school district, announced it would also expand its safety measures and partner with fire and police departments to improve school safety.

After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, the state government passed a law that would allow teachers to be armed, but few districts used it.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, in the week following the shooting, called on state lawmakers to create a special panel that would examine school safety, mental health, and police training.

Abbott also instructed that schools conduct, “unannounced, random intruder detection audits” to fortify school campuses against similar attacks and find possible weak points on the grounds.

That recommendation was condemned by educators and lawmakers.

Since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, schools have increased security measures in their campuses, including having controlled access to their building, active shooter and lockdown drills, and anonymous threat reporting systems.

Despite this, the training and education for staff or volunteers can often be uneven.

Kenneth Trump, a consultant who has worked in K-12 school security for three decades, told the Wall Street Journal that the attention paid to school security following these shootings tends to recede months later.

The COVID-19 pandemic, he adds, also changed a lot of the priorities for school security and crowded out limited professional development hours.

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