School maps

AN ACT Relating to requiring the creation and maintenance of 1
school maps in safe school plans; amending RCW 28A.320.125 and 2
42.56.420; adding a new section to chapter 28A.320 RCW; and creating 3
a new section. 4
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:5
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) Following the tragic events of 6
September 11, 2001, the government's primary role in protecting the 7
health, safety, and well-being of its citizens has been underscored. 8
The legislature recognizes that there is a need to focus on the 9
development and implementation of comprehensive safe school plans for 10
each public school. The legislature recognizes that comprehensive 11
safe school plans for each public school are an integral part of 12
rebuilding public confidence. In developing these plans, the 13
legislature finds that a coordinated effort is essential to ensure 14
the most effective response to any type of emergency. Further, the 15
legislature recognizes that comprehensive safe school plans for each 16
public school are of the utmost importance and will help to assure 17
students, parents, guardians, school employees, and school 18
administrators that our schools provide the safest possible learning 19
environment.20
H-2747.1
HOUSE BILL 2328
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2026 Regular Session
By Representatives Goodman, Reed, Jacobsen, Reeves, Salahuddin,
Pollet, and Donaghy
Prefiled 01/08/26. Read first time 01/12/26. Referred to Committee
on Education.
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(2)(a) The legislature finds that, in 2003, the Washington 1
association of sheriffs and police chiefs was directed to develop 2
statewide building mapping software standards and to operate a 3
statewide first responder building mapping information system. The 4
legislature acknowledges that school districts were required to 5
implement their safe school plans consistent with this system, but 6
were not required to update the mapping information unless funding 7
was available. The legislature finds that, since 2003, state 8
appropriations have largely supported only operational costs, leaving 9
school districts responsible for the cost of updating or remapping 10
facilities. As a result, the legislature acknowledges that many 11
school districts lack accurate and comprehensive school mapping 12
information, which is essential for effective emergency response and 13
public safety. 14
(b) In 2019, the legislature directed the joint legislative audit 15
and review committee to study the statewide school mapping system. 16
The study identified significant limitations, such as inconsistent 17
usage, outdated data, and lack of interoperability across platforms. 18
Despite the existence of the rapid responder system, only 52 school 19
districts accessed the system weekly or daily, while 74 districts 20
logged in once per year or less. At least 33 districts have adopted 21
alternative mapping platforms, creating fragmentation and barriers to 22
coordinated emergency response. Following this study, the legislature 23
acknowledges that it repealed requirements related to school mapping 24
and transferred existing data to the office of the superintendent of 25
public instruction in 2021. 26
(3) The legislature finds that the rise in school shootings and 27
other threats to student safety necessitates a renewed commitment to 28
comprehensive, interoperable, and secure mapping protocols. Emergency 29
responders must have immediate access to accurate, site-specific data 30
that supports rapid decision making and coordinated action. 31
Therefore, the legislature intends to strengthen safe school plans by 32
requiring standardized school mapping formats and features, ensuring 33
compatibility with public safety platforms, and recognizing that 34
sensitive data is protected from public disclosure.35
Sec. 2. RCW 28A.320.125 and 2024 c 21 s 1 are each amended to 36
read as follows: 37
(1) The legislature considers it to be a matter of public safety 38
for public schools and staff to have current safe school plans and 39
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procedures in place, fully consistent with federal law. The 1
legislature further finds and intends, by requiring safe school plans 2
to be in place, that school districts will become eligible for 3
federal assistance. The legislature further finds that schools are in 4
a position to serve the community in the event of an emergency 5
resulting from natural disasters or human-induced disasters.6
(2) Schools and school districts shall consider the guidance and 7
resources provided by the state school safety center, established 8
under RCW 28A.300.630, and the regional school safety centers, 9
established under RCW 28A.310.510, when developing their own 10
individual comprehensive safe school plans. Each school district 11
shall adopt and implement a safe school plan. The plan shall:12
(a) Include required school safety policies and procedures;13
(b) Address emergency mitigation, preparedness, response, and 14
recovery; 15
(c) Include provisions for assisting and communicating with 16
students and staff, including those with special needs or 17
disabilities; 18
(d) Include a family-student reunification plan, including 19
procedures for communicating the reunification plan to staff, 20
students, families, and emergency responders; 21
(e) Use the training guidance provided by the Washington 22
emergency management division of the state military department in 23
collaboration with the state school safety center in the office of 24
the superintendent of public instruction, established under RCW 25
28A.300.630, and the school safety and student well-being advisory 26
committee, established under RCW 28A.300.635; 27
(f) Require the building principal to be certified on the 28
incident command system; 29
(g) Take into account the manner in which the school facilities 30
may be used as a community asset in the event of a community-wide 31
emergency; 32
(h) Set guidelines for requesting city or county law enforcement 33
agencies, local fire departments, emergency service providers, and 34
county emergency management agencies to meet with school districts 35
and participate in safety-related drills; ((and))36
(i) Include how substitute teachers and other temporary employees 37
receive necessary information about safe school plans, including 38
school safety policies and procedures and the three basic functional 39
drill responses described in subsection (5) of this section; and40
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(j) Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this 1
specific purpose, include the creation and maintenance of school maps 2
that meet the requirements in section 3 of this act and are made 3
available to local and state first responder agencies that provide 4
emergency services to the mapped schools. 5
(3) To the extent funds are available, school districts shall 6
annually: 7
(a) Review and update safe school plans in collaboration with 8
local emergency response agencies; 9
(b) Conduct an inventory of all hazardous materials;10
(c) Update information to reflect current plans, including:11
(i) Identifying all staff members who are trained on the national 12
incident management system, trained on the incident command system, 13
or are certified on the incident command system; and14
(ii) Identifying school transportation procedures for evacuation, 15
to include bus staging areas, evacuation routes, communication 16
systems, parent-student reunification sites, and secondary 17
transportation agreements; and 18
(d) Provide information to all staff on the use of emergency 19
supplies and notification and alert procedures. 20
(4) School districts are encouraged to work with local emergency 21
management agencies and other emergency responders to conduct one 22
tabletop exercise, one functional exercise, and two full-scale 23
exercises within a four-year period. 24
(5)(a) Due to geographic location, schools have unique safety 25
challenges. It is the responsibility of school principals and 26
administrators to assess the threats and hazards most likely to 27
impact their school, and to practice three basic functional drills, 28
shelter-in-place, lockdown, and evacuation, as these drills relate to 29
those threats and hazards. Some threats or hazards may require the 30
use of more than one basic functional drill. 31
(b) Schools shall conduct at least one safety-related drill per 32
month, including summer months when school is in session with 33
students. These drills must teach students three basic functional 34
drill responses: 35
(i) "Shelter-in-place," used to limit the exposure of students 36
and staff to hazardous materials, such as chemical, biological, or 37
radiological contaminants, released into the environment by isolating 38
the inside environment from the outside; 39
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(ii) "Lockdown," used to isolate students and staff from threats 1
of violence, such as suspicious trespassers or armed intruders, that 2
may occur in a school or in the vicinity of a school. Lockdown drills 3
may not include live simulations of or reenactments of active shooter 4
scenarios that are not trauma-informed and age and developmentally 5
appropriate; and 6
(iii) "Evacuation," used to move students and staff away from 7
threats, such as fires, oil train spills, lahars, or tsunamis.8
(c) The drills described in (b) of this subsection must 9
incorporate the following requirements: 10
(i) A pedestrian evacuation drill for schools in mapped lahars or 11
tsunami hazard zones; and 12
(ii) An earthquake drill using the state-approved earthquake 13
safety technique "drop, cover, and hold." 14
(d) Schools shall document the date, time, and type (shelter-in-15
place, lockdown, or evacuate) of each drill required under this 16
subsection (5), and maintain the documentation in the school office.17
(e) This subsection (5) is intended to satisfy all federal 18
requirements for comprehensive school emergency drills and 19
evacuations. 20
(6) Educational service districts are encouraged to apply for 21
federal emergency response and crisis management grants with the 22
assistance of the superintendent of public instruction and the 23
Washington emergency management division of the state military 24
department. 25
(7) The superintendent of public instruction may adopt rules to 26
implement provisions of this section. These rules may include, but 27
are not limited to, provisions for evacuations, lockdowns, or other 28
components of a comprehensive safe school plan. 29
(8)(a) Whenever a first responder agency notifies a school of a 30
situation that may necessitate an evacuation or lockdown, the agency 31
must determine if other known schools in the vicinity are similarly 32
threatened. The first responder agency must notify every other known 33
school in the vicinity for which an evacuation or lockdown appears 34
reasonably necessary to the agency's incident commander unless the 35
agency is unable to notify schools due to duties directly tied to 36
responding to the incident occurring. For purposes of this 37
subsection, "school" includes a private school under chapter 28A.195 38
RCW. 39
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(b) A first responder agency and its officers, agents, and 1
employees are not liable for any act, or failure to act, under this 2
subsection unless a first responder agency and its officers, agents, 3
and employees acted with willful disregard. 4
(9) This section governs school operation and management under 5
RCW 28A.710.040 and 28A.715.020 and applies to charter schools 6
established under chapter 28A.710 RCW and state-tribal education 7
compact schools subject to chapter 28A.715 RCW to the same extent as 8
it applies to school districts.9
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 28A.320 10
RCW to read as follows: 11
(1) School maps required under RCW 28A.320.125(2)(j) must be made 12
available to local and state first responder agencies in digital 13
formats that: 14
(a) Are interoperable with the software platforms in use by each 15
local and state first responder agency that provides emergency 16
services to the mapped school, without requiring such agencies to 17
purchase software, obtain licenses or subscriptions, or incur any 18
cost to access, view, or otherwise use the maps; 19
(b) Conform to and integrate with security software platforms in 20
use by the mapped school without requiring the purchase of additional 21
software or payment of license fees to view or access the data; and22
(c) Permit printing, electronic distribution, and integration 23
into interactive mobile and web-based platforms. 24
(2) School maps must also include the following features:25
(a) Orientation to true north, a reference grid with X axis and Y 26
axis coordinates, and a Z axis elevation values sufficient to support 27
three-dimensional location referencing; 28
(b) Accurate floor plans that are verified by the entity 29
producing the school mapping data through an on-site physical walk-30
through of school buildings and grounds, and that are overlaid on 31
aerial imagery of the facility grounds that accurately reflects site 32
conditions as of the date of the on-site physical walk-through;33
(c) Site-specific labeling that corresponds to the physical 34
layout of the school campus and that is consistent with on-site 35
signage where such signage exists. Such labeling must identify 36
permanent, fixed features necessary to support emergency response, 37
sheltering, evacuation, and incident management including, but not 38
limited to: 39
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(i) Interior features, such as rooms, hallways, stairwells, 1
elevators, interior access points, and areas capable of lockdown or 2
sheltering; 3
(ii) Exterior access, egress, and circulation features, such as 4
building doors, gates, parking lots, emergency access routes, 5
evacuation routes, assembly areas, and designated reunification 6
areas; 7
(iii) Elevation-related features, such as multistory structures, 8
roofs or elevated areas suitable for vertical evacuation, stair 9
towers, ramps, and changes in grade relevant to flood or tsunami 10
response; 11
(iv) Exterior structures and spaces, such as playgrounds, 12
athletic fields, portable or modular buildings that are permanent or 13
semipermanent, covered walkways, storage or utility buildings, and 14
perimeter fencing or barriers; and 15
(v) Safety, security, and critical infrastructure, such as fire 16
alarm control panels, fire department connections, key boxes, 17
automated external defibrillators, trauma kits, emergency call boxes, 18
critical utility controls, security control points, and permanent or 19
fixed hazards; and 20
(d) Controls that prevent independent modification or updating of 21
the school maps unless corresponding updates are made to the 22
underlying school mapping data within the software platforms in use 23
by every local and state public safety agency that provides emergency 24
services to the mapped school. 25
(3)(a) School mapping data are not subject to public disclosure 26
and are exempt from disclosure under RCW 42.56.420.27
(b) All school mapping data must be collected, accessed, 28
analyzed, aggregated, produced, transmitted, shared, used, modified, 29
maintained, and stored within the United States. 30
Sec. 4. RCW 42.56.420 and 2023 c 404 s 3 are each amended to 31
read as follows: 32
The following information relating to security is exempt from 33
disclosure under this chapter: 34
(1) Those portions of records assembled, prepared, or maintained 35
to prevent, mitigate, or respond to criminal terrorist acts, which 36
are acts that significantly disrupt the conduct of government or of 37
the general civilian population of the state or the United States and 38
that manifest an extreme indifference to human life, the public 39
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disclosure of which would have a substantial likelihood of 1
threatening public safety, consisting of: 2
(a) Specific and unique vulnerability assessments or specific and 3
unique response or deployment plans, including compiled underlying 4
data collected in preparation of or essential to the assessments, or 5
to the response or deployment plans; and 6
(b) Records not subject to public disclosure under federal law 7
that are shared by federal or international agencies, and information 8
prepared from national security briefings provided to state or local 9
government officials related to domestic preparedness for acts of 10
terrorism; 11
(2) Those portions of records containing specific and unique 12
vulnerability assessments or specific and unique emergency and escape 13
response plans at a city, county, or state adult or juvenile 14
correctional facility, or secure facility for persons civilly 15
confined under chapter 71.09 RCW, the public disclosure of which 16
would have a substantial likelihood of threatening the security of a 17
city, county, or state adult or juvenile correctional facility, 18
secure facility for persons civilly confined under chapter 71.09 RCW, 19
or any individual's safety; 20
(3) Information compiled by school districts or schools in the 21
development of their comprehensive safe school plans under RCW 22
28A.320.125, to the extent that they identify specific 23
vulnerabilities of school districts and each individual school , and 24
all school mapping data collected, accessed, analyzed, aggregated, 25
produced, transmitted, shared, used, modified, maintained, or stored 26
under section 3 of this act; 27
(4) Information regarding the public and private infrastructure 28
and security of computer and telecommunications networks, consisting 29
of security passwords, security access codes and programs, access 30
codes for secure software applications, security and service recovery 31
plans, security risk assessments, and security test results to the 32
extent that they identify specific system vulnerabilities, and other 33
such information the release of which may increase risk to the 34
confidentiality, integrity, or availability of security, information 35
technology infrastructure, or assets; 36
(5) The system security and emergency preparedness plan required 37
under RCW 35.21.228, 35A.21.300, 36.01.210, 36.57.120, 36.57A.170, 38
and 81.112.180; and 39
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(6) Personally identifiable information of employees, and other 1
security information, of a private cloud service provider that has 2
entered into a criminal justice information services agreement as 3
contemplated by the United States department of justice criminal 4
justice information services security policy, as authorized by 28 5
C.F.R. Part 20. 6
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