Michigan Lawmakers To Make Final Decision On School Safety Bills

One of the most important groups of people to protect are the children and elderly as they aren't always capable of protecting themselves. One of the places that's looked at the most is schools as children are there to learn and make connections, not worry about their safety or making it back home. Unfortunately, the reality is that many students worry about their safety on a regular basis.

To combat this feeling, many lawmakers around the country have been looking at ways to make the schools safer for them. Most school districts have added metal detectors, outdoor intercom systems, extra security, resource officers and more to make the schools safer. As we can tell by the recent years, this has helped but has not solved the problem entirely, so lawmakers in Michigan are looking for more ways to make schools in the Mitten safer.

The Michigan State House Education Committee put together and passed a 5-bill package aimed at making schools safer just 3 years after the Oxford High School shooting. The package will now go back to the House for final vote before landing on the Governor's desk to be signed into law.

House Bill 5549

Republican Kelly Breen who one of the many endorsers of these bills says that house bill 5549 will require Michigan State Police to threat assessment training materials available to schools and for this to be done by October 1st of 2026.

House Bills 5659 & 5660

Both of these bills are aimed at providing a 12-member school safety commission under the guise of the Michigan State Police which will replace a group that was appointed by former Governor Rick Snyder following the Parkland, Florida shooting. The main focus of this group is noticing and addressing the mental health of school aged children and adolescents.

House Bills 4095 & 4096

These two bills say that schools and the Michigan Department of Education must adopt a standardized response terminology plan. This will make communicating during these situations easier as both school and law enforcement officials must use this language no matter the kind of emergency and must be in place by the start of the 2026-2027 school year

The 5 bills in this package have received more than enough support from both sides and have even gotten the thumbs up from statewide educational organizations, including those catering to non-public schools.