Last updated: September 23, 2026
Alyssa’s Law requirements vary by state and continue to evolve. This guide is intended as an educational resource, not legal advice. Schools and districts should verify current requirements with applicable state and local authorities.
Alyssa’s Law at a glance
Alyssa’s Law is state-level legislation. There is no single nationwide Alyssa’s Law requirement.
As of September 2026, 13 states have enacted laws commonly referred to as Alyssa’s Law. Requirements range from installing panic alert technology to considering panic alarm or emergency response systems as part of school safety planning.
Requirements vary significantly by state. States differ in which schools are covered, what technology is required, where it must be available, and how alerts connect with law enforcement or emergency services.
Implementation involves more than choosing a panic button. Accessibility, location, connectivity, emergency-services integration, testing, training, and maintenance can all affect how a system performs in practice.
Compliance and effective emergency response are not the same thing. An alert starts the process. Schools should also evaluate how responders locate an incident, access relevant context, communicate, and coordinate what happens next.
Requirements continue to change. This guide is updated as states enact or amend relevant legislation.
What is Alyssa’s Law?
Alyssa’s Law refers to school safety legislation named for Alyssa Alhadeff, a 14-year-old student who was killed in the February 14, 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The first Alyssa’s Law was enacted in New Jersey in 2019. Since then, laws commonly referred to as Alyssa’s Law have been enacted in states across the country, generally focused on helping school personnel quickly signal for help during an emergency.
What schools are required to do, however, depends on where they are.
New Jersey requires public elementary and secondary school buildings to be equipped with silent panic alarms that directly notify law enforcement, subject to alternatives provided by the law. Florida requires public schools, including charter schools, to implement mobile panic alert systems integrated with local public safety answering point infrastructure. Texas requires silent panic alert technology in each classroom. New York instead requires district-wide school safety teams to consider the installation of a panic alarm system when reviewing the district-wide safety plan.
Alyssa’s Law isn’t one uniform standard. Start with what your state requires, then evaluate what your school needs the system to do in practice.
That distinction matters when evaluating school safety technology. A product described broadly as “Alyssa’s Law compliant” may not necessarily address the specific requirements that apply to a particular school or district.
Which states have enacted Alyssa’s Law?
As of September 2026, 13 states have enacted laws commonly referred to as Alyssa’s Law: New Jersey, Florida, New York, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Oklahoma, Georgia, Washington, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia, and Illinois.
The requirements differ considerably. Some states mandate panic alert technology. Others require schools to consider panic alert or emergency response systems as part of safety planning. States also differ in which schools are covered, how alerts reach emergency services, where alert technology must be available, and what additional information or systems must be integrated.
Alyssa’s Law requirements by state
State | What safety leaders should know |
|---|---|
New Jersey | Public elementary and secondary school buildings generally must be equipped with at least one silent panic alarm capable of directly notifying law enforcement, subject to alternatives provided by the law. |
Florida | Public schools, including charter schools, must implement a mobile panic alert system. The system must integrate with local public safety answering point infrastructure. State guidance directs districts to consider fixed panic buttons, mobile and desktop applications, landline capabilities, and wearable panic alerts. |
New York | District-wide school safety teams must consider installing a panic alarm system when reviewing the comprehensive district-wide safety plan. The current law does not impose a statewide requirement to install a panic alarm in every school. Statute: Alyssa's Law Education Law § 2801-a |
Texas | School districts and open-enrollment charter schools must provide each classroom with silent panic alert technology that allows immediate contact with school emergency services and specified emergency-response agencies. Statute: SB 838 / Tex. Educ. Code §37.117 |
Tennessee | District-wide and building-level school safety teams must consider including a mobile panic alert system in their safety plans. The law addresses systems designed to coordinate emergency-services technologies and integrate with public safety answering point infrastructure. |
Utah | In accordance with school safety needs assessments, LEAs must provide a staff person in each classroom with a wearable panic alert device capable of immediate contact with emergency services and responding agencies. The broader framework also addresses training and law-enforcement access to school security cameras. |
Oklahoma | School districts must implement a mobile panic alert system that coordinates emergency-services technologies and integrates with public safety answering point infrastructure. Approved systems must also provide responders with information including floor plans, caller location, and situational updates. |
Georgia | Public schools must implement qualifying mobile panic alert systems and maintain current school mapping information. The framework is designed to support real-time coordination among emergency responders and integration with public safety answering point technology. Statute: HB 268 Ricky and Alyssa's Law |
Washington | Washington takes a broader emergency-response-system approach. Schools work with law enforcement, public safety answering points, and school safety personnel to develop emergency response systems; panic or alert buttons are among the technologies contemplated by the law. |
Oregon | K–12 public and private schools must consider installing panic alarm systems when reviewing school building security policies and procedures. The law addresses wireless or wearable systems capable of coordinating emergency services and integrating with local public safety answering points. |
Virginia | Virginia permits school boards to provide employees in public elementary and secondary school buildings with wearable panic alarm systems. Unlike some other state laws, it authorizes rather than mandates adoption. |
West Virginia | State rules must permit public schools to implement wearable panic alert systems, contingent on available funding. Qualifying systems must meet requirements that include integration with public safety answering point infrastructure. Statute: HB 4798 / W. Va. Code §18-9F-9a |
Illinois | By the beginning of the 2028–29 school year, school districts and private schools must consider mobile panic alert systems when developing emergency and crisis-response plans. Schools implementing qualifying systems must coordinate with their local 911 authority. |
Last verified: September 23, 2026.
This table summarizes legislation for educational purposes. Requirements, regulations, guidance, and implementation timelines can change. Schools should consult current statutes and applicable state and local authorities when determining their obligations.
What changed recently?
Illinois became the latest state to enact Alyssa’s Law in August 2026. Public Act 104-0789 takes effect January 1, 2027. By the beginning of the 2028–29 school year, school districts and private schools must consider mobile panic alert systems when developing their emergency and crisis-response plans. Schools that implement a qualifying system must coordinate with their local 911 authority before purchase and implementation.
The Illinois law illustrates why schools should verify current requirements rather than relying on an undated list of “Alyssa’s Law states.” The number of states adopting legislation continues to grow, and what each law requires can be very different.
How should schools evaluate an Alyssa’s Law panic alert system?
Alyssa’s Law compliance requirements differ by state, but selecting technology is only part of implementation. Schools also need to consider how the system will perform across the environments and situations where staff may actually need it.
Accessibility
Consider who may need to initiate an alert and where they spend their day.
A fixed panic button at a front desk solves a different problem than a wearable device carried by a teacher or staff member. Schools may need to account for classrooms, hallways, cafeterias, athletic facilities, parking areas, outdoor spaces, and other locations beyond the main office.
The goal is not simply to have panic alert technology available. Authorized staff need to be able to initiate an alert when and where they need to.
Location
An alert communicates that something is wrong. Responders also need to determine where help is needed.
Evaluate what location information accompanies an activation and how precise it is. Depending on the environment, identifying the campus may not provide enough information; responders may need a building, floor, room, or other specific location.
Some state requirements explicitly recognize the importance of this context. Oklahoma, for example, requires approved systems to provide emergency responders with information including floor plans and caller location.
Connectivity and resilience
Understand what the school panic alert system depends on: Wi-Fi, cellular service, Bluetooth, hardwired infrastructure, dedicated networks, or a combination.
Then consider what happens if one communication path becomes unavailable. Coverage should be tested across the places staff actually work, including outdoor and nontraditional spaces, and schools should understand how device and network health are monitored.
Activation and confirmation
Emergency technology should be simple to use under stress.
Schools should understand how an alert is initiated, what safeguards exist against accidental activation, and whether the person activating it receives clear confirmation that the alert was successfully registered.
Emergency services integration
Requirements around 911, law enforcement, and public safety answering point integration vary by state.
Schools should map the path of an activation: where it goes, who receives it, what information accompanies it, and whether any human or technical intermediary sits between activation and emergency response.
Testing, training and maintenance
A panic alert system should not be installed and forgotten.
Schools should establish how devices and connectivity are monitored, how often the system is tested, how battery or hardware issues are identified, how staff are trained, and who owns ongoing maintenance.
Staff turnover matters, too. Emergency technology needs to remain familiar even as the people using it change.
What happens after the panic button is pressed?
A school panic button is the beginning of an emergency response, not the entire response.
The initial activation tells responders one important thing: Something is wrong.
The people responsible for safety may immediately need additional information: Where is it happening? What is happening? Who needs to know? What needs to happen next?
Schools may already have many of the tools that can help answer those questions: cameras, radios, maps, access control, mass notification, emergency procedures, location information, and connections to emergency services.
The challenge isn’t necessarily adding another system. It’s helping the systems already in place work together so the people responding can move from an alert to context and coordinated action faster.
From alert to response
ALERT
Someone initiates an emergency alert.
↓
LOCATE
Identify where the activation occurred.
↓
UNDERSTAND
Bring in relevant video, signals, location information, and other available context.
↓
COMMUNICATE
Reach the people who need to know, inside and outside the school.
↓
COORDINATE
Put established workflows and emergency procedures into motion.
↓
RESOLVE
Maintain a shared understanding as the incident develops and document what happened afterward.
A panic button can initiate the response. The broader safety system determines what happens next.
A school can meet a panic alert requirement and still leave its safety team moving between separate systems to locate an incident, find relevant video, communicate with staff, and initiate established procedures.
That is why evaluating an Alyssa’s Law implementation should include not only how quickly an alert can be sent, but how effectively the school can turn that alert into an informed, coordinated response.
A practical Alyssa’s Law implementation checklist
Save this checklist: Use it to review your current environment or when evaluating a school panic alert system or technology provider.
Requirements
☐ Current state requirements
☐ Covered schools and facilities
☐ State education agency guidance
☐ 911 / law-enforcement / PSAP requirements
☐ Technical, testing, training, and reporting requirements
☐ Implementation dates and deadlines
Environment
☐ Classrooms and instructional spaces
☐ Common areas
☐ Athletic and outdoor areas
☐ Nontraditional spaces
☐ Wi-Fi, cellular, and radio coverage gaps
☐ Existing cameras, radios, access control, maps, and communications systems
Activation and location
☐ Authorized users
☐ Fixed / wearable / mobile options
☐ Ease of activation under stress
☐ Accidental-activation safeguards
☐ Alert confirmation
☐ Location precision
Response
☐ Alert recipients
☐ Information transmitted with alert
☐ 911 / PSAP / law-enforcement integration
☐ Access to relevant context
☐ Staff communications
☐ Emergency workflows
☐ Incident updates and documentation
Ongoing readiness
☐ Testing schedule
☐ Device and connectivity monitoring
☐ Maintenance ownership
☐ Staff training
☐ New-staff onboarding
☐ Emergency exercises
☐ Post-drill / post-incident review
Questions for a potential provider
☐ Which requirements in our state does your solution address?
☐ What infrastructure does it depend on?
☐ What happens if connectivity fails?
☐ How precisely can it locate an activation?
☐ How is successful activation confirmed?
☐ How are accidental activations handled?
☐ Who receives the alert—and what do they receive?
☐ How does it connect with 911 or other emergency services?
☐ Can it integrate with our existing safety infrastructure?
☐ How are devices monitored, maintained, and updated?
☐ What does implementation require from IT and safety teams?
☐ What happens after the initial alert?
Compliance is a starting point
Alyssa’s Law is helping drive an important shift in K–12 school safety: making it easier for people inside a school to quickly signal when they need help.
But installing another piece of technology does not automatically make the safety environment connected.
A school may have panic alerts, cameras, radios, access control, mass notification, maps, and well-developed emergency procedures and still require people to manually move between systems when something happens.
Compliance asks whether you have the capabilities the law requires. Operational readiness asks whether those capabilities can work together when someone needs them.
The goal isn’t simply to generate another alert. It’s to give the people responsible for school safety the information and tools they need to understand what is happening and coordinate what comes next.
How Firefly approaches panic alerts and emergency response
Firefly’s approach starts with the panic button, but it doesn’t end there.
The Firefly Panic Button is wearable, making emergency activation accessible as staff move throughout a school. It is designed with safeguards against accidental activation and feedback that confirms an alert has been sent.
Behind it is infrastructure designed to connect an activation with the broader safety environment. Firefly Beacons are devices placed throughout a facility that help the system understand where signals are coming from, while Firefly Gateways provide the connectivity that carries those signals into the platform. Together, they help connect what is happening in the physical environment with Ember.
Ember is Firefly’s AI-native safety platform, where panic alerts can be connected with location information, cameras, communications, and other signals across the environment. Instead of an alert arriving as an isolated notification, safety teams can use Ember as a shared place to understand what is happening and coordinate what comes next.
That context can extend beyond Firefly hardware. Schools can integrate existing infrastructure to Firefly's Ember platform, including cameras and radios, rather than replacing an entire safety stack simply to connect it. Relevant video, communications, location, and other information can become part of the same response.
Firefly can also help put communications and established workflows into motion so the initial panic alert becomes the beginning of a coordinated response rather than another signal someone has to manually piece together.
The goal is to help safety teams move from alert → location → understanding → communication → coordinated action with greater visibility, context, and control.
One system. Every signal. One operating picture.
Frequently asked questions about Alyssa’s Law
What is Alyssa’s Law?
Alyssa’s Law refers to state school safety legislation named for Alyssa Alhadeff, who was killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Depending on the state, the law may address silent panic alarms, mobile panic alert systems, classroom alert technology, wearable panic buttons, or broader emergency-response capabilities.
Is Alyssa’s Law a federal law?
No. Alyssa’s Law currently operates through state legislation rather than one nationwide requirement. Schools should review the law and applicable guidance in their own state when determining Alyssa’s Law compliance requirements.
Which states have Alyssa’s Law?
As of September 2026, 13 states have enacted laws commonly referred to as Alyssa’s Law: New Jersey, Florida, New York, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Oklahoma, Georgia, Washington, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia, and Illinois.
Because legislation continues to evolve, schools should verify current requirements with primary state sources.
Does Alyssa’s Law require panic buttons in every classroom?
Not universally.
Texas requires silent panic alert technology in each classroom. Utah’s requirements address wearable panic alert devices for classroom staff in accordance with school safety needs assessments. New Jersey generally requires at least one silent panic alarm in each public elementary and secondary school building. New York instead requires district-wide safety teams to consider panic alarm installation as part of school safety planning.
Do school panic buttons have to be wearable?
That depends on the state.
Some states specifically address wearable panic buttons, while others permit or require different approaches. Florida, for example, directs districts to consider combinations of fixed panic buttons, mobile and desktop applications, landline capabilities, and wearable panic alerts.
The appropriate form factor should also reflect how and where school personnel may need to activate an emergency alert.
Does Alyssa’s Law require a direct connection to 911 or law enforcement?
Requirements vary.
Some state laws require direct notification of law enforcement or integration with public safety answering point infrastructure. Others use different emergency-response requirements. Schools should verify exactly where an activation must go and what technical integration their state requires.
Does Alyssa’s Law apply to private schools?
It depends on the state.
Illinois’s law, for example, applies its requirement to consider mobile panic alert systems to both school districts and private schools. Other states define covered schools differently.
Is a mobile app enough to comply with Alyssa’s Law?
There is no universal answer.
Alyssa’s Law compliance requirements may address where alerts must be available, how they reach emergency services, location information, system integration, testing, and other technical capabilities. Schools should evaluate any proposed system against the requirements in their jurisdiction rather than assuming a particular form factor is sufficient.
