An Act to renumber and amend 165.28; to amend 20.455 (2) (im) and 165.88 (title), (2) (title), (a) and (b), (3) (a) and (b), (3m) (title), (am), (b) and (c) and (4); to create 38.12 (15) and 165.28 (2m) of the statutes; Relating to: expanding the Office of School Safety to cover technical colleges and campus safety plans for technical colleges. (FE)
SB928 expands Wisconsin’s Office of School Safety to include technical colleges and creates a new statutory framework for campus safety planning at those institutions. The bill requires each technical college district board to establish and maintain a campus safety plan, developed with input from appropriate stakeholders such as law enforcement, firefighters, staff, students, and mental health professionals, and preceded by an on-site safety assessment of campus buildings and facilities regularly occupied by students.
The required campus safety plan must include individualized safety plans for each occupied building or facility, general emergency procedures, and procedures addressing campus violence, threats, bomb threats, fire, weather emergencies, intruders, reunification, and non-classroom events. District boards would also determine who must receive training and how often, submit blueprints or interactive critical mapping data to local law enforcement and the Office of School Safety, file the plan annually, and review and approve it at least every three years. The bill also prohibits plans from restricting employees from calling 911 or reporting violence or suspicious activity directly to law enforcement.
The bill would amend the statutes governing the Department of Justice’s Office of School Safety and state grant programs to expressly cover technical colleges and campus safety, not just K-12 schools. It creates s. 38.12 (15) for technical college campus safety plans, adds a new subsection directing the office to develop model campus safety practices and training for technical college staff, and expands grant eligibility so technical college district boards can receive funds for safety planning, training, and interactive critical mapping data. It also updates grant and reporting provisions in s. 165.88 to include campus safety at technical colleges and requires annual reporting to the Joint Committee on Finance.
The bill appears to be framed as a public safety and preparedness measure, with its structure emphasizing collaboration with law enforcement and emergency responders, training, and improved emergency information sharing. The available record shows no committee transcript or recorded votes, and the bill ultimately failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1. Based on the bill text alone, the policy direction is generally supportive of campus safety expansion, with no documented opposition in the provided materials.
The main policy tension in the bill is between centralized safety planning and institutional autonomy versus the need for direct emergency response authority. To address that, the bill explicitly bars campus safety plans from requiring employees to seek administrator approval before calling 911 or from prohibiting direct reporting of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement. Another potential point of concern is the operational and administrative burden on technical colleges, which would need to create individualized building-level plans, conduct safety assessments, file plans annually, and maintain mapping data and training records. The bill also raises confidentiality and data-sharing issues by requiring submission of blueprints or interactive critical mapping data to the Office of School Safety and law enforcement, while keeping those materials confidential unless requested by law enforcement.