Aspen School District in Colorado puts the problem simply: propping doors open "can compromise the security of the facility, as it allows unauthorized individuals to enter freely."
This guide covers how schools stop it: the Stop the Prop campaigns that many districts have joined, the routine that keeps doors closed day to day, and where door checks and door monitoring each help.
The short answer
To stop propped doors at school, make closing a propped door everyone's job, remove the reasons people prop doors, check exterior doors on a schedule, fix what the checks find, and decide which doors need watching between checks.
Stop the Prop organizers offer the message and materials such as stickers, decals or a logo. The routine behind them is the school's own.
What is Stop the Prop?
Stop the Prop is a school safety campaign with one ask: keep doors closed, and close any door you find propped open.
Virginia's Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) credits school safety expert John McDonald with launching the campaign in 2019, while he was Executive Director of School Safety for Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado. The Joplin Globe, a Missouri newspaper, also reported that McDonald developed the campaign in 2019.
The same DCJS fact sheet describes McDonald as Chief Operating Officer of the Missouri School Boards' Association's Center for Education Safety and the Council for School Safety Leadership.
The organizers listed below each run their own version, with their own materials and terms. The Iowa Association of School Boards, for example, describes Stop the Prop as a campaign it developed.
Who runs Stop the Prop campaigns
We found these state organizers in public sources. Others may exist, so if your state is not listed, ask your state school boards association or school safety center whether it runs a version.
- Missouri. A Missouri State Highway Patrol summary describes Stop the Prop as the campaign of the Missouri School Boards' Association Center for Education Safety to keep school buildings secure. The same summary says Missouri schools may request decals or the Stop the Prop image for print.
- Iowa. The Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) runs a statewide campaign that it says it developed. It provides door stickers, digital campaign materials and templates free of charge to IASB member districts. IASB reports that 109 districts across Iowa have adopted Stop the Prop.
- Virginia. The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services adopted Stop the Prop through its Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety in early 2025. Its program page reports that nearly 100 of the Commonwealth's 131 public school divisions have adopted it, along with Virginia institutions of higher education, police departments and private schools. DCJS offers the campaign logo through an online request form. Our Virginia school door security page covers the state's separate school safety audit.
- Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania School Safety Institute (PennSSI) offers Stop the Prop stickers through a request form. Under a memorandum of understanding, the stickers are free to PSBA members, and non-members pay a nominal fee.
Districts also run their own campaigns. You will find examples from Missouri, Colorado and Georgia in the steps below.
Why doors get propped, and why it matters
A Joplin Globe report describes a familiar case: someone steps out for a break or to get something from a vehicle and puts a small rock in the door so it does not close and lock behind them. Aspen School District says its safety team has seen rocks, mulch, chairs and balls used to prop school doors.
The ALERRT Center at Texas State University studied active shooter events in K-12 school settings in the United States between 2000 and 2025. Of the 29 doors through which an attacker entered, 20 were unlocked, propped open or otherwise unsecured. Sixteen of those doors were unlocked, and four were propped open or otherwise unsecured. Six more entries came through locked doors that attackers breached by shooting through the glass.
The Security Industry Association funded the study. Its authors put the finding plainly: "Compliance, not hardware, is the most common failure mode."
Virginia's DCJS ties Stop the Prop to "time barriers," which it describes as physical barriers that slow down entry into or movement through a facility and give first responders more time to arrive.
How to stop propped doors at your school
Make closing a propped door everyone's job
Put the message where people reach for a wedge: on the exterior doors themselves. Your state organizer may supply stickers or decals. In August 2022, Springfield Public Schools in Missouri reported that its school police officers were putting 1,500 Stop the Prop stickers on district doors during the first week of school.
Then say the ask out loud, to staff, students and visitors: do not prop a door, and close any door you see propped open.
Remove the reasons people prop doors
Find out which doors get propped, when, and why. A door that staff use to come back from breaks, take deliveries or reach the playground needs a better way back in, such as a staffed entrance or a set time when someone opens it. A door that does not close and latch on its own needs a repair, not a reminder.
Check exterior doors on a schedule
Make propped doors part of every scheduled exterior door check. When Springfield Public Schools launched its campaign in 2022, the district described a school police officer who checked every exterior door at Carver Middle School every 90 minutes, all 21 of them.
Baldwin County School District in Georgia presents a Stop the Prop Safety Award at its board meetings. According to a Union Recorder report, the district's high school earned it after more than 100 spot checks over 30 days found only two concerns, one of them an exterior door that was malfunctioning and was then fixed.
In Texas, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) describes unannounced, on-site audits by School Safety Review Teams in its annual report for 2024-2025. In the exterior door part of the audit, the report says, an inspector checks that each exterior door is closed, latched and locked, and reviews the campus's most recent six consecutive weeks of door sweep logs to verify that weekly checks are being consistently conducted. Our Texas intruder detection audit guide covers the audit and the corrective action that follows a finding.
Our school door security guide compares the three ways schools watch their doors and what each state requires.
Report and fix what the checks find
Aspen School District's guidance says the best practice is typically to close a propped door immediately. If there is a concern about unauthorized access, it asks people to report propped doors to school staff, administrators or school resource officers.
Give each repair an owner and a date, so a door that will not close or latch gets fixed rather than reminded.
Decide which doors need watching between checks
Busy doors need people at busy times. Aspen School District says the campaign can be enforced at the start and end of the school day by having designated school team members monitor and control the entry and exit points.
Quiet doors are different. If a side or service door is propped just after a check, nobody may notice until the next one. That gap is where door monitoring helps.
What door checks and door monitoring each tell you
A door check and door monitoring answer different questions. Use both.
A door check, done in person, is when you:
- see each door's state at that moment
- confirm that the door is closed, latched and locked
- test that the closer brings the door shut, and look for damaged hardware
- write down what you found, so there is a record
Door monitoring, with a sensor on the door:
- reports whether each monitored door is open or closed, including in the hours between checks
- can alert the people you choose when a door is propped, forced or held open past the limit you set
- logs each door event so you can see when a door opened and how long it stayed open
- cannot show that a door latched or locked, and cannot test a closer, because a contact sensor shows only that the door is closed
Monitoring does not replace a hands-on check of the door hardware, and it does not replace any state-required door-check log. It also never makes it acceptable to wedge open a fire door. Our fire door guide explains why an alarm or sensor does not make it OK to keep a fire door open. Our guide to door held open alarms explains when a local alarm is enough and when it is not.
For more on door monitoring technology for schools, read our guide to door monitoring for schools.
Where Positive Proof fits
Positive Proof Door Monitoring puts a wireless sensor on each door you choose to watch. You set rules for each door by building, time of day and calendar day, and each alert goes to the people you name for that door. Door events appear on one dashboard with a logged history. Keep your door checks: a sensor shows that a door is closed, not that it latched or locked. See how door monitoring works.
Frequently asked questions
What is Stop the Prop?
Stop the Prop is a school safety campaign that asks everyone in a school to keep doors closed and to close any door they find propped open. Virginia's Department of Criminal Justice Services credits school safety expert John McDonald with launching it in 2019. State organizers in Missouri, Iowa, Virginia and Pennsylvania now run their own versions.
Is Stop the Prop required by law?
Stop the Prop's organizers describe it as a campaign, and neither description below calls it required. Your state may set its own rules for exterior doors and door checks, so check those, and your district's own policies, as well. Virginia's Department of Criminal Justice Services calls its campaign "a school safety initiative aimed at preventing unauthorized access to school buildings," and the Iowa Association of School Boards calls its version "a school safety awareness campaign."
How often should school doors be checked?
Set a schedule for door checks with your district's procedures and any state requirements in mind. Published examples vary. A 2022 Springfield Public Schools announcement described a school police officer checking every exterior door at one middle school every 90 minutes. In Texas, the Texas Education Agency's annual report for 2024-2025 describes unannounced audits in which an inspector checks that each exterior door is closed, latched and locked, and reviews the campus's door sweep logs.
Does a door alarm or sensor replace door checks?
No. A door sensor reports whether a door is open or closed, and the system can alert you when a door stays open past the limit you set. A contact sensor does not show that the door latched or locked, and it cannot test the closer. Keep a hands-on check of the door hardware, and keep any state-required door-check log. Monitoring covers the hours between checks.
How can a school get Stop the Prop stickers?
Contact the organizer in your state. IASB provides its materials free of charge to member districts. PennSSI offers stickers free to PSBA members and for a nominal fee to others. DCJS takes logo requests through an online form. In Missouri, a State Highway Patrol summary says schools may request decals or the Stop the Prop image for print from the Missouri School Boards' Association Center for Education Safety. In other states, ask your state school boards association or school safety center whether it runs a version.
Sources
We read or re-checked the sources below on October 26, 2026. Participation counts are each organizer's own figures.
- Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, Virginia's "Stop the Prop" Campaign (fact sheet dated October 2025).
- Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, K-12 Crisis Management Program.
- Iowa Association of School Boards, Stop the Prop: A Statewide School Safety Campaign.
- Iowa Association of School Boards, news release launching the campaign (July 31, 2025).
- Missouri State Highway Patrol, Courage2Report monthly activity summary, October 2025.
- Missouri School Boards' Association, CES Stop the Prop.
- Pennsylvania School Safety Institute, Stop the Prop.
- Springfield Public Schools, SPS launches Stop the Prop campaign (August 24, 2022).
- John Hacker, The Joplin Globe, Joplin schools putting Stop the Prop stickers on doors (February 25, 2026).
- Aspen School District, ASD Aims to Stop the Prop One Door at a Time.
- Baldwin County School District, September Board Meeting Recognitions.
- Matthew Brown, Union Recorder, Baldwin BOE hears update on school safety (October 22, 2025).
- ALERRT Center at Texas State University, The Role of Locked Doors and Access Control in School-Based Active Shooter Events (2026), funded by the Security Industry Association.
- Texas Education Agency, Annual Report 2024-2025: School Safety and Security in Texas.
