Annual door security assessment

District of Columbia School Door Security Requirements

DC writes the door standard into statute: exterior doors shall close automatically and lock securely. Then it checks every DCPS facility against that objective once a year.

THE REQUIREMENT

A Door Objective, Checked Once a Year

The District of Columbia states a door objective in statute and checks compliance with it once a year. Under D.C. Code 10-551.07e(e)(1), the Department of General Services works with the principal and members of the local school advisory team to assess each DCPS facility against a list of security objectives at least once per year. One of those objectives, at (e)(1)(B), is that all exterior doors shall close automatically and lock securely. Nothing in the provision requires a door position sensor, a propped-door alarm, or any continuous reporting of door status.

The statutory stem matters. D.C. Code § 10-551.07e(e)(1) directs the Department to assess each facility's compliance with the following security objectives, which makes the door language a standard the facility is measured against rather than a box an inspector ticks.

That distinction puts DC at the top of the periodic-assessment group. Most states in this group assess door condition through a checklist the agency writes. DC put the door objective in the statute itself.

Two Door Provisions, Eighty Years Apart

DC is the only jurisdiction we track that carries a modern lock-securely objective and a 1944 keep-unlocked appropriations condition in the same Code. Both are set out below, verbatim, with what each one does and does not settle.

Provision	What it says	Where it stops
The annual assessment duty (§ 10-551.07e(e)(1))	DGS works with the principal or designee and members of the local school advisory team to assess each DCPS facility's compliance with the listed security objectives, at least once per year	Compliance is established on the day the assessment happens
The door objective (§ 10-551.07e(e)(1)(B))	"All exterior doors shall close automatically and lock securely"	A statement about how the hardware behaves. No sensor, alarm, or door-status report is required
The 1944 provision (§ 38-409)	District appropriations may not be used to maintain school in any building unless all outside doors used as exits or entrances "shall open outward and be kept unlocked every school day from one-half hour before until one-half hour after school hours"	An appropriations condition from June 28, 1944, still in the published Code. Egress hardware is how a door meets this and the lock-securely objective at once
What happens to findings (§ 10-551.07e(e)(2)-(3))	Deficiencies become facility maintenance work orders. Security-related orders are withheld from public disclosure, with monthly status updates to the Council committee chairperson, read-only system access, and closed-door briefings	The public dashboard covers open maintenance work orders, not the daily state of any door

SCOPE OF THE RULE

A Hardware Objective, Not a Daily Duty

What the objective covers

How a door behaves on its own: that it closes automatically and that it locks securely when it closes. That is a property of the closer, the latch, and the lock.

It applies to DCPS facilities, assessed by the Department of General Services alongside the principal and the local school advisory team.

What it does not cover

A door that closes automatically can still be propped, wedged, or held. The objective describes the hardware, not the behavior of the people using it.

No door position sensors, no propped-door alarms, no continuous reporting, and no recurring staff door checks are required anywhere in the provision.

Oversight and Consequences

Assessment findings turn into facility maintenance work orders. Security-related work orders are withheld from public disclosure, and the Department transmits monthly status updates on those withheld orders to the chairperson of the Council committee with oversight, provides read-only access to its work-order system, and holds closed-door briefings.

A public dashboard of all open facility maintenance work orders, updated daily except weekends and holidays and downloadable, was required by December 31, 2024. The statute states no penalty. Council oversight and work-order tracking are the enforcement mechanism.

Recent Rule Activity

The assessment duty was created by D.C. Law 24-167, effective September 21, 2022, expanded by D.C. Law 25-50 Title I Subtitle D, School Security and Transparency, in 2023.

D.C. Law 25-217, effective September 18, 2024, amended the work-order and reporting provisions and set the December 31, 2024 dashboard deadline. No later enactment adds a door monitoring requirement.

BETWEEN ASSESSMENTS

The Door Closes Automatically. It Can Still Be Propped.

An assessment captures door condition on the day it happens. Continuous monitoring covers the days in between, which is where propped and held-open doors actually occur.

What monitoring adds

Continuous open-or-closed status on every monitored door plus a time-stamped event log. In a system where deficiencies become work orders, a log turns "this door keeps getting propped" from an impression into a dated record that a work order can be written against.

What monitoring does not prove

A contact sensor proves that a door is closed. It never proves that the door is latched or locked, which is exactly what the DC objective is about.

Monitoring is not the annual assessment and does not satisfy or replace any part of § 10-551.07e.

Learn about door monitoring, or return to the school door security guide.

DC School Door Security FAQ

These answers separate the door objective, the assessment cadence, the work-order route, the 1944 provision, and what is not required.

Does the District of Columbia require school exterior doors to be locked?

Not as an operational rule for the school day. D.C. Code 10-551.07e(e)(1)(B) sets a security objective that all exterior doors shall close automatically and lock securely, and the Department of General Services assesses each DCPS facility for compliance with that objective at least once per year. That is a requirement about how the door hardware behaves, assessed annually, rather than a standing duty on staff to keep doors locked.

How often does DC assess school door security?

At least once per year. D.C. Code 10-551.07e(e)(1) requires the Department of General Services to work with the principal or the principal designee and members of the local school advisory team to conduct a comprehensive assessment of each DCPS facility compliance with the listed security objectives. DC is the only jurisdiction in the periodic-assessment group whose statute states a door objective in mandatory terms rather than leaving door condition to a checklist.

What happens when a DC school assessment finds a door problem?

Findings become facility maintenance work orders. Security-related work orders are withheld from public disclosure, and the Department transmits monthly status updates on those withheld orders to the Council committee chairperson, provides read-only system access, and gives closed-door briefings. A public dashboard of open facility maintenance work orders was required by December 31, 2024. The statute states no penalty.

Does DC law still require school doors to be kept unlocked?

A 1944 provision to that effect remains in the published D.C. Code. D.C. Code 38-409 conditions District appropriations on all outside doors used as exits or entrances opening outward and being kept unlocked every school day from one-half hour before until one-half hour after school hours. It is an appropriations condition from the era of school fire-safety reform, and modern egress hardware is how the two provisions coexist: a door can be locked against entry from outside while still allowing free exit from inside.

Does DC require door monitoring hardware or door sensors?

No. Neither D.C. Code 10-551.07e nor any related provision requires door position sensors, propped-door alarms, or continuous door monitoring. The annual assessment establishes whether doors close and lock as the objective describes on the day it is conducted. Nothing in the statute addresses the state of a door between assessments.