Georgia does not mandate locked exterior doors. Instead, Ricky and Alyssa's Law requires every public school safety plan to state whether and when each access point is locked, actively supervised, or both, with the plan reviewed annually and approved by four agencies.
THE REQUIREMENT
Georgia does not require public schools to keep every exterior door locked. Each public school safety plan must specify whether and when exterior doors and other building access points will be locked, actively supervised by school personnel, or both. The school determines the locking and supervision approach, but the plan must address these doors. Safety plans must be reviewed annually and updated when necessary.
The cited authority is O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1185(c)(3)-(4), as amended by HB 268 (2025), known as Ricky and Alyssa's Law or the School and Student Safety Act, signed April 28, 2025 and effective upon approval.
The provision was verified verbatim against the signed act: safety plans must state whether and when each door type is locked or actively supervised. It is a plan-content mandate, not a hardware requirement.
HB 268 is broader than doors. Only the first row below is the door provision; the rest are separate requirements with their own deadlines, including one already in effect and one arriving in January.
| Provision | Deadline / status | Door-related? |
|---|---|---|
| Exterior-door planning requirement | In effect since April 28, 2025 | Yes. The plan must state whether and when each access point is locked, actively supervised, or both |
| School mapping data for first responders | Phased in under HB 268 | Indirectly. Maps document building access points but impose no door condition |
| Statewide alert system | Established under HB 268 | No |
| Mobile panic alert systems | Required since July 1, 2026 | No. A separate alerting provision, covered on our Georgia Alyssa's Law page |
| Behavioral threat assessment management plans | Required by January 1, 2027 | No |
SCOPE OF THE RULE
The school determines the locking and supervision approach for each door type. Georgia prescribes the question the plan must answer, not the answer itself.
The state does not prescribe door-condition inspections, logged door checks, or electronic door-monitoring equipment.
Ricky and Alyssa's Law also mandates mobile panic alert systems, in effect since July 1, 2026, plus school mapping and behavioral threat assessment plans.
Those provisions are covered on the Georgia Alyssa's Law page. This page covers the door provision.
Safety plans are submitted for approval to the local emergency management agency, local law enforcement, GEMA/HS, and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
The statute specifies no monetary penalty for noncompliance. The annual review and multiagency approval cycle is the enforcement mechanism.
HB 268 was signed April 28, 2025, following the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School, and its door-planning provision took effect on signing.
The mobile panic alert requirement took effect July 1, 2026. Behavioral threat assessment management plans are required by January 1, 2027.
BETWEEN PLAN REVIEWS
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.
For a district whose plan commits to locked or supervised doors, monitoring adds continuous open-or-closed status plus a time-stamped event log, so the policy the plan declares has evidence behind it between annual reviews.
A contact sensor proves that a door is closed. It never proves that the door is latched or locked.
Monitoring is not "active supervision by school personnel" under the statute, and it does not satisfy or replace the safety-plan requirement.
Learn about door monitoring, or return to the school door security guide.
These answers separate the door-planning requirement, the broader provisions of Ricky and Alyssa's Law, the approval process, and the consequences.
No. Georgia law does not require public schools to keep every exterior door locked. Under O.C.G.A. 20-2-1185(c)(3)-(4), as amended by HB 268 in 2025, each school safety plan must specify whether and when exterior doors and other building access points will be locked, actively supervised by school personnel, or both. The school chooses the approach; the plan must address it.
Ricky and Alyssa's Law is HB 268, the School and Student Safety Act, signed April 28, 2025, following the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School. Beyond the exterior-door planning requirement, it added school mapping provisions, a statewide alert system, mobile panic alert systems required by July 1, 2026, and behavioral threat assessment management plans required by January 1, 2027.
The plan must specify whether and when exterior doors and other building access points will be locked, actively supervised by school personnel, or both. Safety plans are reviewed annually, updated when necessary, and submitted for approval to the local emergency management agency, local law enforcement, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
No. The door provision is a planning requirement, not a hardware mandate: Georgia does not prescribe state door-condition inspections, logged door checks, or electronic door-monitoring equipment. The mobile panic alert requirement in the same law, in effect since July 1, 2026, is a separate provision about emergency alerting, not doors.
The statute specifies no monetary penalty. Its principal enforcement mechanism is agency review: safety plans go to the local emergency management agency, local law enforcement, GEMA/HS, and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities for approval, and the annual review cycle is where a missing door provision gets corrected.