Grant criteria, not door mandates

Pennsylvania School Door Security Requirements

Pennsylvania's school safety law does not require schools to lock, check or alarm their exterior doors. The state's door guidance sits in two sets of criteria from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency: a baseline that sets conditions on school safety grants, and best-practice standards for assessments. This page keeps the law, the grant criteria, the recommendations and the voluntary Stop the Prop campaign apart.

FOUR KINDS OF DOOR GUIDANCE

What Pennsylvania Requires for School Doors, and What It Only Recommends

Pennsylvania's school safety law, Article XIII-B of the Public School Code, does not require public schools to keep exterior doors locked, to check them on a schedule, or to install propped-door alarms. It gives the School Safety and Security Committee within the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) the duty to set baseline criteria for physical security and criteria for school safety and security assessments. Exterior doors appear in both. The baseline criteria set conditions for spending state school safety grants, and the assessment criteria are best-practice standards. PCCD states that the School Code does not require schools to complete a physical security assessment.

Four different things get called Pennsylvania's door requirements. For the door measures on this page, only the first is a legal duty.

The law

Article XIII-B of the Public School Code

Exterior doors: No requirement to lock, check or alarm exterior doors. Under Commonwealth-funded school mapping contracts entered into on or after the effective date of section 1322-B(d), maps and floor plans must include site-specific labeling, such as exterior door numbers.

Status: Legal duties: a safety coordinator for each school entity, the committee's survey and the mapping rule.

Grant criteria

Physical Security Baseline Criteria (2026)

Exterior doors: Working locks, handles that cannot be barred, protective doors with a viewing pane and teaching people to keep exterior doors closed are Level 1. Routine lock checks and propped-door alarms are Level 2.

Status: Grants can pay for meeting Level 1. The physical security uses listed in section 1314.3-B(b)(2) become eligible once the Level 1 physical security criteria are met.

Recommendations

Physical Assessment Criteria (2025)

Exterior doors: Best-practice standards for a physical security assessment, from numbering exterior doors to a written policy against propping them.

Status: PCCD states that the School Code does not require the assessment. The committee recommends a qualified outside assessor.

Voluntary campaign

Stop the Prop, through PennSSI

Exterior doors: Stickers that ask people to keep doors shut and secure at all times.

Status: Voluntary. Neither Article XIII-B nor PCCD's criteria mention it.

THE LAW

What Article XIII-B Requires, and What It Does Not

Article XIII-B, School Safety and Security, was added to the Public School Code by Act 44 of 2018. This page relies on the text the Pennsylvania General Assembly publishes, as amended through July 12, 2026.

What the school safety law requires

A school safety and security coordinator for each school entity: a school administrator appointed by the chief school administrator.
A confidential school safety and security survey. Every school entity had to complete the first one by November 30, 2018, and the committee must administer the survey at least every two years. School-specific survey data stays confidential and is not subject to the Right-to-Know Law.
When a physical assessment is done under the committee's criteria, it takes place in months when school is in session and includes discussions with local law enforcement and with school employees.
For school mapping contracts funded in whole or in part with Commonwealth money and entered into on or after the effective date of section 1322-B(d), maps and floor plans must carry site-specific labeling, such as exterior door numbers.

What it does not require

No requirement to keep exterior doors locked, no scheduled or logged door checks, and no propped-door alarms or door sensors.
No required physical security assessment. PCCD states that the School Code does not require one.
The survey is a self-report to the committee. It is not an on-site inspection of door condition.
This page covers Article XIII-B and the PCCD criteria. It does not assess fire or building codes.

Recent Rule Activity

March 19, 2025: the committee approved updated Physical Assessment Criteria, built on the 2018 originals and the 2021 revision. Article XIII-B requires the committee to review the criteria at least every three years, and it may revise them as needed.
May 13, 2026: Act 17 of 2026 amended section 1306-B(j)(12), the grant use that covers security planning and security-related technology.
June 3, 2026: the committee adopted revised Physical Security and Behavioral Health Baseline Criteria.
July 12, 2026: Act 20 of 2026 added the school mapping rule in section 1322-B and the 2026-2027 grant section, 1314.3-B.
No provision of Article XIII-B as amended through July 12, 2026 sets a statewide requirement to lock, check or alarm school exterior doors.

GRANT CRITERIA

Exterior Doors in the Grant Baseline

School entities are eligible for school safety and mental health grants to meet the Level 1 baseline criteria. For the 2026-2027 school year, section 1314.3-B of the School Code says that once a school entity has met the Level 1 physical security criteria, it can spend funding on the physical security activities listed in section 1314.3-B(b)(2), including security-related technology under section 1306-B(j)(12), which may include electronic locksets and deadbolts.

The committee adopted the revised baseline on June 3, 2026, to address feedback from school entities during the grants process and to reflect the grant uses in section 1306-B(j). In Article XIII-B, the baseline appears as a committee duty and as the test for grant spending. It is a grant standard, not a door rule.

For grant purposes, a school entity may also address physical security gaps found in a recent physical security assessment by a Pennsylvania State Police Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Team or an assessor on PCCD's registry.

Level 1

The baseline. The wider physical security grant uses open up once it is met.

All exterior doors have working locks
Door handles that cannot be barred
External, protective doors with a viewing pane
Policies, procedures or communications that educate students, staff, school visitors and anyone else authorized to be in the facility on keeping exterior doors closed and secured
A physical security assessment, aligned with the committee's standards, of all school buildings housing educational programs

Level 2

Builds on Level 1.

Exterior door handles and locks routinely checked to make sure they work properly
A process for students, employees and others to report problems with handles and have them fixed in a timely fashion
An alarm, or alarms, when exterior doors are propped or left open
Cameras that monitor all exterior doorways
Intruder-resistant or reinforced glass in all exterior doors, or impact-resistant film on exterior door windows

Level 3

The most advanced level.

Doors that can be locked or sealed remotely
A policy for keys and door access, with regular audits of physical keys and remote access devices
A physical security assessment of each school building housing educational programs once every 3 years, or when facilities are modified

Source: PCCD School Safety and Security Committee, Physical Security Baseline Criteria (2026), approved June 3, 2026. Wording shortened, levels as published. For grant amounts and programs, see school safety grants in Pennsylvania.

RECOMMENDATIONS

What the Assessment Criteria Recommend for Doors

The Physical Assessment Criteria are the committee's best-practice standards for a physical security assessment. PCCD states that the School Code does not require schools to complete one, although completing one is beneficial and is a Level 1 baseline item. The criteria describe their physical items as best practice standards. The door training items on this page, items 208 and 209, sit in the section headed Criteria-Based Training Relating To School Safety and Security, which says the training below it is not mandated by law.

A school entity can be assessed in three ways. Pennsylvania State Police Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Teams conduct assessments against the committee's criteria free of charge. Assessors on PCCD's registry also use the approved criteria. A school entity with limited resources can assess itself, although the committee recommends an outside assessor.

These door items match the grant baseline at the same level: working locks (item 42), handles that cannot be barred (41), protective doors with a viewing pane (40) and teaching people to keep exterior doors closed (43) at Level 1, routine lock checks (49) and the propped-door alarm (50) at Level 2, and remote locking (57) at Level 3. These five Level 1 items go further than the baseline:

Item 26All exterior doorways are numbered in sequence, clockwise from the main entrance
Item 44Areas around entrances and exits are kept free of objects that could be used to prop a door
Item 166A written policy or procedure prohibiting door propping
Item 208Training throughout the year not to prop exterior doors open
Item 209Training students and staff to immediately report doors that are not closing or locking correctly

Source: PCCD School Safety and Security Committee, Physical Assessment Criteria, Leveled Approach (revised 2025). None of these five appears in the 2026 Physical Security Baseline Criteria.

Our recommendations

These are Positive Proof's suggestions. They are not state requirements or PCCD criteria.

Work the Level 1 door items first. The wider physical security grant uses open up once Level 1 is met, and a physical security assessment is itself a Level 1 item.
Write down the routine check: who checks each exterior door's handle and lock, how often, how a problem gets reported and who fixes it. Routine checks and the reporting process are both Level 2 baseline items.
Number your exterior doors clockwise from the main entrance, as item 26 describes, and check that any state-funded school map labels the same numbers.
Decide which doors need a propped-door alert. Start with the doors your checks find open most often.

For a door check your staff can print and take on a round, use the door check checklist in our school door security guide.

BETWEEN CHECKS

What a Propped-Door Alarm Adds to a Door Check

A physical assessment reviews facilities, existing documentation, policies and training, including whether exterior door handles and locks are routinely checked. A check finds a propped door when someone looks at it. The propped-door alarm, a Level 2 item in the baseline and item 50 in the assessment criteria, addresses the time in between.

What monitoring adds

A wireless sensor on each monitored exterior door reports its open or closed status continuously. When a door is propped, forced or held open past the limit set for that door, an alert goes to the people who can act on it, by text, email, two-way radio or dispatch. Every event is logged with a time stamp, so your next assessment can review a record instead of a recollection.

What monitoring does not prove

A contact sensor proves that a door is closed. It never proves that the door is latched or locked, so the routine lock check still matters.

The propped-door alarm items do not name a product or specify an alarm technology. Registered assessors evaluate school entities using the approved criteria, and this page does not claim that any product meets an item.

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

VOLUNTARY CAMPAIGN

Stop the Prop in Pennsylvania

Stop the Prop is a campaign, not a state rule. Article XIII-B does not mention it, and neither do PCCD's baseline or assessment criteria. Taking part is voluntary.

In Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania School Safety Institute (PennSSI) “offers Stop the Prop stickers to encourage individuals to keep doors shut and secure at all times.” Schools request the stickers through a form on PennSSI's site. Under a memorandum of understanding, the stickers are complimentary for PSBA members. Non-members pay a nominal fee.

The campaign's message lines up with three Level 1 items in the assessment criteria: teaching people to keep exterior doors closed (item 43), a policy against propping (item 166) and year-round training not to prop doors (item 208). A sticker carries the keep-doors-shut message. Items 166 and 208 separately call for a written policy and year-round training.

For practical ways to keep doors from being propped open in the first place, read Stop the Prop: How Schools Keep Exterior Doors Closed.

Pennsylvania School Door Security Requirements: FAQ

These answers keep the law, the grant baseline, the assessment criteria and the Stop the Prop campaign apart.

Does Pennsylvania require school exterior doors to be locked?

Not under its school safety law. Article XIII-B of the Public School Code has no requirement that public school exterior doors stay locked. Working locks on all exterior doors are a Level 1 item in PCCD's Physical Security Baseline Criteria, which set conditions for school safety grant spending, and in its best-practice Physical Assessment Criteria. PCCD states that the School Code does not require schools to complete a physical security assessment.

Does Pennsylvania require propped-door alarms in schools?

Not under its school safety law. An alarm when exterior doors are propped or left open is a Level 2 item in both the 2026 Physical Security Baseline Criteria and the 2025 Physical Assessment Criteria, where it is item 50. Level 2 items build on the Level 1 baseline. Article XIII-B does not require a school to install one.

What is a door prop alarm?

A door prop alarm warns people when a door is held or left open. Pennsylvania's criteria describe it as an alarm when exterior doors are propped or left open, and list it at Level 2. The criteria's propped-door alarm items do not name a product or an alarm technology.

Are Pennsylvania schools required to complete a physical security assessment?

No. PCCD states that the School Code does not require schools to complete a school safety and security assessment in the area of physical security, although completing one is beneficial and is a Level 1 baseline item. What the law does require is a confidential school safety and security survey, which the committee must administer at least every two years.

What are the Level 1 grant baseline items for exterior doors in Pennsylvania?

In the Physical Security Baseline Criteria adopted on June 3, 2026, the Level 1 door items are working locks on all exterior doors, door handles that cannot be barred, external protective doors with a viewing pane, and policies, procedures or communications that educate students, staff, school visitors and anyone else authorized to be in the facility on keeping exterior doors closed and secured. A physical security assessment of all school buildings housing educational programs is also a Level 1 item.

Can Pennsylvania school safety grants pay for door security?

Is Stop the Prop a requirement in Pennsylvania?

No. Stop the Prop is a voluntary campaign. Article XIII-B and PCCD's criteria do not mention it. In Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania School Safety Institute (PennSSI) offers Stop the Prop stickers, complimentary for PSBA members and for a nominal fee to non-members. Its message matches the Level 1 assessment items on keeping exterior doors closed and not propping them.