Parents, PTAs and students

Every classroom a safe harbor. It usually starts with one person asking.

A solid door, locked, with everyone inside safe. Districts move on safety when the people they answer to ask clearly and calmly. This page is for the parent, the PTA president and the student council member who want to be that person.

Start here

One question, three ways to help

"Are our classroom doors locked right now, and how do you know?" Most schools answer honestly: it depends on each teacher remembering, every period, every day. That is the gap. Here is how each of you can help close it.

Parents

Ask the question, bring the facts to your principal and board, and ask for a ten‑door pilot. Your district probably already has money it can use.

What to do · Champion kit

PTAs, PTOs and foundations

Help fund a pilot wing, or the local match on a grant, working through the district from day one. That is the right home for fundraising.

How to do it right

Students

You are the people the doors protect, and the group adults listen to most on how safety should feel. Your voice is worth more than any bake sale.

How to be heard

For parents

Six steps from a question to a pilot

Ask the principal

Ask the one question, in person or by email. Keep it about the system, not the teachers: they have a hundred things to remember, and a door should not be one of them.

Bring the facts

Share the two‑page board brief and the evidence. Investigators keep finding the same gap: classroom doors left unlocked when it mattered.

Point to the money

Most states now fund school safety per student or per campus, and federal programs name door locks in writing. Paying for this is the district's job, and the budget lines usually exist. Grants and state funds.

Ask for a pilot, not a promise

Ten doors, one wing, one drill. The district gets a door‑by‑door report it can show the board and families, then decides. The 10‑door pilot.

Take it to the board

If the principal is supportive but the decision sits higher, sign up for public comment at a board meeting. Two minutes, one question, one ask: a pilot this year.

Bring other parents

A board hears one parent politely and five parents carefully. Invite your PTA to put it on a meeting agenda; the next section is for them.

For PTAs, PTOs and school foundations

Fund a pilot wing, and do it through the district

Families raise money for playgrounds, laptops and field trips every year. A pilot wing of safe‑harbor classrooms is a project a PTA or foundation can help make happen, as long as the district owns it from the first conversation.

What a pilot costs

About $28,000 in year one for ten existing doors, as a planning figure before any grant: roughly $24,900 for hardware and installation by a local contractor, plus $3,250 for the annual license. Installed cost runs from about $18,500 to $38,000 depending on the doors and cabling. See how the numbers are built.

Three ways to help that work

Cover the local match on a grant. The federal COPS School Violence Prevention Program asks for a 25% local match. Funds raised by families can turn a district grant application from "maybe next year" into "yes."
Fund the pilot hardware. A gift toward the ten doors in one wing, given to the district for that purpose.
Make the case together. Put the pilot on your meeting agenda, invite the principal, and send the district a letter of support. It costs nothing and boards notice it.

Before you raise a dollar

Talk to the district first. Doors are district property. Any gift goes through the district's gift‑acceptance and purchasing process, and the district chooses the contractor.
The fire marshal signs off on every door. That review is part of every installation, and it is a good thing to tell donors.
Settle who pays the license. A gift covers a one‑time cost. The license renews every year, so agree in writing that the district carries it after year one. A gift that leaves a surprise bill is not a gift.
Give to the district, not to us. ClassLock does not accept donations or run fundraising campaigns for schools. Your money should go to your district, earmarked for the project.

For students

Your voice is the strongest evidence there is

In a 2025 survey, more than 80% of students rated interior door locks both effective and comfortable. Adults deciding school safety rarely hear that from students directly. You can change that.

Pass a student council resolution

A short statement that students want classroom doors locked by default, with no cameras and no detectors, carries real weight with a principal and a board.

Speak at a board meeting

Students can usually sign up for public comment like anyone else. Talk about how a drill feels and what would make the room feel safe. Keep it calm and specific.

Help run the climate survey

Every ClassLock pilot includes a survey before and after, asking how safe and how comfortable school feels. Students can help write the questions and get classmates to answer them.

Write about it

A piece in the school paper or a class project on how other schools handle locked doors helps classmates and parents understand the idea, and raises the questions worth asking. Start with what other districts did.

Want to raise money too? Do it through your PTA, PTO or school foundation, with an adult sponsor and the district's approval, using the steps above. Nobody should feel pressured to pay for their own safety at school. The district's safety budget is the first place this money should come from.

The champion kit

Everything to bring to a meeting, in one download

Three printable pages: a one‑page flyer to share with other families or put in the PTA newsletter, and fill‑in templates for an email to the principal, two minutes of public comment at a board meeting, a PTA letter of support and a student council resolution.

Champion kit (PDF)Board brief (PDF)

The board brief is the two‑page summary written for principals, superintendents and board members. Bring both.

Editable templates

Copy a template, replace the [bracketed] parts, and send it.

Email to the principal

Subject: A question about our classroom doors

Dear [Principal name],

I am the parent of [student name] in [grade]. Thank you for everything the staff does to keep our kids safe. I have one question: are our classroom doors locked during class, and how does the school know they are?

I ask because investigations of school attacks keep finding classroom doors that were unlocked or propped open, even where good locks were installed. Some districts now keep classroom doors locked by default and open them with the student ID badge, so nobody has to remember. I would like to ask whether our school would consider a small pilot in one wing, funded through the state and federal school-safety programs that already cover door locks.

I would be glad to meet, and I have a two-page board brief I can share: https://getclasslock.com/downloads/ClassLock-Board-Brief.pdf

Thank you for considering it.

[Your name, phone, email]

Two minutes at a school board meeting

Good evening. My name is [name], and I have [number] children at [school].

I want to ask one question: are our classroom doors locked right now, and how do we know? A solid, locked classroom door is the safest place a student can be. But investigations of school attacks keep finding doors that were unlocked or propped open when it mattered, because locking them depends on someone remembering every period of every day.

There are now systems that keep classroom doors locked by default and open them with the student ID badge, with no cameras and no metal detectors. State and federal school-safety programs name door locks as eligible for funding.

I am asking the board to direct staff to look at a ten-door pilot in one wing this year and report back with the results of a lockdown drill. Thank you.

PTA or PTO letter of support

To the [district name] Board of Education:

At its [date] meeting, the [school] [PTA/PTO] voted to support a pilot of locked-by-default classroom doors in one wing of our school. Families want every classroom to be a place where students are safe behind a locked door, without relying on anyone to remember to lock it, and without cameras or metal detectors.

We ask the district to evaluate a ten-door pilot this school year, to apply for the state and federal school-safety funding that covers classroom door locks, and to share the results of the pilot's lockdown drill and climate survey with families. [Optional: The PTA is prepared to contribute up to $[amount] toward the project or a grant's local match, through the district's gift-acceptance process.]

Respectfully,
[name, title]

Student council resolution

Resolution on classroom door safety

Whereas a locked classroom door is one of the safest places a student can be during an emergency;

Whereas locking a classroom door now depends on a teacher remembering to do it every period, and doors are often propped open for students who are running late;

Whereas students have said they feel comfortable with locked classroom doors, and uncomfortable with metal detectors and surveillance cameras;

Therefore, the [school] Student Council asks the school and district to pilot classroom doors that stay locked during class and open with our student ID badges, without adding cameras or metal detectors, and to include students in measuring how safe and comfortable school feels before and after.

Adopted [date]. Vote: [yes / no / abstain]

Questions champions ask

Before you start

Can our PTA just buy the locks and donate them?

Not directly. These are electrified locks on district doors, tied into the school schedule and network, and installed by a licensed contractor with a fire marshal's sign‑off. The district has to own the project. What a PTA can do is give money to the district earmarked for it, or cover a grant match.

What if the principal says it is not in the budget?

Ask which budget. Many states fund school safety per student or per campus, and that money can often be used for door hardware. Point them to the funding page, and mention that ClassLock works with grant writers who are paid only if a grant is approved.

Does it help if only one wing has it?

Yes. Every pilot classroom is locked by default from the first day, and the drill report shows the district exactly how those doors performed. Most districts expand wing by wing.

How do I talk about this with younger kids?

Simply. "Our classroom door stays locked during class, like the front door at home, and opens with your badge." There is no need to talk about why. The point of the design is that school feels normal.

Will students be tracked?

ClassLock records that a badge opened a door at a time, like a key log. No video, no biometrics, no location tracking. The district owns the data. Privacy details.

Tell us your school. We'll send you what to bring.

A copy of the board brief, the funding programs for your state, and a pilot outline your principal can act on. If the school wants a call, we will take it.

Ask us to help your school Download the kit (PDF)