Georgia
Georgia has no door rule. It has Apalachee, and a grant for every school.
At Apalachee High School in September 2024 the shooter, an enrolled student, left his class, came back with a rifle and could not get in because the door had locked behind him. He fired into the room next door instead. Georgia funds security per campus and now requires panic alerts statewide. Which doors are locked is still a district decision.
The rules
What Georgia requires
School safety plans
O.C.G.A. §20‑2‑1185 requires every school to submit a safety plan to GEMA/HS; building access controls are an eligible measure in the plan, not a mandate. HB 147, the Safe Schools Act (2023), added plan review by GEMA/HS and intruder‑alert drills reported to the agency. No Georgia statute or rule requires classroom or exterior doors to be locked.
O.C.G.A. §20‑2‑1185 · GEMA/HS School Safety
Ricky and Alyssa's Law, HB 268 (2025)
Effective July 1, 2025: a mobile panic alert for staff and up‑to‑date digital mapping for responders, records transfer within five days, anonymous reporting, threat‑management teams and new terroristic‑threat offenses. The panic‑alert deadline for schools is July 1, 2026. The law has no door or lock provision; ClassLock takes the lockdown trigger from the alert system and holds every door.
Funding: the School Security Grant
Georgia pays a per‑school security grant through GaDOE in monthly installments. In amended FY2025 it was $47,125 per school plus a one‑time $21,635, about $68,760 per school and $158.9 million statewide; the FY27 figure is $47,267 per school. Allowable uses include physical security site improvements, access controls, panic devices and mapping. Two years of one school's grant is roughly a 25‑door ClassLock wing installed.
Risk pool safety grant
GSBA Risk Management Services offers members a reimbursement safety grant of up to $5,000 a year; its eligible examples include security at points of entry.
Who you deal with
GEMA/HS School Safety for plans and drills; GaDOE for the security grant.
Where ClassLock fits
What Apalachee taught, and what Barrow County did next
The door that held
The shooter's own classroom door locked when it closed, a student saw the rifle through the glass and did not open it, and the panic alert went out at 10:22 a.m. The GBI director said the protocols prevented a much larger tragedy. Four people were still killed, including three in the room next door.
What the district bought after
Barrow County added weapons detection at every high school and grew its officer count from 15 to 22. A 2026 bill to mandate weapons detection statewide was tabled in the Senate. Detection and officers cover the entrances and the hallways; neither locks the next door.
What ClassLock adds
Every classroom door locked by default, all day, opening for the students scheduled in that room. The attacker who is denied one door finds the next one locked too. Lockdown comes from the Centegix alert Georgia schools already carry, and the sensor shows responders which rooms are closed.
We do not claim ClassLock would have changed the outcome at Apalachee; the room the shooter entered has no established door status in the public record.
Spend the security grant on the doors.
We will scope a ten‑door pilot against your school's grant and your GEMA/HS safety plan.