Minnesota schools must use anonymous threat reporting systems

School districts and charter schools must adopt a policy and use either a local or statewide anonymous threat reporting system. This applies to Minnesota school districts and charter schools. A local system must accept anonymous reports around the clock through an app, website, and toll-free hotline, and quickly send reports to designated school staff, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and local law enforcement. Schools using a local system must designate and train staff and tell students, families, employees, and the school community how to use it. Schools using the statewide system must share information about that system. Schools with a local system in place before July 1, 2026, may keep using it even if it does not meet the other requirements, provided it quickly forwards reports to designated school staff, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and local law enforcement. Boards must adopt a policy by June 30, 2027, and schools must use a system by July 1, 2028. This section takes effect July 1, 2026.

Eligible schools may apply for grants to develop, buy, operate, or maintain anonymous threat reporting systems and pay staff who respond to threats. Eligible applicants are Minnesota school districts, charter schools, student-serving cooperative units, Tribal contract schools, and nonpublic schools. The one-time $4 million grant appropriation is for fiscal year 2027. Eligible applicants include districts, charter schools, cooperatives serving students, Tribal contract schools, and nonpublic schools. Awards may not exceed $10,000 per district or cooperative, or $2,500 per charter school, Tribal contract school, or nonpublic school. Grants must go to schools in all regions of the state. The money is for fiscal year 2027 and remains available until June 30, 2029.

The state treats active anonymous threat reporting data as confidential or protected, and allows it to be shared among specified agencies and partners. These rules cover data from local and Department of Public Safety statewide anonymous threat reporting systems. The rules cover data from both local and statewide systems, including information created in response to a tip by schools, state agencies, law enforcement, or noncriminal justice partners. The data become inactive when an authorized agency determines they are no longer connected to a possible threat, or two years after the last related report. Separate existing data rules then govern them. Data are active when created, collected, or received; they become inactive under either of the stated conditions.