SB870

SB870 lets appointed school marshals openly carry a handgun while wearing a uniform identifying them as a school marshal. It covers public school districts, open-enrollment charter schools, private schools and public junior colleges. It took effect when signed on May 19, 2025, and applies beginning with the 2025–2026 school year. Final act; History.

The governing body’s written regulations must provide the options of carrying concealed on the marshal’s person, carrying openly while wearing the identifying uniform, or possessing the handgun in a locked and secured safe or other locked and secured location on school premises. Public-school and junior-college marshals remain limited to the particular school or campus designated by the governing body. The uniform condition attaches to open carry, not to the concealed-carry option. Sections 1–4.

This is not general permission for teachers, students or visitors to carry guns. It applies to employees appointed through the school-marshal program. The existing program requires training and licensing through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, including a psychological examination. The act retains the requirement that a marshal’s handgun be loaded only with commission-approved frangible duty ammunition. Existing training and licensing; Ammunition and written regulations.

For public junior colleges, the act also combines two 2021 versions of the same subsection. It preserves the rule that regulations may not require an on-duty marshal to store the handgun in a locked container, alongside the available secured-storage option. That protection was already present in one of the 2021 versions; it is not a new requirement that every marshal openly carry. Prior junior-college law; Reenacted subsection (e).