Louisiana Schools Now Run "Emergency Operations Plans" and Keep Occupied Classrooms Locked, Under State Rep. Mike Johnson's Act 821

Louisiana public schools now operate under "emergency operations plans" and must keep occupied classrooms locked except between classes, under Act 821 of 2026 by state Rep. Mike Johnson of House District 27. The law, in effect since Aug. 1, also sorts school safety exercises into types and bars blanks and simulated weapons in basic drills.

The author is the state lawmaker, not the U.S. House speaker who shares his name. State Rep. Michael T. Johnson is a Republican who represents House District 27 in Rapides Parish, according to his House page. He was elected in 2019 and practices law. He graduated from Pineville High School before earning degrees from Louisiana College and the Southern University Law Center.

His bill rewrote the state law that governs how every public school prepares for violence and other emergencies. Under the old wording, schools kept "crisis management and response" plans. Now they are emergency operations plans, defined as a plan to address school safety and the incidence of a shooting or other violence at schools, on school buses and at school activities, and to manage any other emergency. The plan has to take an all-hazards approach that covers hostage situations, an active assailant or a building lockdown. Principals still write their school's plan jointly with local law enforcement, fire, public safety and emergency preparedness officials.

The change families are most likely to notice involves classroom doors. Before the act, the law said doors were to stay locked during instructional time. Now, according to the Legislature's digest, every classroom and other instructional space has to be locked and secured whenever students are inside, except between class periods when students are changing rooms. If a door has to be left unlocked or open for any other reason, an authorized person must be stationed at it. The act defines "locked and secured" to mean nothing is in the way of the lock engaging fully as designed. The plans must also make sure a locked door never blocks anyone from getting out, and locks must meet fire safety standards and the state's building code requirements.

The act also gives schools a common vocabulary for practice. Discussion-based exercises, such as orientations, workshops and tabletop sessions, walk staff through plans and decisions without anyone moving. Operations-based exercises put people in motion and come in three sizes. A drill tests one function, such as evacuation, lockdown or shelter-in-place, and under the act it cannot use blanks, simulated weapons or community emergency responders acting out their roles. A functional exercise tests command and communication and may involve limited help from outside partners. A full-scale exercise brings in the personnel, equipment and partners who would actually respond.

The early-year drill is not new. State law already required each principal to hold a safety drill early in the school year, and Act 821 keeps it, now setting the window as the first 30 instructional days and describing the scenario as an active "assailant" rather than an active shooter. Each principal must still hold at least one more drill during a busy transition time in the school day and send a written report on each drill to the superintendent within seven days. Annual staff training on the plan, involving local first responders, also continues.

Reporting changes too. Instead of a superintendent's annual report to the school board on each plan, every public school now completes a school safety questionnaire from the Louisiana Center for Safe Schools and the state Department of Education, covering compliance with the plan, completed drills and needs. Each district then fills out its own. Principals no longer have to send copies of the plan to the state; the plan must be available to the department and the center on request. As before, the plans are not public records.

The bill drew no recorded opposition. House Bill 624 cleared the House Education Committee 14-0 and passed the House 97-0 in April 2026. The Senate passed an amended version 35-0 in May, and the House agreed to the changes 96-0. Gov. Jeff Landry signed it June 8. The act applies to charter schools as well.

The law took effect Aug. 1, so the 2026-27 school year is the first to run under the new plans, drill types and door rules.

The legislator series has also covered Louisiana's deer tracking dog law and new rules for the New Orleans RTA board.

Photo: Billy Hathorn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (resized). Pineville High School, photographed in 2008.