Texas School Marshal Program: Training, Carry Rules, and Eligibility

To serve as a school marshal in Texas, you have to meet the Texas school marshal program requirements set by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE): be a current employee of a participating school, hold a valid Texas license to carry a handgun, pass a psychological evaluation, and complete an 80-hour TCOLE-approved training course. After that, the license lasts about two years, and you must qualify with your firearm every calendar year to keep it active.¹

The program is voluntary at the institutional level. Each school’s governing body decides whether to appoint marshals, so meeting the requirements below does not, by itself, put you on any campus. It qualifies you to be appointed if a board chooses to use the program.

Who Qualifies

Texas Occupations Code Section 1701.260 sets the baseline. A candidate must already be employed by the school or institution and must already hold a valid Texas license to carry a handgun before entering training.¹

TCOLE also requires a psychological evaluation. The commission devises and administers the examination in consultation with psychologists, and it screens for fitness to handle an active-shooter scenario. A candidate who does not pass cannot be licensed. The evaluation typically costs around $350 out of pocket, and while districts may reimburse training fees, they are not required to.¹

The employment tie is not just a hiring formality. Marshal status goes inactive the moment employment ends, and it also goes inactive if the license to carry is suspended or revoked, if the marshal license itself expires, or if the governing body notifies the employee that their services are no longer needed.²

The 80-Hour Training Course

Candidates who clear the eligibility gate must complete an 80-hour course taught by TCOLE staff or a TCOLE-approved provider.¹ The curriculum covers five areas:

Strategies for preventing school shootings and securing potential victims.
The legal framework around peace officer duties and the use of deadly force.
Response tactics drawn from law enforcement training.
Handgun accuracy and handling.
Scenario-based active-shooter simulations.

TCOLE issues the license once the candidate completes the course to the commission’s satisfaction and passes the psychological evaluation. The license expires on the marshal’s first birthday after the second anniversary of licensure, which works out to roughly two years depending on when the license was issued. Renewal requires a 16-hour course.³

Annual Firearms Proficiency

The initial course and the biennial renewal are not the whole story. Marshals also have to demonstrate firearms proficiency at least once every calendar year. The yearly qualification includes a physical inspection of the weapon, a demonstration of proper cleaning and maintenance, and a scored course of fire.⁴

For handguns, the minimum course requires 50 rounds fired at distances up to at least 15 yards, with at least 20 of those rounds fired at or beyond seven yards, and at least one timed reload. The passing score is 70 percent.⁴ This is a real filter. A marshal who cannot meet the 70 percent standard under timed conditions loses the ability to serve regardless of how long they have held the license.

How Marshals Carry Firearms on Campus

The carry rules depend on written regulations adopted by the school’s governing body. Under Texas Education Code Section 37.0811, a marshal may carry concealed on their person or keep the handgun in a locked safe or other secured location on school premises.²

A 2025 change added a third option. Under SB 870, a marshal wearing a uniform that identifies them as a school marshal may openly carry a handgun on their person.⁵ School boards now choose from three approaches when writing their local regulations: concealed carry, open carry in a marshal uniform, or locked storage.

Whatever the method, every handgun used under the program must be loaded only with frangible duty ammunition approved by TCOLE. Frangible rounds are designed to break apart on impact with hard surfaces, which sharply reduces the risk of ricochets in a school hallway or classroom.²

When a Marshal May Use the Weapon

The authority to use force is narrow. A school marshal may use a handgun only under circumstances that would justify deadly force under Texas Penal Code Section 9.32 (defense of self) or Section 9.33 (defense of a third person). In practice, that means someone must be about to be killed or seriously harmed and deadly force must be immediately necessary to stop the threat.²

This is not a general law-enforcement role. Marshals are not authorized to draw a weapon to break up fights, detain suspects, or enforce school rules. The role exists for active-threat situations, and the statute limits it to those situations.

Confidentiality of Marshal Identity

A school marshal’s identity is confidential under Texas law and is not subject to open records requests under Chapter 552 of the Government Code.² The reasoning is practical. If a potential attacker knows who the marshal is, the marshal becomes the first target.

Confidentiality has limits. TCOLE, the Texas Department of Public Safety, local law enforcement, and school administrators have access to marshal identity information for emergency coordination. For private schools and junior colleges, if a parent or guardian asks in writing, the institution must confirm whether any employee is currently appointed as a marshal, though it cannot reveal who.⁶

How the License Can Be Lost

TCOLE can pull a school marshal license quickly, and the disciplinary framework is unusually strict:

If the marshal’s license to carry a handgun is suspended or revoked by DPS, TCOLE immediately revokes the school marshal license.
If a marshal violates any TCOLE standard, the commission immediately suspends the license for ten years. TCOLE’s rules state that mitigating factors do not apply to this suspension.
If a marshal fails a follow-up psychological examination, the license is suspended until the TCOLE Executive Director orders reinstatement.
If TCOLE receives reliable information that a marshal may no longer be psychologically fit, the commission can issue an emergency suspension order.⁷

Schools must immediately report to TCOLE any violation of commission standards by a marshal, including any discharge of a firearm outside a training environment. Marshals themselves must report any circumstance that would make them unauthorized to serve.⁷ The ten-year suspension for any standards violation carries no sliding scale and no hearing to explain context.

Which Schools Can Appoint Marshals

The program covers four categories of institutions, each under its own statute but with the same core framework: the governing body appoints marshals, sets written regulations, and appointees must be employees who hold a TCOLE school marshal license.

Public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools, under Texas Education Code Section 37.0811.²
Private schools, under Texas Education Code Section 37.0813.⁶
Public junior colleges (community colleges), under Texas Education Code Section 51.220.⁸

The Legislature eliminated the per-campus cap on marshals in 2019. A board can now appoint as many marshals as it sees fit for a given campus.² If your school does not participate, meeting every TCOLE requirement will not put you in the role; participation is a board decision, not an employee one.

1
State of Texas. Texas Occupations Code Section 1701.260 – Training for Holders of License to Carry a Handgun; Certification of Eligibility for Appointment as School Marshal
2
Texas Public Law. Texas Education Code Section 37.0811 – School Marshals
3
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. TCOLE School Marshal Program Flyer
4
Legal Information Institute. 37 Texas Administrative Code Section 218.9 – Continuing Firearms Proficiency Requirements
5
Texas Legislature Online. Texas Senate Bill 870 – 89th Legislature
6
State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 37.0813 – School Marshals: Private Schools
7
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. TCOLE Statutes and Rules Handbook 2025
8
State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 51.220 – Public Junior College School Marshals