How to Plan a Districtwide Lockdown Window Shade Installation

Planning a districtwide lockdown shade installation starts with a project owner, a written review of state requirements, and a fire code official’s review, followed by an inventory of every door and window opening. From there, a district builds a budget, gets board approval, chooses a procurement route that fits its purchasing rules, and schedules installation and staff training before the school year’s first lockdown drill.

What a Lockdown Window Shade Does

A lockdown window shade is a covering mounted above the glass of a door window, sidelight, or inset window that staff deploy to cover the glass during a lockdown. New York’s facilities guide notes that a visual barrier can conceal occupants from an attacker. School Safety Solution’s Hideaway Helper lockdown shade, for example, attaches with an adhesive strip above the glass, drops over the window in seconds when a Velcro tab is pulled, and resets by rolling back up and securing it with the tab.

Four questions apply to any covering a district considers.

• Does it leave the latch, lever, and exit hardware fully operable?
  
• Does the fire code official accept its mounting on rated doors?
  
• Does it come with NFPA 701 documentation, and Class A documentation in New York?
  
• Does it deploy in seconds from a safe distance, then reset easily enough that a drill does not leave classrooms exposed afterward?

The sections below explain where the first three questions come from, and our product comparison is in Classroom Door Lockdown Shades, What’s the Best Option.

A district can also begin with a free lockdown shade sample and a pilot installation before committing to a larger rollout, subject to its own approval requirements.

Who Needs to Approve the Project

A project like this needs an owner and a short list of people who must approve it. Three sign-offs come up in the sections below. The local fire code official decides whether a covering is acceptable on rated doors, the business office and school board approve the spending, and legal counsel confirms that the purchasing rules allow the purchase.

CISA’s K-12 School Security Guide adds two points. The school board can limit which measures a district selects and how it implements them, and some district mandates call for consulting legal counsel and insurers. The guide also advises consulting local first responders during planning so fire, police, and other emergency personnel know what is changing, and it says to share a revised physical security plan with them. A covering changes what responders see from the hallway, so they are worth bringing in before installation.

State Requirements and Recommendations

States differ on whether they address covering classroom door windows during a lockdown. Kentucky is the clearest statutory example found while researching this guide. KRS 158.162 requires classroom doors with windows to be equipped with material that can quickly cover the window during a building lockdown, with a compliance date of July 1, 2022, and superintendents verify districtwide compliance to the Kentucky Department of Education by November 1 each year. The statute describes the requirement in functional terms, material that can quickly cover the window, which leaves product selection and fire code questions to the district.

New York addresses the question through facilities guidance. The State Education Department’s April 2025 guide, Safe Schools by Design, recommends speed blinds for classrooms, requires fabric blinds to be Class A rated and meet NFPA 701, and advises avoiding blind cords. The guide also says the Office of Facilities Planning has allowed temporary covering of the windows in classroom doors in an emergency when the covering is written into Board of Education policy and included in the Building Level Emergency Plan. It notes that a visual barrier can conceal occupants from an attacker and can also hide an attacker from first responders outside the building.

Where a state takes no position, the question falls to the lockdown procedure itself. The Standard Response Protocol handout the New York State Education Department distributes describes a lockdown as “Locks, Lights, Out of Sight” and does not mention window coverings, so whether a covering becomes part of the procedure is a local decision. Our review of how several states handle the question appears in Should Classrooms Cover Windows During a Lockdown, a state-by-state overview in School Safety Requirements by State, and Are Classroom Door Locks Required by Law, which covers the related question of door locks.

The project owner settles the question by putting the same written question to three offices and keeping the answers with the project plan. Those offices are the state education agency or state school safety center, the district’s legal counsel, and the local fire code official. The question is whether a removable covering over classroom door windows is required, permitted, or restricted, and under what conditions.

Choosing a Covering

Several approaches exist, and a district may use more than one. Pull-down shades mounted above the glass and speed blinds are two of them, and New York’s guide recommends speed blinds for classrooms with a Class A rating, NFPA 701 compliance, and no cords. The same guide mentions glazing technology that switches from transparent to opaque and can tie into a lockdown system, changing the glass itself rather than adding a covering.

Whichever approach a district considers, the vendor will be the source of the documents the fire code official will request later. A district can request the following from each vendor on its list.

• The NFPA 701 test report and Class A documentation where the state requires it.
  
• The specification sheet and installation instructions.
  
• The mounting method, including whether it requires drilling or fasteners or attaches with adhesive.
  
• The standard sizes, the process for custom sizes, and how the vendor handles openings with limited clearance.
  
• A sample for the pilot installation described below.
  
• The cooperative purchasing contracts that cover the product.

School Safety Solution offers a free sample of the Hideaway Helper Lockdown Shade.

The Fire Code Official’s Role

Classroom doors fall under life-safety rules governing egress and fire-rated assemblies, and the local fire code official, known as the authority having jurisdiction, decides how those rules apply to each building. The National Association of State Fire Marshals’ classroom door security guidance, last updated in September 2018, says a classroom door should be lockable from inside the room without opening the door, should open from inside without a key, tool, special knowledge, or effort, and should be unlockable from outside by authorized persons. It also says fire-rated doors should not be modified in ways that invalidate their rating. Those statements are the source of the first two questions at the top of this guide, whether a covering leaves the latch, lever, and exit hardware operable and whether it attaches in a way the fire official accepts for a rated door.

When a classroom door carries a fire-rating label, its glass is rated glazing. NFPA 80, the standard for fire doors and other opening protectives, limits what may be attached to a rated door. According to commentary from a door hardware industry publication, the 2016 and 2019 editions barred signs on fire-protection-rated glazing, while the 2022 and 2025 editions prohibit signs on glazing in fire doors without distinguishing glazing types. The commentary says the door face limits signs in area, with a 5 percent limit applying to combustible signs and to vinyl up to 0.008 inch thick in the 2022 edition, and that most materials need adhesive to attach to.. Each edition governs only where the jurisdiction’s adopted code references it.

NFPA 80 regulates signs, and the commentary reviewed for this guide does not address lockdown window shades by name. That leaves a question only the local fire code official can answer. The question is whether a removable covering that hangs over door glass and attaches with an adhesive strip above the glass is acceptable on a rated door under the edition of NFPA 80 the jurisdiction has adopted. Local rules also apply to door surfaces. Gwinnett County, Georgia, publishes fire department guidance on classroom door decorations that prohibits signs on fire door glazing and prohibits curtains, coverings, or paint that cause a door to blend into the wall. A fire marshal’s checklist from Kansas adds that no field modifications should be made to a fire door assembly that void its label, and that auxiliary hardware should not interfere with the door’s operation, per the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s fire door booklet.

Flame resistance documentation is the third question at the top of this guide. New York’s guide requires fabric blinds to be Class A rated and to meet NFPA 701, and any vendor’s NFPA 701 claim rests on a test report that a fire official can review. As one example, the fabric in the Hideaway Helper is 100 percent PVC-backed polyester and is NFPA 701 certified.

A written request to the fire code official, with the specification sheet, installation instructions, and flame test documentation attached, asks for a determination that covers every door type in the district. If the official wants to see an installation first, the pilot installation described in the next section serves that purpose.

Inventorying Every Opening

The inventory covers every piece of glass that looks into an occupied room, which reaches well beyond classroom doors. Windows in classroom and office doors, sidelights beside doors, inset windows, and interior corridor windows all belong, along with libraries, cafeterias, gyms, and any other space where people shelter during a lockdown.

Documenting every opening gives the fire official, the quote, and the installation crew the same numbers. For each opening, the record includes the following.

• Building, room number, and opening type, which ties each shade to a location for installation, labeling, and later audits.Glass width and height in inches, which is the usual basis for sizing. Shades add overhang around the glass; for example, the Hideaway Helper adds about 4 inches to the length and 1 to 2 inches to each side.
• Number of panes and any divider, because multi-pane windows have their own measuring guidance.
• Clearance above the glass, because a shade that mounts above the window needs room for its mounting strip. The Hideaway Helper’s adhesive strip needs about 2 inches.
• Obstructions in line with or below the glass, such as crash bars, door handles, window ledges, and the floor, with photos to help confirm the fit.
• Door material, finish, and fire rating label, since adhesive mounting depends on a clean, sound surface and the label tells the fire official which doors are rated.
• A photo of the door and opening for the quote request, the fire official’s review, and the installation plan.

The Hideaway Helper, for example, comes in 12 standard sizes that fit glass from 5W x 20L inches up to 29W x 42L inches, with custom sizes available on request. Sorting the inventory by glass size shows how many openings fall into each standard size, which ones need a custom order, and which unusual openings take longer to size and order.

A pilot installation of one shade on each door type and glass configuration comes before ordering for every building. Wood, hollow metal, and aluminum doors, single-pane and multi-pane glass, and doors with obstructions near the glass each make a useful test. The pilot shows the fit and how the mounting holds on each surface.

A free sample and a school-wide quote based on glass dimensions and quantities are available from School Safety Solution through the Hideaway Helper lockdown shade page.

Budgeting and Board Approval

CISA’s companion to its K-12 School Security Guide for school business officials describes the business official as responsible for budgeting and allocating sufficient resources for security measures, and says the guide can help them provide risk-based justifications for security improvements, especially within limited budgets. It also points to costs beyond the initial purchase and installation, including long-term maintenance and staff training.

That framing makes the shades themselves only the first line of the estimate. Cost per shade depends on glass size, and the other lines include accessories for high or hard-to-reach windows, such as the Hideaway Helper’s extension strap, custom sizes for unusual openings, shipping, spares and replacements for damaged shades, the annual inspection described later in this guide, and staff time for measuring, installing, and training. The allowance for spares and replacements is a judgment call for each district. Current Hideaway Helper pricing is on the lockdown shade page, and a school-wide quote is built from the quantities by glass size in the inventory.

Funding sources vary by state and by year. The CISA K-12 School Security Guide notes that discretionary spending is rare in school budgets, making it difficult to allocate additional funds. State school safety grant programs are the most direct place to look, and the state education agency or state school safety center can say what is open. The CISA companion guide also names the SchoolSafety.gov Grants Finder, a repository of federal school safety grants that can be filtered by topic, grant type, and funding agency. Our school safety grant resources page, What to Know About School Safety Grants, and Safety Grants for Schools, A Guide for Superintendents cover the programs in more detail. Federal programs, including the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s STOP School Violence Program and Stronger Connections Grants, each define their own allowable uses, and the program’s current solicitation or the state education agency confirms whether physical security equipment qualifies.

Approval follows the district’s budget process, which the state shapes. According to testimony from the Education Commission of the States, local school boards adopt district budgets; the typical process includes public notice and public hearings before the board adopts or rejects the budget, and states typically do not require voter approval, with Vermont and some New York districts as exceptions. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction describes a public hearing where residents can comment on the proposed budget, followed by board adoption. Deadlines differ as well. California districts adopt budgets by July 1 and Illinois districts by September 30, so a project timeline starts from the district’s own budget calendar.

Parent organizations sometimes raise money for school equipment, and gift rules apply. The California State PTA’s guidance lists major equipment among the gifts that need approval from the PTA membership, the principal, and the school district. It says the school board should accept gifts at a public meeting and record them in its minutes, since the district assumes liability, maintenance, and upkeep, and it advises PTAs to check the district’s gift policy before buying materials or giving funds.

Procurement Routes

Purchasing rules come from state law and district policy, so the business office and legal counsel decide the route. Competitive bidding thresholds differ by state. Districts can also buy through cooperative purchasing contracts, which let a district rely on a competitive process that a cooperative has already run.

Texas offers a documented example. A Legislative Budget Board staff brief from August 2016 describes Texas Local Government Code Section 271.102, which lets a district join a cooperative purchasing program and automatically satisfies any requirement to seek competitive bidding. It also describes Texas Education Code Section 44.031, which authorizes interlocal agreements for aggregate purchases of $50,000 or more in place of competitive bidding. The same brief cautions that districts remain responsible for ensuring compliance with purchasing laws and that cooperatives typically rebid their contracts about every year. Statutes change, and other states have their own rules, so the current text for a given state is the one that counts.

Contracts differ by vendor, so confirm the contract number, scope, and term with the business office before the district issues a purchase order. The Hideaway Helper is available through the TIPS and BuyBoard cooperative purchasing programs.

School Safety Solution quotes are built from glass dimensions and quantities, are non-binding, and expire after 30 days. Board approval can take longer than that, so a district may need to request a refreshed quote.

Scheduling and Phasing the Installation

A district that cannot fund every building in one budget cycle installs in stages, and the district sets the order. CISA’s guide grounds security planning in a district’s historical data and says repeating the planning process annually can help districts maximize the benefits, which gives the district a basis for choosing which buildings come first and for revisiting that order at each annual review.

Installation labor is the other half of the schedule. Adhesive-mounted shades install quickly, and the Hideaway Helper takes about a minute each, so the labor estimate is the number of shades times the per-shade time, plus the time that does not scale with the count. That includes travel between buildings, ladders, cleaning the door surface, getting access to every room, and recordkeeping.

The district decides who does the installation, with district facilities staff and an outside installer as the two choices. The choice affects the budget line, schedule, and who is on site at each building, so the district settles it before issuing the purchase order.

The Hideaway Helper installs by cleaning the door surface with rubbing alcohol or a multipurpose cleaner, removing the adhesive backing, and pressing the strip firmly in place. For larger shades, you may need to install the adhesive strip alone and let it cure for 24 to 48 hours before attaching the shade, so larger shades go first.

A workable sequence follows the inventory. The building receives its shades, labels each box by room number, and stages them with the installation crew. After installation, each installer tests the pull and reset, and the inventory records the install date, the installer, and any problems found, with a photo of each completed installation. Summer break or other periods when students are out of the building leave classrooms empty during work.

Staff Training, Communication, and Written Procedures

A district writes the window covering into its lockdown procedure as part of the “out of sight” step. In New York, the covering must also appear in written board policy and in the Building Level Emergency Plan. The district shares the revised procedure with local first responders, as CISA advises for revised physical security plans.

Training covers where the covering is released, how to deploy it from a safe position, how to reset it afterward, and who reports one that is missing or damaged. Substitute teachers and new hires receive the same orientation as returning staff. With a rolled-up shade like the Hideaway Helper, staff also learn that the shade stays rolled up during the school day and comes down only for a lockdown. CISA’s guide describes refresher trainings to ensure staff and students know how to respond, and in Kentucky, each school holds a lockdown drill within the first 30 instructional days of the school year and again in January. Our lockdown drill procedures guide covers how schools run those drills.

With shades on classroom doors across the district, staff, students, and families see the project even if they never see a lockdown. CISA’s guide discusses communicating with the school community about the use and intended purpose of security measures; for this project, that communication covers what the shade is for and when it is used.

Annual Maintenance

NFPA 80 requires fire door assemblies to be inspected and tested at least annually and requires a written record for the authority having jurisdiction, as summarized in a University of Colorado Boulder fire door maintenance document based on the 2007 edition. The same annual walk-through can include a shade check. The reviewer confirms the covering is present, can be released, remains securely mounted, is intact, and has nothing blocking it. For the Hideaway Helper, that means checking the pull tab, adhesive, fabric, and hem bar. Staff update the inventory for any door replaced or refinished during the year.

A reserve of replacement shades in the most common sizes covers damage between reorders, and the shade inventory feeds the district’s annual security planning review alongside its other physical security measures.

A Sample Planning Timeline

The sequence below is a planning suggestion. Calendar lengths depend on the district’s approval cycle, board meeting schedule, and order lead time.

Skipped steps tend to show up later as problems. Ordering before the fire official responds risks buying a product that cannot go on rated doors. Measuring a shade’s finished size when the quote asks for glass dimensions produces wrong-size orders. Skipping the pilot hides adhesion and clearance problems until hundreds of shades are on site. Letting a quote expire during board review forces a repeat request. Bringing first responders in after installation means they learn about covered windows at the worst time, and scheduling training after installation leaves shades on doors staff have never deployed.

School Safety Solution has supplied Hideaway Helper lockdown shades to schools since 2013, with more than 400,000 sold. A free sample, a school-wide quote based on glass dimensions and quantities, and a custom on-site measuring service for unusual openings are available through the Hideaway Helper lockdown shade page, by email at info@schoolsafetysolution.com, or by phone at 1-888-733-0406.

Common Questions About Districtwide Lockdown Window Shade Installation

Who has to approve a districtwide lockdown shade purchase?

The local fire code official decides whether a covering is acceptable on rated doors, the business office and school board approve the spending, and legal counsel confirms that the purchasing rules allow the purchase. CISA’s K-12 School Security Guide also advises consulting local first responders during planning.

Do lockdown window shades need fire marshal approval?

The local fire code official decides whether a covering is acceptable on rated doors. NFPA 80 regulates signs on fire doors, and the commentary reviewed for this guide does not address lockdown window shades by name, so the official’s written determination settles the question for the district.

Do lockdown window shades have to meet NFPA 701?

New York’s Safe Schools by Design guide requires fabric blinds to be Class A rated and to meet NFPA 701. Kentucky’s statute requires material that can quickly cover the window and does not specify a flammability standard. The local fire code official makes the final call, and the vendor’s NFPA 701 test documentation is part of that review.

How long does it take to install a lockdown shade?

Adhesive-mounted shades install quickly, and a Hideaway Helper takes about a minute. For larger shades, you may need to install the adhesive strip alone, let it cure for 24 to 48 hours, and then attach the shade. Clean the door surface with rubbing alcohol or a multipurpose cleaner, then let it dry.

Should lockdown shades stay down during the school day?

Staff install the Hideaway Helper rolled up and secured, so the window stays clear until staff release the covering when a lockdown is called. After the drill or event, staff roll the shade back up and secure it again. The written procedure and staff training cover when to lower the shade and who resets it.

Can a district buy lockdown window shades without going out to bid?

That depends on state law and district policy. Cooperative purchasing contracts satisfy competitive bidding requirements in some states, as the Texas example above shows. The business office confirms the contract number, scope, and term, and legal counsel confirms that the state’s rules allow the purchase.

What funding can pay for lockdown shades?

Funding depends on the state and the year. State school safety grants are the most direct source, and allowable uses vary by federal program. The current federal program solicitation or the state education agency confirms whether physical security equipment qualifies.