Status: Enacted and active. Kansas’s FY2025-2026 budget bill, signed by Governor Laura Kelly in April 2025, authorizes $10 million in state funding for AI firearm detection technology in Kansas public schools. As of late 2025 and into 2026, the state Attorney General’s office is overseeing vendor selection. Three bidders were under consideration as of November 2025, with ZeroEyes ultimately selected.
Bill Number: 2025 Kansas Appropriations — FY2025-2026 budget bill (school firearm detection line item)
Jurisdiction: Kansas
Category: K-12 School Safety Funding, AI Firearm Detection
Industries: K-12 Education, State and Local Government
Enacted Date: April 2025 (signed by Governor Kelly)
Effective Date: FY2025-2026 budget cycle
Summary: Kansas’s 2025 budget bill appropriated $10 million for a statewide AI firearm detection program in Kansas public schools. The program is intended to allow Kansas school districts to deploy AI detection software on existing security camera infrastructure to identify visibly brandished firearms in real time and route alerts to law enforcement and district administrators. Funding is dispersed equally across Kansas’s four congressional districts on a first-come, first-served basis. The Kansas Attorney General’s office has functionally led implementation, including a competitive procurement process that ran from mid-2025 into late 2025. Kansas joins Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri, and Florida as one of the first states with dedicated state funding for AI weapons detection in schools, and the $10 million Kansas allocation is among the largest in the country to date.
Key Provisions:
- $10 Million Appropriation: A dedicated state appropriation for AI firearm detection technology in Kansas public schools, layered on top of existing federal SVPP and NSGP funding streams.
- Congressional-District Allocation: Funds are split equally across Kansas’s four congressional districts to ensure geographic distribution and prevent concentration in a single region.
- First-Come, First-Served Awards: Within each congressional district’s allocation, districts apply for awards on a first-come, first-served basis, accelerating procurement timelines.
- Statewide Vendor Selection: The Kansas Attorney General’s office led the statewide RFP/procurement process for an enterprise vendor agreement. Three bidders advanced into final consideration.
- Existing Camera Integration: The program is structured around AI detection software that integrates with school districts’ existing IP camera infrastructure rather than mandating hardware-based pass-through scanners.
Affected Entities: All 286 Kansas public school districts plus accredited Kansas private schools where eligible. The single-vendor statewide procurement model is a notable design choice: it accelerates onboarding but constrains district-level vendor selection compared to Iowa and Tennessee’s grant models.
Funding Outlook: The $10 million appropriation funds initial statewide rollout. Future legislative cycles will determine whether Kansas extends the program, adds funding for additional buildings, or shifts the procurement model. Federal SVPP, NSGP, COPS, and Title IV-A program funds remain available as supplementary sources for Kansas districts that exhaust state allocations or that want to extend coverage beyond the state-funded baseline.
IntelliSee Relevance: High. Kansas’s program is purpose-built for AI gun detection software that runs on existing cameras — the precise pattern IntelliSee’s AI weapon detection was designed to serve. While the FY2025-2026 statewide vendor is ZeroEyes, the broader Kansas funding posture and the underlying procurement framework are likely to expand. Districts evaluating long-term AI security strategy in Kansas should weigh SAFETY Act designation status, detection performance and false-positive envelopes, total cost of ownership across heterogeneous camera infrastructure, and whether the platform offers detection capabilities beyond firearm identification (falls, aggressive behavior, mass-incident coordination). IntelliSee’s no-facial-recognition architecture is also responsive to parent and community concerns that have shaped procurement in surrounding states.
Related Legislation & Resources
- Iowa School Firearm Detection Software Grant Program (HF 2586, 2024)
- Tennessee AI Weapons Detection in Schools Grant Pilot (SB 814 / HB 933)
- Florida Use of Artificial Intelligence to Detect Concealed Firearms (CS/HB 491)
- Georgia HB 1023 - Mandatory Weapons Detection in Public Schools
- South Carolina Weapons Detector Systems in Schools Act (HB 3236)
- Rhode Island School Weapons Detection Mandate (H7898, 2026)
- K-12 AI Gun Detection: The 2026 Sector Playbook
- The DHS SAFETY Act in AI Security: Designation, Certification, and What It Actually Means
- IntelliSee AI Gun Detection