Status: Stalled — No Active Bill Confirmed in the 2025-2026 Biennial Session. The prior-session proposal (SB 523, 2023-2024), which would have funded school gun detection software grants of up to $325,000 per district ($4 million total), failed at session end, and no enacted successor bill has been confirmed as of June 2026.

Bill Number: Wisconsin school gun detection software grant proposal (2025-2026 session). Sponsors and committee assignments are subject to revision within the session; consult the Wisconsin Legislature for the active bill number.

Jurisdiction: Wisconsin

Category: K-12 School Safety, AI Weapons Detection Funding, Grant Program

Industries: K-12 Education, Private Schools, State and Local Government

Enacted Date: N/A — Pending

Effective Date: TBD — Set by the bill if enacted

Summary: Wisconsin's school gun detection legislation would establish a state-administered grant program allowing public and private school districts to receive funding to install AI-based gun detection software that runs on existing school cameras. The proposal would allocate roughly $4 million in the current budget cycle and authorize grants of up to $325,000 per district, administered through the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Districts would apply jointly with their local law enforcement agency — a structural design that reflects the integration model AI weapons detection vendors increasingly recommend, in which detection alerts route through both school administration and law enforcement to compress response time. The bill is one of the most directly AI-affirmative state proposals in the 2025-2026 cycle: rather than restricting AI firearm detection (Florida CS/HB 491 path) or mandating unspecified weapons detection technology (Georgia HB 1023, Rhode Island H7898), Wisconsin's approach explicitly funds software-based AI detection running on existing camera infrastructure.

Key Provisions:

Grant Cap: Up to $325,000 per district for AI gun detection software deployments.
Total Appropriation: Approximately $4 million for the current budget cycle.
Joint Application Requirement: School districts must apply jointly with the local law enforcement agency designated to receive detection alerts.
Administering Agency: Wisconsin Department of Justice.
Eligibility: Public and private schools both eligible to apply.
Technology Pattern: Bill text contemplates AI software running on existing school cameras to identify unholstered or visible firearms.

Affected Entities: Wisconsin public school districts, private schools, and the law enforcement agencies they partner with. The Wisconsin Department of Justice would carry the administrative load for grant review and disbursement.

Funding Outlook: The bill itself is the funding mechanism. Districts would receive direct state appropriations rather than relying on local capital budgets or federal grants, which materially lowers the procurement hurdle for software-based AI detection compared with hardware-based pass-through scanner approaches that require capital outlays per entrance.

IntelliSee Relevance: Very High. Wisconsin's grant structure is unusually well-aligned with the IntelliSee deployment pattern: state funding earmarked specifically for AI software running on existing cameras, paired with mandatory law-enforcement coordination. IntelliSee's AI weapon detection deploys exactly this way — AI software layered on a district's existing IP camera infrastructure, with alert routing configurable to school administrators and partner law enforcement simultaneously. Wisconsin districts modeling grant applications should evaluate the funding cap against expected camera coverage, the joint law-enforcement application requirement, and the operational benefits of detection that doesn't require pass-through hardware or dedicated staffing at every covered entrance. IntelliSee's privacy-preserving architecture — no facial recognition — is also directly responsive to the privacy concerns raised by Wisconsin critics during the prior session's debate.

Wisconsin School Gun Detection Software Grant Program (2025-2026 Session)

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