Tacoma Public Schools is moving forward with the next phase of a comprehensive security transformation that will fundamentally change how students, staff, and visitors enter school buildings across Washington's third-largest city.

The district is seeking contractors for Phase 3 of a multi-year project installing secure entry vestibules, keycard access systems, intrusion detection, emergency intercoms, and surveillance cameras at schools across the 56-campus system. The work represents a shift from the open-access designs of older school buildings to controlled-entry environments where visitors are screened before reaching hallways and classrooms.

Tacoma joins hundreds of districts nationwide that have retrofitted schools built in earlier decades for openness and community access. The transformation accelerated after mass shootings at Sandy Hook in 2012, Parkland in 2018, and Uvalde in 2022 pushed physical security to the top of school board priorities, even in districts facing budget pressures. Tacoma cut $31 million from its budget in 2023 but continued advancing the security upgrades, funded through a $535 million capital levy voters approved in 2020.

The district serves roughly 28,000 students, nearly half from economically disadvantaged families, across a city that has seen periodic lockdowns and threats in recent years. The security work is being done in phases rather than all at once, allowing the district to spread costs and construction disruption across multiple school years.

Contractors selected for Phase 3 will help design the systems as well as build them, a delivery method that allows technical input during planning. The district has set goals for minority-owned, women-owned, small, and local businesses to participate in the work. Firms interested in bidding must submit qualifications by March 11.