A deadly shooting Monday at a private Christian school in Nashville has highlighted security concerns for schools nationwide, but particularly private schools.

Surveillance footage of the shooting Monday at the private Christian school in Nashville showed many familiar security measures, including the double set of locked glass doors the killer shot their way through before fatally shooting three children and three school employees.

“It’s just next to impossible to stop someone” coming through that door with a high-powered weapon, said George Grant, a leader with the Nashville Presbytery, which is connected with the school, to The Associated Press. Reports indicate the presbytery doesn’t have a formal security program for its churches and schools but that members have worked together to share best practices and improve safety.

In Alabama, public schools must have safety plans, but not every school has a school resource officer on site. And even if a school does have an SRO, they may not be armed or equipped to respond to an active shooter. Most schools rely on local law enforcement to quickly respond to campus threats.

There are no laws requiring private schools to develop and submit safety plans.

State regulations on health and safety in private schools only deal with building code requirements, certificates of immunization and criminal background checks for staff.

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According to the Alabama Independent Schools Association, private schools in the state do not receive any public funding for school safety purposes, but many have used their resources to develop plans, hire security personnel and conduct staff trainings.

“Most schools that that I visit and speak with that are in our association either independently have their own security or they contract with off duty police officers… and I think they just build it into their budget,” said Michael McLendon, executive director of AISA, which has about 80 private schools in their association.

In 2022, The Dekalb County Sheriff requested to use public funds for a school resource officer for the one private school in his county, but the Attorney General’s office ruled that law enforcement was not entitled to use public funds, including their discretionary funds, to contract with a private entity.

“Of course, the Sheriff’s Office could respond to a particularized threat to the school by providing extra patrols or police presence as circumstances warrant,” the ruling stipulated.

Jimmy Lambert, the executive director of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association, said he hopes to see those laws change.

“There is no school that should not have some type of protection for their children,” said Lambert. “I think that’s something that we maybe need to have some laws change to see what we can do that would mitigate the issues we’re dealing with.”

According to Lambert, county sheriffs still work to coordinate security personnel for private schools even if they can’t furnish the officers themselves.

Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, said some private schools have arranged to hire recently retired officers.

“I would imagine after this horrific situation in Nashville that there may be more attempts by private schools to try to not only bolster security but to get school resource officers.”

Still, amid widespread concerns about mass shootings, experts say private schools have invested similarly to public schools in violence prevention.

Private schools were among institutions that invested most heavily in security in the aftermath of the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Today, private schools have some of the highest-paid security specialists, including retired federal agents, said Michael Dorn, who has been involved in assessing security at thousands of schools as executive director of Safe Havens International, a nonprofit school safety center.

Security protocols for private schools are similar to those for public schools, but they are more tailored to each school’s location and circumstances, said Myra McGovern of the National Association of Independent Schools.

Security such as metal detectors may not be as visible at private schools, which also have considerations including boarding students and, in some cases, the children of heads of state to look after, she said.

“Attention to security is similar, but the way that it manifests is perhaps different,” McGovern said.

The quality of safety plans for private schools also varies widely, as it does for public schools, Dorn said.

“We see schools that are pretty behind and some that are exceptional,” he said.

McLendon says in Alabama, that gap is determined by money.

“Just like in in rural public schools, there are rural, non public schools that have small enrollments and limited funds,” said McLendon. “They’re in situations where they do the best they can they, they talk about having a watchful eye for anything strange on campus, they restrict visitors, lock doors, communicate with local law enforcement, but they may not be able to afford a resource officer or private security on their campus.”

The Alabama Independent Schools Association offers safety trainings to all its member schools, with one upcoming in May alongside the Tennessee Independent Schools Association, of which The Covenant School was a member.

Most U.S. school systems conduct active-shooter and lockdown trainings, and the Nashville school had in fact undergone active-shooter training in 2022, which prevented further loss of life during Monday’s shooting, city police spokesperson Brooke Reese said.

Private or not, shootings are more common at middle and high schools than at elementary schools like Covenant, which are less likely to have assigned security officers. Educators also are wary of unsettling young learners with more heavy-handed security measures.

“Over the last several years, most of our churches have undergone training and have really scrutinized their security arrangements,” said Grant, the immediate past moderator for the Nashville Presbytery, the arm of the Presbyterian Church of America that oversaw the Covenant School and its parent church. “It’s not an official sort of presbytery-wide initiative, but it has just sort of grown out of relationships.”

Grant said Franklin Classical School, a school under the spiritual oversight of his church, Parish Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, has lockdown procedures and security codes in place. The school always has a former police officer on site when school is in session. It is unknown whether The Covenant School had a security officer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.