A pilot program that deploys drones to stop mass shootings will launch in five Georgia schools this fall.
The Georgia legislature included $550,000 in the 2026 state budget to fund the emergency response system run by the company Campus Guardian Angel.
Four of the five schools selected for the program are Coffee County High School in Douglas, Gainesville High School in Gainesville, River Ridge High School in Woodstock, and Statesboro High School in Statesboro.
The Georgia Department of Education confirmed the schools’ selections on Wednesday, and the schools are evaluating the program to decide if they will participate in it. A fifth school, Forsyth Central High School in Cumming, was selected, but it will not be taking part.
Georgia will become the second state in the nation to launch a Campus Guardian Angel pilot program. Florida approved the funding for the program in 2025, and the drones are being installed at three schools now. The company said it’s excited to work with the schools in Georgia.
“Campus Guardian Angel is the first Active Shooter Suppression System that allows human-piloted drones to respond instantly and deliver less-lethal effects to degrade or incapacitate a shooter within seconds in order to buy critical time for law enforcement, enhance situational awareness, and save lives,” said the company’s co-founders Justin Marston and Bill King in a statement to WABE.
The drones will be placed on charging pads throughout each school that takes part in the program. If an active shooting takes place, the drones — flown remotely from the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas — will respond immediately, before local law enforcement arrives. They can fly at 30-50 mph inside a school and 100 mph outside.
Campus Guardian Angel says the drones can confirm the shooter’s identity, deploy non-lethal measures (e.g. pepper spray, sirens, strobe lights, kinetic energy hits) to disorient and incapacitate the shooter, and clear corners and rooms for law enforcement.
The drones can fly through windows, and there’s an embedded speakerphone on them to communicate with teachers and law enforcement during a shooting.
Pilot program runs through 2026-2027 school year
The drone systems will be installed this summer and will be ready to use before the school year starts in the fall, according to Campus Guardian Angel. Local law enforcement and school district law enforcement will also be trained on how to work alongside the systems during an active shooting.
The program will run through the end of the school year in June 2027, unless additional funding is added to the budget during the 2027 legislative session, according to a Georgia Department of Education spokesperson.
The funding was initially for four schools when it was proposed in this year’s legislative session, but was expanded to five schools in the final budget.
Republican state Rep. Matt Dubnik, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, pushed for the program’s funding.
“These devices are not meant to replace school resource officers or any police response that a threat may warrant, but to provide a more enhanced, coordinated and targeted response in the critical first moments of an active threat,” he told WABE in a statement. “While we hope schools do not have a need to deploy these devices, the devices will be in place in five Georgia schools to help protect and save lives, if needed.”
“We are honored to work with Chairman Matt Dubnik and legislative leadership to bring this solution to bear as Georgia affirms its strong commitment to keeping students safe,” Campus Guardian Angel’s Marston and King added.
Drone contract part of booming school shooting security industry
Another tool to prevent school shootings failed to be approved by the Georgia legislature during this year’s session, which ended in April. House Bill 1023 would have required all Georgia public schools to have weapon detection systems at “all main points of entry.” The House passed it, but it did not make it out of the Senate.
The business of protecting schools from school shootings is booming. The school shooting security industry is now worth as much as $4 billion and is expected to keep growing, according to NPR.
There have been three school shootings in Georgia in 2026 after nine were reported in 2025, according to gun violence prevention nonprofit Everytown For Gun Safety. The group labels Georgia among the 14 “national failures” in gun safety policies, ranking it 44th on the strength of its gun laws compared to its rate of gun violence.
A student at Apalachee High School in Winder is accused of killing two students and two teachers in a shooting there in 2024. Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, has pleaded not guilty to a total of 55 counts, including murder.
His father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for giving his son the gun. He will be sentenced this summer.
This story is available through a news partnership with WABE, Atlanta’s National Public Radio affiliate.
