School safety was at the top of every politician's agenda in spring after multiple shootings at multiple campuses killed 29 students and teachers and injured dozens more.

Alabama lawmakers, in session during two of the worst tragedies, took no action other than to allow money earmarked for technology to be spent for school security.

When AL.com readers were recently asked which election issues are important, school safety was near the bottom of the pack.

Though school safety has faded from the news cycle, both candidates have crafted plans to keep students safe.

With the election barely a month away, AL.com asked Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and Democratic challenger Walt Maddox about their plans for school safety.

As Alabama's current Governor, Ivey has a head start, obviously, having created a task force after the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a former student shot and killed 17 students and staff.

That task force, called the SAFE Council, was comprised of five agency heads who issued ten recommendations to improve school safety in May. Six of those recommendations have already been implemented, Ivey said in a statement to AL.com.

Maddox, Ivey: The big difference

The two candidates have similar ideas when it comes to school safety, except when it comes to guns: who should be allowed to have them in school and whether gun safety laws should be a part of the overall school safety plan.

Maddox has been clear about how he feels about Ivey's Sentry program, announced a few days prior to a four-person Republican primary election. The Sentry program allows school districts with no law enforcement presence on campus to arm an administrator with a gun kept in a safe until needed if an active shooter event occurs.

The Sentry program, Maddox told AL.com, "is asinine and political rhetoric at its best."

Ivey has repeatedly defended the Sentry program, calling it a "stop-gap" measure until a certified school resource officer can be in place at every school in Alabama. "Every school has to make their own decision about how they want to keep schools safe," Ivey told AL.com.

Ivey said a few school systems are looking into the Sentry program, but it is unclear whether any schools have begun training because Ivey ordered all plans surrounding the program be kept completely secret. No one other than the school board, the principal, and the administrator who has been trained will know the program is place.

Maddox said no one should have a gun on a school campus unless they are a trained law enforcement officer. "As a state, we owe it to our children to protect them," he said. "As a parent, I would not want my child in a building with somebody without law enforcement experience in charge of a weapon."

Gun control?

The other point on which the candidates diverge is whether control should be a part of a school safety plan.

Maddox said he supports "reasonable gun safety measures" as part of the overall plan, acknowledging no action by itself can keep all students safe.

"Most people across all demographics and both parties believe reasonable gun safety measures should be put in place," Maddox said.

One measure Maddox proposes is to keep guns out of the hands of people who are under a doctor's care and deemed a threat to themselves or others.

"Closing the gun show loophole is also important," Maddox said. The term gun show loophole typically refers to the ability of people to buy a gun from a private seller (who is not required to have a license to sell firearms) without a background check.

According to Giffords Law Center, Alabama is one of 37 states that does not require a background check when any type of gun is sold by a private seller.

Ivey spokesperson Daniel Sparkman said gun control shouldn't "seep into" the school safety conversation. "We think that the plan that we have covers all of the different facets [of school safety]," he said.

School resource officers

Both candidates agree that having a certified SRO on campus is the best way to keep students safe, but with more than 1,400 schools, cost is a limiting factor. Many school districts have cost-sharing agreements with local law enforcement to pay for the cost of the SRO. Neither candidate wants to disrupt those existing agreements.

Maddox said he wants to fund the cost of SROs with proceeds from a lottery.

If the lottery doesn't become a reality, Maddox said he would reprioritize other funding to ensure no schools go without an SRO. "I don't think this is an either/or proposition," he said. "Our children's safety is first and foremost, and we will have to make it work."

Ivey already has plans to ask the legislature for $20 million from the Education Trust Fund to distribute to school systems based on the number of students that are enrolled. Currently, that comes to $20 per student.

Sparkman said the $20 million in school safety funding will come with a hierarchy of priorities. Funding should first be spent on SROs, then for building upgrades, mental health collaborations, and surveillance and equipment.

Maddox said his plan calls for SROs to be highly-trained and ready in the event the worst should happen.

According to a survey conducted by the Alabama State Department of Education in June, one in four schools statewide had no law enforcement presence on the school's campus. School districts have continued to add SROs over the summer, with cost-sharing agreements, and Sparkman said the survey will be updated in the near future.

Hardening schools

Both candidates acknowledge hardening schools must be part of the school safety plan.

Many schools have become "soft targets," Maddox said because we have wanted our schools to be open and welcoming places.

Maddox said hardening schools means improving entry and exit points at a school, using technology like magnetic doors, and utilizing "other structures that keep the building safe and provide opportunities to confine a threat."

Ivey has already asked district officials to consider what it would take to make school campuses safer, but the funding to harden schools has to come from the legislature, she said.

Identifying threats, coordinating responses

Again, both candidates recognize the need to identify threats to schools well ahead of time.

In a statement provided to AL.com, Ivey said, "As part of my Smart on Safety Initiative, schools will work to identify at-risk students before they act violently and first responders are coordinating with local schools and providing regular training for educators."

Both candidates said threats can be identified through better coordination and information-sharing among state and local agencies, including mental health, law enforcement and schools.

That process, known as "threat assessment," is already in place in Tuscaloosa City schools and has been used effectively, according to Superintendent Mike Daria. Maddox said Tuscaloosa law enforcement and authorities already work well together under his direction.

Sparkman said all of the regional safety teams set up under Ivey's initiative have been trained in the Colorado Threat Assessment protocols and those teams will take that training to each of the state's 137 school districts (138 counting Gulf Shores) in the coming weeks and months.

Summing up

Both candidates agree that preparedness---training and information-sharing---are critical components of a school safety plan. And both agree that placing SROs on each of Alabama's public school campuses is a necessity.

Ivey and Maddox do not agree on who should be allowed to carry a gun on a school's campus or whether gun control measures should be part of the overall plan.

Though attention to school safety has waned since the tragedies of last spring, sadly, if history is any indication, another tragedy will occur, and whatever plans are in place will be the last line of defense for students and teachers.

This story is one in a series of in-depth reports exploring key issues on Alabama voters' minds as they approach the Nov. 6 general election. The topics were determined using polling from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama and informal polls of AL.com readers. For more coverage of issues facing the next governor, go to https://www.al.com/election.