NIGHTLOCK, a maker of temporary classroom door locks, says Florida's Department of Education overstepped its authority in regulating a 2025 law that authorized secondary locks in schools, WFSU reported [1]. The 2025 law authorizes classrooms to have secondary locks for active-assailant events, and the company's challenge is headed to a virtual administrative hearing scheduled for August 21 [1].
The company's core argument is that the department cannot undo the law, so it is layering rules on top of it instead. Co-owner Jack Taylor said the department "couldn't reverse the state statute" and is instead trying to "maybe overregulate" [1]. Taylor described a specific point of friction: he said officials "want the schools to hand out the master keys to hundreds of first responders, and no school in their right mind is going to hand out all their master keys" [1].
Taylor defended the devices as simple and cheap. "They're a simple device, very economical," he told WFSU. "It goes down at the bottom of the door, and if there's an armed intruder alert, the teachers or the students can lock down" [1]. He compared them to safety equipment kept for emergencies: "These temporary door locks are like fire extinguishers; you never use them. You only use them if you have to" [1].
The dispute is already costing public money. The Department of Education's contract with the law firm GrayRobinson is capped at $150,000, with top attorneys billing at $450 per hour, and more than $17,000 had been paid to date, WFSU reported [1]. That spending is being directed at a challenge over a device the company describes as economical.
The scope is not small. More than 250 Florida schools use NIGHTLOCK, mostly private ones, according to co-owner Jack Taylor [1]. The August 21 hearing will test whether the department's regulations exceed what the 2025 statute authorized, a question with direct consequences for how those schools are allowed to secure classroom doors.
