The paperwork gets checked before the building does.
Security assessments and federal grant applications for churches and private schools. Registration and compliance files for trade contractors. All of it in Dallas and Fort Worth, all of it written so it holds up when someone asks for it.
Who it's for
Three kinds of organizations with the same problem: a rule, a deadline, or a grant that nobody on staff has time to own.
Churches
A written vulnerability assessment of the campus, the federal Nonprofit Security Grant application built on it, and a facility capital plan for the budget committee and the insurer.
Private schools
Private 501(c)(3) schools qualify for the same federal security grant public schools cannot touch. The assessment covers entries, pickup lines, sightlines, lighting, and lockdown capability, and doubles as the security documentation your insurer asks for at renewal.
Trade contractors
Texas residential solar retailers have been required to register with TDLR since September 1, 2026, and the disclosure and brochure rules are now enforced. Registration, the rep roster, the disclosure workflow, and the recordkeeping file TDLR asks for when a complaint lands.
ISNetworld and Avetta safety programs for subcontractors: December.
How the walk works
The assessment is the slow part of any grant application, so it starts with a walk, not a contract.
Walk the campus
About an hour with you or your facilities lead. Entries, parking, sightlines, lighting, cameras, lockdown capability. Photographs and notes, nothing sold.
Read the summary
Within a week you get a written summary of what the walk found, in plain language, with the items that would go into a grant application marked. It is yours whether or not we go further.
Decide
If the summary is useful, the full assessment and the application follow at the flat fee above. If it is not, you have lost an hour.
The federal security grant, in numbers
The Nonprofit Security Grant Program pays for cameras, access control, secured entries, lighting, training, and planning at houses of worship and private schools. These are the FY2026 figures from FEMA and the Texas Office of the Governor.
Texas opened its FY2026 window on January 12 and closed it March 12. The FY2027 window is expected on the same calendar. Every application needs a written vulnerability assessment of each site completed first, and FEMA calls that assessment the foundation of the application. Public and municipal schools are not eligible; private 501(c)(3) schools and churches are.
Sources: Texas eGrants FY2026 NSGP workshop deck and pre-application guide; FEMA FY2026 NSGP notice. FY2027 figures publish with the FY2027 notice.
About Vince Sandlin
I hold a bachelor's degree in criminal justice with a minor in business, and for 21 years I have worked inside Dallas and Fort Worth churches, private schools, and institutional buildings on the facilities side, most of it as a flooring contractor. That means I have walked more of these campuses, during school hours and after, than most assessors ever will.
I started Lay the Line because I kept seeing the same unlocked side doors and neglected camera systems at campuses I was already standing in, and I knew there was federal money sitting unused for exactly that. I attend services twice a week and I have a daughter in a DFW private Christian school, so this is not abstract to me.
I do not bid or perform the work an assessment identifies. The numbers stay objective because I have nothing to sell on the other side of them.
- B.A., Criminal Justice, minor in Business, University of Texas at Dallas
- 21 years in DFW church, K-12, and institutional facilities
- OSHA 30
- Assessments follow CISA's facility security self-assessment framework, the format FEMA and the Texas Public Safety Office prefer
- Applications written to FEMA's Investment Justification scoring rubric
- Lay the Line is a d/b/a of In Perpetuity Holdings, LLC, Plano, Texas
Book a campus walk
Call or email with the campus address and a morning that works. Most walks happen within a week.