HOUSTON, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, Wednesday urged the education department to ensure the safety of schoolchildren in Texas, following the Florida school shooting that killed 17 last week.

Abbott sent a letter to Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath, ordering immediate action to address school safety.

In the letter, he outlined a number of steps to be taken by state education leaders to help respond to and prevent tragedies such as the Florida high school killings.

The actions include cataloging and sharing all available information from the Texas School Safety Center on school safety programs and distributing the information to all schools.

The goal is to ensure that all schools have access to the best and the most up-to-date information about strategies to protect them and students from attacks.

Abbott also wants to ensure that all Texas public schools have completed their statutory school safety audits, all districts have a multi-hazard emergency operations plan, and schools have conducted safety and security audits on all facilities, both instructional and non-instructional.