Two hundred school districts and charter schools across North Carolina will benefit from more than $74.1 million in school safety grants announced today by the Department of Public Instruction’s Center for Safer Schools.
The funding will be used for safety equipment, school resource officers, training and services for students in crisis in elementary, middle and charter schools across the state. High schools were eligible for funding other than for school resource officers.
All the school districts and charter schools that applied for School Safety Grant funding for the 2022-23 school year received an award and were notified last week.
“The School Safety Grant enhances schools’ efforts to keep our students safe,” said Karen W. Fairley, executive director of the Center for Safer Schools. “We’re thankful that we had the funding available to distribute, and we know it will go to good use.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt said the funding is critical to ensuring that schools are safe for students and staff.
“School safety is a top priority for the Department of Public Instruction as it is for students, families, educators – all of us,” Truitt said. “It goes without saying that safety is an essential condition for effective teaching and learning. The Center for Safer Schools did a great job ensuring that each applicant received as much funding as possible to meet that critical need.”
A full list of districts and schools awarded grants can be found here.
Qualifying Low Wealth Counties were eligible for $44,000 per school resource officer, with a required local funding match of $11,000. Non-Low Wealth Counties were eligible for $36,666 for an SRO with a local match of $18,333.
Awards are subject to all administrative and financial requirements, including timely submission of all financial and programmatic reports; resolution of all interim audit findings; and adherence to allowable expenses. Upon successful completion of the mandatory reports, the SRO funding will be extended automatically to the 2023-24 school year.
Original source can be found here
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