Department of Justice Awards $85.3 Million to Bolster School Security

October 25, 2019

The Department of Justice announced it has awarded more than $85.3 million to bolster school security — including funding to educate and train students and faculty — and support first responders who arrive on the scene of a school shooting or other violent incident.

“These federal resources will help to prevent school violence and give our students the support they need to learn, grow, and thrive,’ said Attorney General William P. Barr. “By training faculty, students and first responders, and by improving school security measures, we can make schools and their communities safer.”

The 2018 STOP School Violence Act authorized the Department of Justice to create a series of grant award programs under a School Violence Prevention Program. This year, the Department made 215 awards to schools, districts and other jurisdictions throughout the United States.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance, within the Department’s Office of Justice Programs, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services manage the programs and administer the grants, which include funds to:

Develop school threat assessment teams and pursue technological solutions to improve reporting of suspicious activity in and around schools;
Implement or improve school safety measures, including coordination with law enforcement, as well as the use of metal detectors, locks, lighting, video management systems (VMS) and other deterrent measures;
Train law enforcement to help deter student violence against others and themselves;
Improve notification to first responders through implementation of technology that expedites emergency notifications;
Develop and operate anonymous reporting systems to encourage safe reporting of potential school threats;
Train school officials to intervene when mentally ill individuals threaten school safety; and
Provide training and technical assistance to schools and other awardees in helping implement these programs.

More details about these individual award programs, as well as listings of individual 2019 awardees, can be found here.

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Security leaders need to accept and act on this reality and take measured and thoughtful steps to mitigate the risk and train staff about the growing likelihood of such violent incidents in their facilities and workplaces.