DOJ Announces More Than $70 Million to Support School Safety

(WBAP/KLIF) – The Department of Justice announced more than $70 million in grant funding Wednesday to bolster school security, educate and train students and faculty, and support law enforcement officers and first responders who arrive on the scene of a school violence incident.

More than a million dollars in grants were given to awardees operating in the Northern District of Texas.

Grants to entities in NDTX include:

· $500,000 to Tarrant County (STOP Prevention grant)

· $499,997 to the City of Arlington (COPS grant)

· $249,992 to Amarillo ISD (STOP Prevention grant)

· $80,000 to O’Donnell ISD (STOP Prevention grant)

· $15,885 to the City of Benbrook (COPS grant)

· $1 million to the statewide Texas Education Agency (STOP Threat Assessment grant)

“President Trump and his administration will ensure the safety of every American school,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. “Earlier this year he signed into law the STOP School Violence Act, which provides grant funding to develop anonymous school threat reporting systems, to implement school building security measures, and to train students, school personnel, and law enforcement on how to prevent school violence. Today I am announcing $70 million in these grants to hundreds of cities and states across America. These grants will go a long way toward giving young people and their families both safety and peace of mind.”

The awards, granted through three funding streams, will provide new technology for reporting systems and other threat deterrent measures and create school safety training and education programs for school administrators, staff, students, and first responders. This includes the support for existing crisis intervention teams and the creation of new ones.

· BJA’s STOP School Violence Threat Assessment and Technology Reporting Program will provide 68 awards valued at more than $19 million. This funding supports training to create and operate threat assessment and crisis intervention teams and to develop technology for local or regional anonymous reporting systems. This technology may be in the form of a mobile phone application, hotline, or website.

· The STOP School Violence Prevention and Mental Health Training Program, also managed by BJA, will provide training and education on preventing violence and effectively responding to related mental health crises. This program will fund 85 awards at nearly $28 million.

· The COPS Office School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) will provide nearly $25 million to 91 jurisdictions for school safety measures including coordination with law enforcement, training for law enforcement to prevent student violence against others and self, target hardening measures, and technology for expedited notification of law enforcement during an emergency.

The Department is also investing over $1 million in research to better understand the factors behind mass shooting incidents.