Another round of safety grants through the Wisconsin Department of Justice was announced last week by Attorney General Brad Schimel, including a nearly $20,000 grant to the Fontana School District. The grant program is administered by DOJ’s office of school safety.
The Fontana district was awarded $19,654. Combined, 89 schools and school districts will receive $3,980,473, which will be spent on building safety improvements, as well as mental health training for faculty and staff. More grants will be awarded soon.
“The DOJ Office of School Safety is moving fast to award school safety grants,” Schimel said. “The nearly $4 million grants being awarded to large and small schools across the state, incentivizes school officials and law enforcement to make meaningful improvements to Wisconsin school safety through physical improvements and a focus on mental health training for school faculty.”
Grant dollars are divided into two categories: the Primary School Safety Grant and Advanced School Safety Grant. The Primary grants focus on baseline improvements to schools, including door locks and hardening school entryways. The Advanced grants are awarded to schools that have met minimum security thresholds.
In addition to making upgrades to school buildings, one of the grant prerequisites is providing all full-time teachers, aides, counselors, and administrators with a minimum of three hours combined training in Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma Informed Care-Trauma Sensitive Schools before the end of the 2018-2019 school year; or demonstrate that staff has already received such training. Highlights from the school safety grant applications include such improvements as:
- Training for all staff on Trauma Informed Care, Trauma Sensitive Schools, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Peaceful Warriors, Threat Assessment and Active Shooter Response training;
- Secure the entry areas, sidelites and interior classroom windows with shatter resistant film, updated doors and locks;
- Allow for the remodeling of entrances and vestibule/visitor holding;
- Install and/or upgrade public address system with fire and intruder alarms;
- Install mobile-based software to be installed to effectively alert building occupants and community members of a threat;
- Labeling exterior vinyl numbers on the exterior of all building so that first responders can identify a specific area.
Over the past three months, since Act 143 was signed into law, the Wisconsin DOJ has consulted with numerous stakeholders in the fields of education, security, law enforcement, and mental health. These specialists, listed at the end of this press release, worked with DOJ’s own security experts to develop how the School Safety Grant Initiative will create sustainable improvements in Wisconsin schools.
Grant applicants are required to partner with law enforcement agencies to ensure that proposed expenditures, visitor protocols, and school safety plans will be effective and provide students with the safest learning environment possible.
In addition to helping keep schools safe from violent attacks, the DOJ will be closely monitoring for behavior that could affect a school’s ability to pay market rates for products like door locks and shatter-resistant film for glass. The department will review and investigate any instances of inappropriate pricing behavior so the benefits of the program are not reduced.
For more information visit doj.state.wi.us/office-school-safety/office-school-safety.
