The Indiana Board of School Safety this week approved over $26.9 million for School Safety Initiatives
File photo.
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana School Safety Board has unanimously approved the distribution of more than $26.9 million to support school safety initiatives.
The funding will support 499 projects across the state.
To date, nearly $242 million in state funding has been dedicated to the matching grant program, awarding more than 5,000 Indiana schools since it was created in 2013.
“I want Indiana to set the standard for keeping kids safe at school, and this funding, which includes nearly $20 million for school resource officers, will go directly toward achieving that goal,” said Gov. Mike Braun. “Combined with the work of the Office of School Safety I established last year, we’re giving schools the people, training and tools they need to create safe, welcoming environments where parents have peace of mind and kids can focus on learning, growing and being kids.”
Last year, 502 schools split an allocation of $27 million, of which $19 million was allocated to funding school resource officers.
This year, the total amount of eligible funding requests exceeded the amount of funding for the program. Awarded schools were funded at 86 percent for their top priority items. Applicants were asked to rank the priority of items to help the Board better understand the greatest need for school districts.
| Category | Number of Projects | Dollars Allocated |
|---|---|---|
| SRO/LEO | 332 | $19,951,039.07 |
| Equipment/Tech/Hardware | 118 | $5,206,312,81 |
| Student/Parent Support Services | 32 | $1,211,608.10 |
| Firearms Training for Staff | 5 | $21,597.57 |
| Design and Construction | 11 | $541,513.31 |
| Site Vulnerability Assessment | 0 | $0 |
| AEWS (no match) | 0 | $0 |
| Bullying Prevention | 1 | $2,150.00 |
| Training Expenditures | 0 | $0 |
| Post-Incident Counseling Services | 0 | $0 |
| Total | 499 | $26,934,220.86 |
Local Schools / School Corporations receiving funding are:
- Batesville Community Schools, $86,000
- Franklin County Community Schools, $86,000
- Jac-Cen-Del Community Schools, $43,000
- Lawrenceburg Community Schools, $86,000
- Milan Community Schools, $28,380
- Rising Sun-Ohio County Schools, $36,120
- St. Lawrence School (Lawrenceburg), $30,100
- St. Louis School, $39,560
- St. Michael School (Brookville), $47,547.68
- South Dearborn Community Schools, $62,350
- South Ripley Community Schools, $41,495.86
- Southeastern Career Center, $43,000
- Sunman-Dearborn Community Schools, $79,550
- Switzerland County Community Schools, $86,000
A complete breakdown of recipient schools and the total award amounts can be found here. For security reasons, the use of those funds by individual schools is not publicly available.
