Everyone agrees that school safety is a top priority. Finding funding to help support your safety and accountability goals can be challenging. Here are a few tidbits of information to simplify your search.
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
In June of 2022 $1 billion dollars was made available to help make school safer through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Competitive grants have been established through Title 4, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Department of Education has created a webinar series to help schools learn about these grants and resources. Learn more here: Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Greenlights Grant Initiative
Finding the right grant, and putting resources toward writing grants can be a daunting task for schools. The Greenlights Grant Initiative was developed to help schools navigate this complicated and time-consuming process. Through a series of webinars to a resources page with links to all the active grants, Greenlights is providing schools with free resources. Your school may even qualify to use one of their expert grant writers at no cost to your district. Find out more about the Greenlights Grant Initiative here: Greenlights Grant Initiative
ESSER III Extension
In May, the Department of Education announced that states and districts can apply for a 14-month extension to spend ESSER III funds which could carry the availability of those funds into the Spring of 2026. KIDaccount provides multi-year software licensing contracts to support schools that are worried about the possibility of adding new services but then lacking the necessary funding to sustain them. The “Dear Grantee” letter from the US Department of Education outlines the details of the extension. More information and relevant links can be found in this article from K-12 Dive: Education Dept issues details for ARP spending extension requests | K-12 Dive (k12dive.com).