Governor Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that Ohio is providing over $42 million in new grants to support physical safety and security upgrades at hundreds of local schools across the state.
According to DeWine, “Our educators care deeply about the safety of Ohio students, as evidenced by the thousands of schools that came forward with solid security improvement plans that they intend to carry out with this funding.”
Altogether a total of 624 schools will receive a total of $42 million in funding from Ohio’s K-12 School Safety Grant Program.
DeWine partnered with the Ohio General Assembly to launch the K-12 School Safety Grant Program in 2021. They created the program to help schools pay for physical security expenses such as new security cameras, public address systems, automatic door locks, visitor badging systems, and exterior lighting.
The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission administers the program in partnership with the Ohio School Safety Center. Ohio’s operating budget funds the program with allocations from the American Rescue Plan Act.
According to DeWine, nothing is more important than the safety of Ohio children.
“There is nothing more important than the safety of our kids, and with today’s announcement, every qualifying school that applied for a grant has now received at least one award, including schools in all 88 counties,” DeWine said.
The fifth cycle of Ohio’s K-12 School Safety Grant Program will provide funds to 624 schools in total. With the addition of this current financing round, this initiative now covers 2,789 schools, and the program has awarded more than $215 million in funding overall.
DeWine established the Ohio School Safety Center to help local schools, colleges, universities, and law enforcement agencies prevent, prepare for, and respond to threats and acts of violence, including self-harm. The governor has been the driving force behind a number of initiatives to support school safety since taking office in 2019.
In order to give students wraparound services, DeWine also established the Student Wellness and Success Fund, a $1.2 billion investment that is now included in the formula for allocating funding to schools. Programming and supports known as “wraparound services” intend to develop skills and meet a student’s or family’s needs. Through this support, 1,300 mental health initiatives have been started, and 6,500 teachers and other school personnel have received training.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Mike DeWine” by Governor Mike DeWine. Background Photo “Classroom” by Wokandapix.
