The Federal Deficit Commission is recommending elimination of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools, saving the federal government $1.8 billion dollars. Recommendation 16 on page 7 of the Commission’s preliminary report recommends: “16. Eliminate the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools. In the President’s budget, funding for the […]
Category Archive: School Safety Funding
Pipe Bombs & Shooting Threats: Violence or Incivil Behavior?
High-profile school security incidents this week included: A pipe bomb disabled at a Los Angeles school. A teen arrested for a mass schooting plot at a school. Texas schools on the Mexican border preparing for stray bullets from Mexican drug cartel wars. Is this violence? Or is it a manifestation of bullying, harassment, and “incivil” […]
Schools Are Under-Funded & Under-Prepared for Disasters, Feds Say
Schools and communities are neglecting children due to a lack of funding and lack of a national strategy to address the needs of children in disaster planning, according to a report by The National Commission on Children and Disasters, a commission created in 2007 by the President and Congress. “Children are 25 percent of our […]
School Security Budget Cuts: Education Dept Report Reveals Major Setbacks
Federal, state, and local school safety budget cuts are having a dramatic effect on school safety and security programs, according to a federal report by the U.S. Department of Education published in July, 2010. “The elimination of several significant funding sources (e.g., Title IV, Safe and Drug‐Free Schools) from both national and local budgets has also […]
What Constitutes Comprehensive School Safety Policies, Programs, and Funding?
The “bullying summit” held by the U.S. Department of Education this past week drew attention, praise, opposition, and spirited debate depending upon who you talked with about it. As legislators, bureaucrats, educators, media and others jump on the “bullying bandwagon,” what constitutes a more comprehensive and balanced school safety plan? I revisited my July 9, 2009, […]
Why a Proposed Federal School Safety Grant Does Not “Replace” the Eliminated Safe and Drug Free Schools Program
In a local Cleveland news interview last Thursday, I spoke about the elimination of the state grant component of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program. As the public attention on school budget cuts center around teacher layoffs, reductions in transportation, and elimination of sports programs, cuts to school safety funding are going on behind-the-scenes […]
Safe and Drug Free Schools Grant Elimination Hits Schools Hard
The state grant component of the decade-old federal Safe and Drug Free Schools Program has been eliminated from the latest federal budget, costing many schools as of July 1st their primary funds marked specifically for school safety. The program was a formula grant drug and violence prevention program which passed money through state education departments to local […]
Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS): MSD Wayne Township
Tight school budgets and decreasing school safety grants are making school emergency planning more challenging today. The Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Wayne Township in Indianapolis, Indiana, has a solid record of being a leader of Indiana school corporations in school emergency/crisis planning. Under the leadership of Dr. Terry Thompson, Superintendent, and a proactive school board, […]
Is Your School Safety Information Tainted by Product Vendors?
As education budgets tighten and the overall economy remains uncertain, the draw to the almighty dollar increases. Now, more than ever, “buyer beware” needs to be the mantra of consumers of school safety information, services, and products. The line between professional, best practice school safety information and product vendor-influenced information appears to be getting more and […]
How to Make Schools Safer During Tight Budget Times
Tight budgets are no excuse for failing to be proactive with school safety. Parents will forgive educators if their school’s test scores go down. Parents will be much less forgiving if their children are hurt in an incident which could have been prevented or better managed. Attorneys and the media will be equally unforgiving. So […]