Grant Details

The goal of the School Safety and Security Grant Program solicitation is to make school entities within the Commonwealth safer places. To support that goal, priority consideration under this competitive funding announcement will be to support applicants seeking to meet ‘Level 1' of Baseline Criteria which are standards that assist school entities in guiding their decisions about their physical security and behavioral health needs. More information about Baseline Criteria can be found at https://www.pccd.pa.gov/schoolsafety/Pages/Revised%20Baseline%20Criteria%20Standards.aspx.

Funding is available for school entities to implement any of the following program activities:

• Physical Security:
  • Safety and security assessments that meet the committee's criteria.
  • Conflict resolution or dispute management, including restorative justice strategies.
  • School-wide positive behavior support that includes primary or universal, secondary and tertiary supports and interventions in school entities.
  • School-based diversion programs.
  • Peer helper programs.
  • Classroom management.
  • Student codes of conduct.
  • Training to undertake a districtwide assessment of risk factors that increase the likelihood of problem behaviors among students.
  • Thorough, district-wide school safety, violence prevention, emergency preparedness and all-hazards plans, including revisions or updates to such plans and conducting emergency preparedness drills and related activities with local emergency responders.
  • Security planning and purchase of security-related technology, which may include metal detectors, protective lighting, specialty trained canines, surveillance equipment, special emergency communications equipment, automated external defibrillators, electronic locksets, deadbolts, trauma kits and theft control devices and training in the use of security-related technology. NOTE: Security planning and purchase of security-related technology shall be based on safety needs identified by the school entity's board of school directors.
  • Institution of student, staff and visitor identification systems, including criminal background check software.
  • Provision of specialized staff and student training programs, including training for Student Assistance Program team members in the referral of students at risk of violent behavior to appropriate community-based services and behavioral health services and training related to prevention and early intervention.
  • A system for the management of student discipline, including misconduct and criminal offenses. 
  • Costs associated with the training and compensation of school resource officers and school police officers.
• Mental Health:
  • Risk assessment, safety-related, violence prevention curricula, including dating violence curricula, restorative justice strategies, mental health early intervention, self-care and suicide awareness and prevention curricula
  • Development and implementation of research-based violence prevention programs that address risk factors to reduce incidents of problem behaviors among students, including, but not limited to, bullying.
  • Counseling services for students.
  • Staff training programs in the use of positive behavior supports, de-escalation techniques and appropriate responses to student behavior that may require immediate intervention.
  • Costs associated with the training and compensation of certified guidance counselors, licensed professional counselors, licensed social workers, licensed clinical social workers and school psychologists.
  • Administration of evidence-based screenings for adverse childhood experiences that are proven to be determinants of physical, social and behavioral health and provide trauma-informed counseling services as necessary to students based upon the screening results.
  • Trauma-informed approaches to education, including:
    • Increasing student and school employee access to quality trauma support services and behavioral health care, including the following:
      • Hiring or contracting with certified school counselors, licensed professional counselors, licensed social workers, licensed clinical social workers, school psychologists, and other professional health personnel to provide services to students and school employees.
      • Developing collaborative efforts between the school entity and behavioral health professionals to identify students in need of trauma support and to provide prevention, screening, referral and treatment services to students potentially in need of services.
      • Partnering with community-based organizations for peer or family support.
      • Training on youth-focused mental health first aid for school employees to help recognize signs of mental health distress in students.
      • Providing activities to improve mental health in a school entity and after-school programming.
  • Programs designed to reduce community violence, including:
    • Increasing access to quality trauma-informed support services and behavioral health care by linking the community with local trauma support and behavioral health systems.
    • Providing health services and intervention strategies by coordinating the services provided by eligible applicants and coordinated care organizations, public health entities, nonprofit youth service providers and community-based organizations.
    • Providing mentoring and other intervention models to children and their families who have experienced trauma or are at risk of experiencing trauma, including those who are low-income, homeless, in foster care, involved in the criminal justice system, unemployed, experiencing a mental illness or substance abuse disorder or not enrolled in or at risk of dropping out of an educational institution.
    • Fostering and promoting communication between the school entity, community and law enforcement.
    • Any other program or model designed to reduce community violence and approved by the committee.
  • The implementation of Article XIII-E (relating to Threat Assessment)
  • Expanding telemedicine delivery of school-based mental health services, including equipment.
  • Providing technical assistance for a school entity related to billing insurance providers in order to better provide mental health services in a school setting.
  • Creating or expanding statewide programs and intervention frameworks, such as school assistance programs, positive behavioral intervention and supports and multitiered systems of support.
  • Training and related materials for school employees or students that are evidence based and focus on identifying the signs and signals of anxiety, depression, suicide or self-harm in students and best practices for seeking appropriate mental health assistance.
  • Providing, increasing or enhancing partnerships between a school entity and a community-based nonprofit organization, a statewide youth-serving nonprofit or a library for out-of-school programming for at-risk school-age students.
  • Coordinating and integrating local and county mental health services and programs for school employees or students.
  • Providing online programs, educational materials and applications to provide supplemental mental health services to students that may include peer support, self-guided evidence-based therapeutic tools and clinical interactions.