Sponsors (28)
Introduced April 1, 2025 by John Henry Rutherford · Last progress April 1, 2025
The bill creates federally funded regional centers to expand evidence-based school-safety and student mental-health supports—improving access and equity—while imposing modest local matching requirements, adding federal/admin costs, and likely leaving demand unmet if funding proves insufficient.
Schools and districts nationwide gain access to federally funded regional centers that provide tailored technical assistance, implementation support, and help applying for federal/state funding for school-safety and student mental-health plans.
Students gain greater access to evidence-based violence-prevention, suicide-prevention, and mental-health supports through center-led plans, trainings, and services.
Rural, Tribal, and low-resourced schools are prioritized for assistance, improving equity in access to school-safety technical assistance.
Low-resourced districts must provide at least a 5% match, which may strain budgets and limit participation by the schools that need help most.
The annual $25 million authorization may be insufficient to meet nationwide demand, leaving some schools without the promised assistance.
Program implementation and reporting requirements could create additional administrative burden for applicant schools and state agencies.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a DHS grant program to fund regional school safety development centers that provide customized consulting, planning, training, and implementation support for schools.
Creates a new DHS grant program to fund statewide or intrastate regional School Safety Development Centers that provide customized consulting, planning, training, and implementation assistance to K–12 schools. Applicants must demonstrate expertise in comprehensive school safety, evidence-based violence prevention, suicide prevention, student mental health, and school security; awards may cover up to 95% of project costs and give preference to entities with local ties, especially those serving rural, Tribal, low-resourced, or minority-serving communities.