Sponsors (31)
The bill directs modest federal funding to evidence-based, school-centered, trauma-informed programs that can improve prevention and equity for students at highest risk of gun violence, but it narrows support toward schools, creates administrative burdens, and may leave some communities or non-school interventions without funding.
Students at highest risk of gun violence (children and youth) gain access to evidence-based, trauma-informed school programs that aim to prevent violence and support healing.
Funding is targeted to high-need areas, including Bureau of Indian Education schools, which can improve equity in violence-prevention resources for Indigenous and other underserved communities.
Teachers and school staff receive professional development and expanded access to trauma support and mental-health services, strengthening school capacity to respond to student needs.
The statutory focus is narrowed to school-based programs, which may leave out non-school community violence-prevention efforts that also reduce gun violence.
Eligibility tied to high local homicide or arrest rates could exclude communities experiencing recent or rising violence that do not meet those thresholds, leaving some emerging hotspots without support.
The program authorizes $25 million per year in federal spending, increasing budgetary commitments and possibly requiring trade-offs or offsets elsewhere.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Refocuses federal grant authority to fund school-based, evidence-based, trauma-informed programs that prevent youth involvement in gun violence and clarifies allowable grant activities.
Official title: To authorize the establishment of a comprehensive school-based violence prevention program to assist youth at highest risk for involvement in gun violence in local communities and schools, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 12, 2025 by Jahana Hayes · Last progress June 12, 2025
Creates a focused federal grant program to establish or expand school-based violence prevention programs that target youth at highest risk for involvement in gun violence. Grants are administered by HHS in consultation with the Department of Education and may fund evidence-based, culturally competent, trauma-informed K–12 programs, technical assistance, community partnerships, staff training, and data collection; the statute explicitly includes schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education. Also renumbers and relocates the affected statutory provisions within Title V of the Public Health Service Act, narrowing prior broader "children and violence" authority to a school-based gun-violence prevention focus and updating allowable grant activities and reporting requirements.