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The Indiana Secured School Safety Board (the Board) today approved the distribution of over $24 million to support school safety initiatives in all 92 counties.
The board voted unanimously to distribute more than $24 million to 499 schools/districts, a record number of schools supported by the Secured School Safety Grant Program in a single year. To date, $187 million in state funds have been allocated to the Matching Grant Program since its inception in 2013.
“Since the inception of this program, the focus has been on listening to the needs of school districts and working with them to invest in the safety of Indiana schools,” said Governor Eric J. Holcomb. “Indiana continues to lead the way in providing resources for school safety. With the help of the General Assembly, Indiana continues to provide support for students and staff.”
The amount of funding allocated to the program for 2025-2026 will be determined in the next legislative session. However, the program has funded school safety initiatives at record levels over the past four years. Last year, 474 schools shared a $29.8 million allocation that included uncommitted funds from previous funding years and was in addition to the $25 million allocated to the program by the Indiana General Assembly.
This year, the total amount of eligible funding applications exceeded the amount of funds for the program. Schools applying to the SSSG program for the first time received priority and were fully funded for their most important applications. Charter school groups received a funding cap of $100,000 for all schools in the group. The remaining schools, which regularly apply for the fund, received only 81% of the funds for their most important applications. Program applicants prioritize applications to help the board better understand where school districts’ greatest needs are.
As in previous years, most school applicants prioritized hiring school police officers, which accounted for nearly $17 million of all applications. The seven applications for firearms training were approved with priority, as required by recent legislation.
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| “We are proud that hundreds of schools applied for this important school safety improvement program,” said Rusty Goodpaster, SSSG program director. “While the board had to make some difficult funding decisions based on eligible funds, this year still has a significant impact on schools across the state and protecting staff and students is a top priority.”
The Secured School Fund is administered by the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. A complete breakdown of recipient schools and the total amount of their grants can be found on the data page of the IDHS website (under the heading “Grants” in “Selected Annual Data”) as of September 1. For security reasons, individual schools’ use of these funds is not publicly available. The SSSG awards grants for eligible items and schools then match those funds at a specific rate, either 25 percent, 50 percent or 100 percent. Grant amounts are based on the school district’s average daily membership, the total amount of the project or the size of the application. Eligible items in the grant include funding for school resource officers (SROs) and school police officers, equipment and technology, active event alert systems (no assignment requirement), firearms training for teachers and staff, allowing weapons on school property, threat assessments, and implementation of a student and parent support program. The Indiana School Safety Hub also provides schools with numerous resources, training opportunities and other information designed to give schools the tools they need to keep students and staff safe. |
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