To help keep students safe and improve their learning environments, the U.S. Department of Education awarded more than $70 million to 130 grantees in 38 states. The Department made the awards under four new grant programs that were among the common-sense proposals included in President Obama and Vice President Biden’s “Now Is The Time,” a comprehensive plan to make our schools safer, reduce gun violence by keeping guns out of dangerous hands, and increase mental-health services. The new competitive grant programs are:

School Climate Transformation grants to school districts—$35,818,097

School Climate Transformation grants to states—$7,339,654

Project Prevent grants to school districts—$14,167,876

School Emergency Management grants to states—$13,082,991

“If we can’t help protect kids and staff, and make them feel safe at school, then everything else that we do is secondary,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “If kids don’t feel safe, they can’t learn. It’s that simple. Through these grants of more than $70 million, we are continuing our commitment to ensure that kids have access to the best learning experience possible.”

The School Climate Transformation grants to school districts provide more than $35.8 million to 71 school districts in 23 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The funds will be used to develop, enhance, or expand systems of support for implementing evidence-based, multi-tiered behavioral frameworks for improving behavioral outcomes and learning conditions for students. The goals of the program are to connect children, youths, and families to appropriate services and supports; improve conditions for learning and behavioral outcomes for school-aged youths; and increase awareness of and the ability to respond to mental-health issues among school-aged youths. School districts also will use funds to implement models for reform and evidence-based practices that address the school-to-prison pipeline—the unfortunate and often unintentional policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren, especially those who are most at-risk, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The grants provide funding for up to five years, for a total of nearly $180 million. Many of the school districts receiving this funding also will coordinate their efforts with support from Now Is The Time programs administered by other agencies. One hundred school districts received the Department of Health and Human Services’ Project AWARE grants, including 29 of the Department of Education grantees. In addition, five grantees will receive assistance through the Department of Justice’s School Justice Collaboration program.

The School Climate Transformation grants to states provide more than $7.3 million to 12 states to develop, enhance, or expand statewide systems of support for, and technical assistance to, school districts and schools implementing an evidence-based, multi-tiered behavioral framework for improving behavioral outcomes and learning conditions for all students. The grants provide funding for up to five years, for a total of more than $36 million. Twenty states received funding through the Department of Health and Human Services’ Project AWARE grants, including nine Department of Education grantees.

The Project Prevent grants provide funding to school districts to expand their capacity to more effectively assist schools in communities with pervasive violence to better meet the needs of students directly or indirectly exposed to violence. The more than $14.1 million in awards to 22 school districts in 14 states will be used for school-based counseling services, or referrals to community-based counseling services for assistance in coping with trauma or anxiety; school-based social and emotional supports for students to help address the effects of violence; and conflict resolution and other school-based strategies to prevent future violence. Funds also will be used to create a safer and improved school environment, which may include activities to decrease the incidence of harassment, bullying, violence, gang involvement and substance abuse.

These grant programs also address a critical goal of President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, which is to ensure that schools can provide the social, emotional, and behavioral supports for all youth—including boys and young men of color—that will enable all students to graduate from high school ready for college and careers.

The School Emergency Management grants provide more than $13 million to 25 states to expand their capacity to assist school districts in developing and implementing high-quality school emergency operations plans (EOPs). Those states that currently have limited internal capacity will first expand that capacity and then provide training and technical assistance to school districts. States that provided evidence of current internal capacity (i.e., that currently have EOP subject matter experts on staff and comprehensive, up-to-date state EOP resources) will immediately provide or expand training and technical assistance to school districts. These one-time grants provide funding for 18 months.

Below are the grantees for each new program:

2014 School Climate Transformation Grants—School District Grantees

City Applicant Name Year-One Funding ALABAMA Ashville St. Clair County Schools $199,934 ARIZONA San Carlos San Carlos Unified School District $559,512 Marana Marana Unified School District $749,943 CALIFORNIA Pasadena Pasadena Unified School District $445,135 Santa Rosa Santa Rosa City Schools $713,933 Oakland Oakland Unified School District $322,526 Pico Rivera El Rancho Unified School District $360,888 Eureka Eureka City Schools $715,041 Lakeport Lake County Office of Education $372,923 Salinas Monterey County Office of Education $621,561 Hemet Hemet Unified School District $340,918 Ukiah Mendocino County Office of Education $324,941 Lindsay Lindsay Unified School District $750,000 Pleasanton Pleasanton Unified School District $475,976 Cerritos ABC Unified School District $362,862 Oakland Leadership Public Schools $276,856 Arleta YPI Charter Schools, aka Bert Corona Charter School $750,000 Visalia Tulare County Office of Education $740,691 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington Eagle Academy Public Charter School $321,675 FLORIDA Fort Lauderdale The School Board of Broward County, Florida $750,000 Jacksonville Duval County Public Schools $749,235 Fernandina Beach Nassau District School Board $671,227 Tampa Hillsborough County Public Schools $750,000 Bartow School Board of Polk County, Florida $750,000 IOWA Ft. Dodge Ft. Dodge Community School District $316,591 Des Moines Des Moines Independent Community School District $499,808 ILLINOIS Alton Alton Community Unit School District #11 $255,170 Zion Zion Elementary School District 6 $214,973 Sandoval Sandoval Community Unit School District 501 $320,965 KENTUCKY Corbin Corbin Board of Education $200,000 Louisville Jefferson County Board of Education $749,903 Murray West Kentucky Educational Cooperative $749,698 Inez Martin County Board of Education $310,782 LOUISIANA Shreveport Caddo Parish School Board $604,087 Harvey Jefferson Parish Public School System $742,406 New Orleans Orleans Parish School Board $525,000 MASSACHUSETTS Newton Newton Public Schools $364,358 Reading Town of Reading $252,329 Wilbraham Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District $334,863 MICHIGAN Pigeon Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker Schools $361,303 Detroit School District of the City of Detroit $705,797 Muskegon Muskegon Area Intermediate School District $442,125 NORTH CAROLINA Concord Cabarrus County Schools $749,895 NEBRASKA Lincoln Lincoln Public Schools $260,117 Papillion Papillion-La Vista School District $325,411 Fremont Fremont Public Schools $750,000 NEW HAMPSHIRE Laconia Laconia School District $200,211 NEW YORK Auburn Auburn Enlarged City School District $229,397 Buffalo Board of Education, Buffalo NY $694,033 Lyons Lyons Central School District $723,102 Cheektowaga Cleveland Hill Union Free School District $222,037 Middle Island Longwood Central School District $319,966 Cheektowaga Cheektowaga Central School District $138,576 OKLAHOMA Hominy Osage County Interlocal Cooperative $648,302 PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia Philadelphia School District $608,269 Lancaster Lancaster School District $635,659 SOUTH CAROLINA Chesnee Spartanburg County School District Two $328,267 TEXAS San Antonio South San Antonio Independent School District $727,566 San Antonio Southside Independent School District $729,391 Pasadena Pasadena Independent School District $667,108 San Antonio Northside Independent School District $193,299 Karnes City Karnes City Independent School District $602,128 San Antonio San Antonio Independent School District $533,581 UTAH Salt Lake City Granite School District $747,539 Tooele Tooele County School District $475,525 VIRGIN ISLANDS St. Thomas Virgin Islands Department of Education $745,384 WASHINGTON Vancouver Vancouver School District #37 $323,010 WISCONSIN Berlin Berlin Area School District $231,489 Appleton Appleton Area School District $660,354 Wausau Wausau School District $747,030

2014 School Climate Transformation Grants—State Grantees

Connecticut State Department of Education $578,499 Delaware Department of Education $458,660 Florida Department of Education $641,017 Hawaii Department of Education $608,901 Iowa Department of Education $688,566 Michigan Department of Education $640,788 Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education $680,508 Montana Office of Public Instruction $750,000 Nevada Department of Education $748,340 Ohio Department of Education $260,427 Virginia Department of Education $705,427 Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction $578,521

2014 Project Prevent Grantees

Arizona Tucson The Pima Prevention Partnership dba Pima Partnership School $291,036 California Oakland Oakland Unified School District $596,249 Pico Rivera El Rancho Unified School District $832,601 San Francisco San Francisco Unified School District $570,888 Stockton Stockton Unified School District $980,121 San Bernardino San Bernardino City Unified School District $426,788 Connecticut New London New London Public Schools $613,131 Florida Sarasota School Board of Sarasota County $270,489 Tampa Hillsborough County Public Schools $750,000 Miami The School Board of Miami-Dade $642,266 Indiana Indianapolis Metropolitan School District of Pike Township $998,573 Kentucky Hazard Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative $495,176 Michigan Lansing Lansing School District $763,072 Minnesota St. Paul Independent School District #625 $395,591 Nevada Reno Washoe County School District $973,491 Pennsylvania Chester Archway Charter School of Chester, Inc. $552,160 South Carolina Lancaster Lancaster County School District $493,518 Tennessee Ashland City Cheatham County School District $1,000,000 Memphis Shelby County Board of Education $856,363 Nashville Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools $492,631 Washington Spokane Northeast Washington Educational Service District 101 $714,146 Wisconsin Milwaukee Milwaukee Public Schools $459,586

2014 Grants to States for School Emergency Management