From staff reports
Several schools in Pennsylvania’s 21st Senatorial District have been awarded state grants to help improve student safety through a new program.
The School Safety and Security Grant Program was created by lawmakers earlier this year to provide grants to school districts, intermediate units, area vocational-technical schools, charter schools and private residential rehabilitative institutions for a wide variety of projects to improve school safety.
The new program was created as part of a comprehensive school safety bill that was signed into law in June. More than $60 million in new funding was dedicated in the current year’s budget to improve school safety.
Eligible uses for the grants include hiring school security officers, purchasing security-related technology, completing safety and security assessments, implementing violence prevention curricula, offering counseling services for students, and creating other programs to protect students.
Local grant recipients include:
Forest County: Forest Area School District
Venango County: Cranberry, Franklin, Oil City, Titusville and Valley Grove school districts