MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Department of Justice is giving a total of $92 million to schools in the state to make safety and security improvements as a grant program comes to an end.
The DOJ’s Office of School Safety closed out its grant program by providing $92,466,783.27 for safety enhancements, threat assessment training and mental health training for public, private, charter, and tribal schools throughout the state.
The program started in March 2018, when the Office of School Safety was created through a new state law and providing a total of $100 million in state funds for school safety. Since then, the DOJ has trained more than 11,000 teachers and law enforcement in basic threat assessment and adolescent mental health. More than 1,300 Wisconsin schools have also trained their entire staff in trauma-informed care and adverse childhood experiences with that funding.
The money also helped provide upgrades to new security systems, security cameras, and school entrances.
The DOJ says the remaining $7.5 million of the $100 million is being allocated to additional safety projects around the state, including emergency response grants for schools that experience a critical safety incident, school resource officer training, adolescent mental health training, grants for promotional materials for the DOJ’s “Speak Up Speak Out” threat reporting line, and a threat assessment study.
COPYRIGHT 2021 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
