Safety and Facilities Enhancement (SAFE) Grant

Safety and Facilities Enhancement (SAFE) Grant

August 31, 2023 | Financial Management, Grants Management

Are you in need of more funding to meet the school safety standards? A new grant opportunity was released last week that is the third in a series of recent state grants aimed at enhancing school facilities to protect students from violence. You may have previously received the SPAT (Silent Panic Alert Technology), and the School Safety Standards Formula Grant was just recently submitted August 1. The SAFE grant is intended for schools who are still not in compliance with the adopted school safety standards for facilities and security equipment. Do the multiple grants for school safety have you confused? Don’t worry, CSS is here to help keep it all straight!

The CSS Federal team will assist our clients with planning and preparation of the SAFE grant in coordination with other safety grants.

Who is eligible to apply?

  • Local educational agencies (LEAs) who have applied for the 2022-2025 School Safety Standards Formula Grant and have certified that they are NOT in compliance with the adopted school safety standards in Section B of the 2022-2025 School Safety Standards Formula Grant application.
  • LEAs with a reported enrollment of at least one student from the October 2021 PEIMS Fall snapshot submission will be eligible for funding.
  • Any new charter school opening after September 20, 2023 (the date of grant availability) will be ineligible for funding throughout the life of the grant.

Note:  If you said you were in compliance with all the adopted school safety standards on the School Safety Standards Grant and now feel that you are not or did so in error, there is a process to correct and apply for the SAFE grant. You will have to document why you are changing your answer.

What is the first step?

The first step to inform TEA that you intend to apply for the grant is to complete the SAFE Grant Needs Assessment and submit it no later than September 21, 2023. In the needs assessment, you will be asked to report on work already done toward meeting the adopted safety standards going back to June 1, 2022. Doing so will demonstrate that you still have incomplete work to do, thus needing the new SAFE Grant.

The LEA must complete the needs assessment to be eligible to be considered for the grant. There will be more to the application process later.

Other Safety Resources

The SAFE Grant period will be 12/1/2023 to 7/31/2025. It should be noted that the grant does not allow funding armed officers. The only personnel costs allowed are for paying to install the equipment such as fencing, doors, etc.

Funding amounts will be determined after they review the needs assessments to see how many LEAs intend to apply.

Remember! The deadline to complete the needs assessment is 9/21/23!

Need help?

Please contact Charter School Success:

Have questions?

Ask questions, get answers, and discuss this topic on the Charter School Community Roundtable now.