Dive Brief:
- The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency is accepting applications for $32.2 million in school safety and security grants through Feb. 29. The grants are part of a $155 million state budget allocation for improving physical security and mental health services in Pennsylvania schools.
- Pennsylvania school districts, regional education service agencies, technical schools, charter schools and certain state-regulated private schools are eligible to apply, the PCCD states in a grants program document. Municipalities, law enforcement agencies, and certain private security vendors also are eligible.
- The grants can be used for a range of school facility management products and services, including emergency preparedness, security-related technology, lifesaving equipment, staff training on the use of new technologies or equipment, visitor and personnel identification and screening systems and law enforcement or school resource officer staffing, the PCCD says.
Dive Insight:
Pennsylvania saw 58 school shooting incidents resulting in 52 people wounded or killed between 2018 and 2023. Most recently, an October 2023 shooting at a Philadelphia high school football scrimmage killed one student and injured several others, underscoring the need for better security inside and outside school buildings.
Pennsylvania legislators responded with a raft of school-hardening proposals, including one encouraging schools to install panic buttons similar to banks’ silent alarms and another mandating armed security officers in schools.
PCCD’s competitive grant program covers a range of safety- and security-enhancing investments in school facilities. School entities such as school districts and regional education service agencies can generally apply for up to $450,000 per grant to be used across two years. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia’s school districts, the state’s largest, can apply for up to $790,350 and $1,844,150, respectively. The maximum grant for municipalities, law enforcement agencies and security vendors is $150,000.
In an email to Facilities Dive, PCCD Director of Communications Ali Gantz cited student safety concerns in declining to share specifics about how Pennsylvania schools have spent state-authorized school security funding in the past, but Gantz said past uses have included “replacing doors and updating locks, installing visitor management identification systems, installing cameras and hiring security guards.”
Pennsylvania has more than 800 school entities eligible to submit applications under the competitive school safety grant program, Gantz said. “We fully expect demand for competitive grants to exceed the supply of funding available,” she said.
Priority goes to schools planning to conduct security assessments or satisfy the PCCD’s revised Physical Security Level 1 Baseline Criteria, the most basic of three physical school security levels. Examples of Level 1 criteria include installing protective exterior doors with viewing panes and maintaining real-time on-campus communication systems, like public address systems, for use during emergencies. Comparable Level 3 criteria include operating secure vestibules or holding areas at building access points and maintaining backup on-campus communication systems alongside mass external communication methods, such as SMS messaging, to reach parents and other community members.
Applicants can apply through the PCCD’s Egrants portal. The PCCD expects to announce the grant recipients in late April and distribute funds in May. Funded projects “will likely begin on May 1,” Gantz said.
In addition to the competitive school safety and security grant program, the PCCD’s $155 million budget allocation includes $14.5 million in targeted school safety grants for nonpublic schools and $18.6 million in noncompetitive, formula-based safety and security funding for all Pennsylvania school districts. The remainder — about $90 million — is reserved for student mental health support.
