Missouri Center for Safe Schools at UMKC

Safe Schools Act and Safe Schools Grants

In April 1996 the Missouri Legislature approved safe school legislation (with an effective date in August 1996) which provided $10 million for grants to schools for the 1996-97 school year. 156 districts received grants in either or both of two categories. In the first category, $2 million were available for districts to: purchase equipment; collaborate with law enforcement agencies for school safety programs, apparatus and security officials; or make minor structural modifications to make buildings safer.

In the first category, districts received up to $75,000 of state funds which is matched dollar-for-dollar with local funds or with other state/federal funds, where appropriate. In the second category, $8 million were available for school districts to establish educational programs to serve violent, disruptive or abusive students. These grants serve pre-K through grade 12 or may target elementary or secondary programs. Grants of up to $100,000 for a single school district or up to $200,000 for a consortium of three or more school districts were awarded. School districts provide 30-percent matching funds from local or other state/federal funds, where appropriate. State grants may be used for salaries, contracted services, supplies or rent/lease/minor building renovations needed to implement the design of the program.
Another $3 million in grant money has been awarded annually for local government/school partnerships to reduce crimes and violence through the MO Department of Public Safety (Tim Taylor, tel 573/751-2799).
The Missouri Center for Safe Schools initiated a network to support districts awarded alternative education grants. The first meeting was at the University of Missouri-Columbia on Nov 14, 96. Several initiatives resulted from that first statewide network meeting:

1. It was decided to hold occasional statewide meetings. The most recent of these was a symposium at the Lenoir Center in Columbia on September 12, 2000.
2. This web site was expanded to include pages describing the various safe schools alternative education programs within each region of Missouri. These regional listings enable networking of districts with similar projects.
3. A quarterly safe schools newsletter was published beginning February 1997, providing the information which appears throughout this homepage to those without internet access. A copy of the newsletter is contained in the newsletter subpage.
4. A list server was developed on which network members can post questions and concerns for real-time response by other network members who may be on-line at the time.

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UMKC -> Safe Schools

Last Modified June 5 2001