As every year passes, there has been an increase in school population that has lead Principals and other decision-makers toward increasing their school security. Since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting, school districts are gearing up to capitalize on available school security grants to strengthen their campus security and culture.
School security measures should be proactively planned and need to accommodate health of students and staffs. The STOP School Violence Act of 2018 focused on three programs, providing 100 million dollars available each year until 2028. Funding eligibility is limited in some states, but that shouldn’t deter schools.
The three programs are currently listed as:
- Active prevention and health training
- Technology development and threat assessment
- Violence prevention
There will also be five school violence grants available for the year of 2019 with a total of 75 million dollars.
They are listed as followed:
- STOP School Violence Prevention Training and Response to Mental Health Crisis Program
- STOP Violence Threat Assessment and Technology Reporting Program
- Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety
- Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety: Category 1
- Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety: Category 2
Capitalizing on innovation
As we live in the digital era, it is worthwhile to understand the opportunities that can arise when choosing to incorporate smart technology into your school campus. Now, violence takes many shapes and forms and can come from many sides, so it’s smart to try and have all your bases covered when attempting to secure your campus and attain the proper school security grants you need.
Many school principals have already taken steps forward by incorporating a single technology device for a specific reason, such as only tracking attendance. Although this is beneficial to the school, a more comprehensive solution can help secure the proper school security grants you need. Instead, schools should look for a holistic approach that has far reaching security and safety benefits. Look for an all-in-one solution to your school security and safety needs.
Benefits of an all-in-one solution
There are a lot of moving pieces within a school day that need to be proactively addressed. Being absent vs. chronic absenteeism, school security in the physical form as well as digital, and consistently securing and cultivating a positive school climate. While achieving this can take time, implementing a centralized and modular solution that can appeal to many facets of a school environment should be considered.
Chronic absenteeism is a significant issue that has always been a concern for school officials. When a student is absent, they will fall behind naturally, but when they are consistently absent, then the school becomes affected, and more problems begin to arise. ScholarChip offers a simple, smart technology solution to help reduce human-error by offering Smart ID Cards to students and staff. With the tap of their card to a Smart ID Card reader, students will be able to log themselves in and be given certain building privileges to ensure accountability and security. Student attendance is recorded, providing real-time reporting and notifications recorded for easy-to-use reports and notifications can be sent to the student’s parents.
School threats are more common than one thinks, whether internal or external. To ensure public safety for your school, having a visitor management system in place is a proactive way to screen visitors before they step foot onto your campus. This is where technology can come into play. When a new visitor presents their license, it is scanned and the system runs a cross-check against available sex offender data, the system will cross-check with a registered sex-offender database for any potential red flags. If the visitor is all clear, then they will be given the proper visitor pass, and if they aren’t clear, then the system will provide clear notifications and help your administrators follow up with their next steps.
School violence can happen on or off campus, at any time of the day. It’s hard to be able to foreshadow and guess when the next violent act could occur, but what we do know is that the majority of violent behaviors happens internally with students toward other students. With ScholarChip’s Alternative Behavior Educator (ABE), school officials can record and track students who are exhibiting behavioral issues that could lead to violence. Generally, teachers, counselors, and other officials are not in sync with their information, so when ABE is implemented, school staff can properly record and initialize programs for the students to get back on track.
Create more opportunity for school security grants
There are many solutions to helping you gain the funding you need from the government or other private organizations, but there is one main solution that has been proven to be a proactive approach to securing your school security grants, and that is utilizing smart technology. When you use an all-in-one system like ScholarChip, you are not just securing your chances of grant approval. You are building a partnership with a service provider that has the same end goal as you. There are grant opportunities out there, but you need to act fast to capitalize on the funding available.
ScholarChip is an all-in-one, platform solution to help reduce school threats and address the important issues surrounding school safety and security. Data from students, faculty, and stakeholder are leveraged to manage school access, attendance, and behavior management through the platform tools to increase safety and promote the campus climate schools are looking for.
If you are looking to learn more about how you can lock in your school security grants, feel free to reach out and schedule a 1-on-1 strategy session with one of our specialists today!
