The State of Indiana has awarded more than $14 million in this year’s round of Secured School Safety Grants. The program provides a 50-50 match to help schools buy security equipment, hire resource officers, or conduct threat assessments.
The Indiana Secured School Safety Board recently approved grant applications from 388 qualifying schools, according to a press release from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Locally, the Knox Community School Corporation was awarded $50,000 this year. The Culver and West Central school corporations each got $35,000, while Eastern Pulaski and Oregon-Davis got slightly less than that.
School corporations with at least 1,000 students can apply for up to $50,000 in matching money each year. Those with fewer students are limited to $35,000.
This year’s grant awards were announced on the same day that Governor Eric Holcomb officially launched a new school metal detector program. “The state will provide metal detector wands at no cost to every school that requests them,” he explained in a YouTube video posted Monday. “We will leave it, of course, up to the local officials to decide how best to use the devices.”
Under the new program, schools can get one metal detector for every 250 students. The Indiana Department of Administration plans to order the first batch of metal detectors next week, for delivery by mid-August.
