Working through several federal departments, the Biden administration began a new public awareness campaign last week that will highlight federal safety resources for schools and evidence-based practices through SchoolSafety.gov.
The initiative is a joint effort between the departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Education (ED), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Justice (DOJ). Essentially a list of recommendations and resources, SchoolSafety.gov is meant to educate school personnel, as well as parents and government officials about the resources available to them to build up capacity and deploy school safety strategies.
“Government has few responsibilities more important than ensuring the safety of our communities – especially our children. To protect our children and educators, we must ensure the schools they attend and work in are safe and secure,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said. “The Department of Homeland Security and our partners in the Biden-Harris Administration are working together to make sure every child and educator enjoys the safe and secure environment they deserve, whether it is by making available safety resources to every school through SchoolSafety.gov, cutting through red tape to help schools access critical security funding, or supporting local law enforcement agencies across the country.”
Resources, in this case, include a webinar, videos, communications toolkits and infographic. School safety, school climate and mental health supports are all on the docket, and will be publicly available. The site nevertheless recognizes that each school is unique, and allows the material to be individualized for respective approaches. Among the most potentially useful for schools: a feature to locate and identify available federal school safety funding opportunities and grant programs.
“Student and educator safety remains our priority. I want all school and district leaders, educators and staff, and students and families to know that SchoolSafety.gov is the one-stop shop for accessing resources and evidence-based approaches for building safe schools and positive learning environments,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. “We’re pairing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s historic investments in school safety and student mental health and wellbeing with easily accessible information on everything from responding to cyber bullying and preventing violence to improving emergency preparedness and accessing federal grants. The Department of Education and our partners across the Biden-Harris Administration want every school’s back-to-school season to be one of joy, possibility, and safety.”