Attorney General Lockyer, Superintendent Of Public Instruction O'Connell Announce $16.1 Million in Grants to 33 Local Education Agencies in New Program to Curb Violence in Schools

(SACRAMENTO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today announced 33 school districts and county education offices have been awarded $16.1 million in grants through the new School Community Violence Prevention (SCVP) program, which funds efforts to protect students from violence.

“We cannot provide our children the education they deserve and need unless we ensure the schools we send them to provide a safe learning environment,” Lockyer said. “The school districts and county offices of education that received these grants will develop and implement programs to help achieve this public safety objective, which is critical to the future of our children and our state.”

“To be able to focus on learning, students need to feel safe at school,” Superintendent O'Connell said. “These grant funds will help our schools develop violence prevention programs so that students can get the most out of their education.”

The SCVP program is administered by the School/Law Enforcement Partnership, a joint effort between the Attorney General’s Office and the state Department of Education. Funding is awarded to local education agencies to address school safety and violence prevention needs identified by school staff, law enforcement, students, parents and community partners.

With the passage of AB 825 (Firebaugh) in 2004, the Legislature consolidated six independent school safety grant programs into one new competitive statewide school safety effort. The legislation allows the Department of Education, in partnership with the Attorney General’s Office, to distribute to individual recipients grants of up to $500,000 for a five-year period.

Local education agencies submitted more than 150 applications for SCVP’s first year of grant funding. In April 2006, the applications went through an in-depth review and scoring process conducted by three-person review teams comprised of school safety professionals from law enforcement, education and community organizations. The panels judged applications on demonstrated need, the plan to address the need, the proposed budget and the extent to which they provided for a collaborative process.

The first-year grants were awarded to 15 suburban, nine rural, and nine urban school districts or education offices. Twelve of the grantees are in Northern California, two are in Central California and 19 are in Southern California.

Additional information on the SCVP program can be found at these web sites: www.safestate.org/grants and http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ss/vp/funding.asp .

The list of 33 grant recipients is attached.