Knowing that many youth-serving organizations receive funding through the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools (OSDFS) at U.S. Dept. of ED, I wanted to share the following email that was sent yesterday afternoon:
Dear Safe Schools Partners:
Today the President’s 2011 budget is being released, and I am writing to offer more detail about its implications for federal safe schools work.
The overall news is good: our department is being recommended for a 6% increase in 2011, which is a real statement of the Administration’s commitment to education. There is a general drive across the department to consolidate programs into a smaller number of funding streams, motivated both by desire to have more comprehensive approaches to problems as well as to make it easier for our state and local partners to access funds.
OSDFS’s budget reflects this trend of both increased funding and program consolidation. The administration has requested a 12.5% budget increase of $45 million to $410 million for our office’s programs in 2011, with a consolidation of our work into 4 major streams:
1. A Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students program that expands our 2010 K-12 school climate work to put in place measurements for schools that will enable States, districts, individual schools, and their partners to assess the need for, direct the provision of, and provide the resources and supports necessary for safe, healthy, and successful students. Competitive grants will be made to SEA’s (and in some cases, LEA’s or consortia of LEA’s in states that do not participate in the SSHS program, provided that they meet a threshold of total enrollment of all students in the state) who may make grants — based on the assessment provide by the climate measurement system – to LEA’s that have demonstrated need for programs designed to improve student mental and physical health and well-being, reduce violence and substance abuse, and promote social and emotional learning so that school climates can better contribute to student academic achievement and overall well-being. To put this in public health/substance abuse terminology, we are looking to systematically measure protective factors and broaden our efforts to a comprehensive, prevention-oriented approach in line with the Administration’s overall drug strategy as led by ONDCP.
2. Emergency preparedness programs, as this work is not primarily driven by the school climate assessments of the Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students program but remains critical as we have all seen the impact of events such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the H1N1 virus on schools’ ability to continue the learning process in the face of disaster.
3. Safe Schools/Healthy Students, a model of integrated, interagency work for the entire government to emulate.
4. Substance abuse and violence prevention in higher education, as this work is also not covered by the Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students program but remains an important part of our mission.
The budget also contains funding for continuation awards of current programs where we have multiyear commitments but which will not be funded for new awards in 2011.
I think this offers an exciting new direction for our work. The Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students program will enable states to access federal dollars to both systemically measure and develop & implement programs to improve school climates. We are excited to make this major investment in SEA and LEA capacity to create truly safe schools and look forward to working with you to make this new program the most effective possible.
Sincerely,
Kevin Jennings
Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education
Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
02/02/2010 at 11:19 pm Permalink
Mr. Jennings,
i think it is great that there is the possibility of additional funding for “Safe Schools”. It seems that this is one are within education that needs funding because it is always lacking the funding necessary to provide needed safety & security in our schools. Our schools should continue to be a safe place for us to send our children. School administrators are always trying to find ways to fund this area but fall short in their efforts.
Regards,
Pat Wintucky