U.S. Department of Education Accepting Applications for Three Grant Competitions

U.S. Department of Education Accepting Applications for Three Grant Competitions

These three grant competitions will help build school safety by implementing violence prevention measures through the form of mental health and climate changes.

The U.S Department of Education is now accepting applications for three fiscal year 2019 grant competitions that support locally tailored approaches to school safety.

There are three grant competitions. The first is the Project Prevent program, which is a $10 million grant competition, the second is the School Climate Transformation program, which is a $40 million grant competition, and the third is the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration program.

The Project Prevent Program’s purpose is to help districts and schools build their abilities “to identify, assess and serve students exposed to pervasive violence.” Through this, the program will help make sure that any students who experience trauma or anxiety are offered mental health services. In addition, it supports conflict resolution programs and helps reduce the likelihood that troubled students will later commit violent acts by implementing school-based violence prevention strategies.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are four criteria Project Prevent projects must offer students. These are:

  1. Access to school-based counseling services, or referrals to community-based counseling services, for assistance in coping with trauma or anxiety
  2. School-based social and emotional supports for students to help address the effects of violence
  3. Conflict resolution and other school-based strategies to prevent future violence
  4. A safer and improved school environment, which may include, among others, activities to decrease the incidence of harassment, bullying, violence, gang involvement, and substance use

The School Climate Transformation Program’s purpose is to help local educational agencies (LEAs) “to develop, enhance, or expand systems of support for, and technical assistance to, schools implementing an evidence-based multi-tiered behavior framework for improving behavior outcomes and learning conditions for all students.”

These projects should:

  1. Build capacity for implementing a sustained, school-wide multi-tiered behavioral framework
  2. Enhance capacity by providing training and technical assistance to schools
  3. Include an assurance that the applicant will work with a technical assistance provider, such as the PBIS Technical Assistance Center funded by the Department, to ensure that technical assistance related to implementing the program activities is provided

The Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program’s purpose is to “support and demonstrate innovative partnerships to train school-based mental health services providers for employment in schools and LEAs.”

These partnerships must include:

  1. One or more high-need LEAs or a State educational agency (SEA) on behalf of one or more high-need LEAs
  2. One or more eligible institutions of higher education. Partnerships must provide opportunities to place graduate students of IHEs in school-based mental health fields into schools served by the participating high-need LEAs to complete required field work, credit hours, internships, or related training as applicable for the degree, license, or credential program of each student.

About the Author

Kaitlyn DeHaven is the Associate Content Editor for the Infrastructure Solutions Group at 1105 Media.

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