VA, $6 Million in New School Security Equipment Grants
$6 million in School Security Equipment Grants awarded to help protect students and teachers in 340 schools in 70 school divisions. The grants will pay for video monitoring systems, voice and video internal communications systems, mass notification systems, visitor-identification systems, access control systems, two-way radios, security vestibules, and other security upgrades.
The maximum annual award for a school division is now $250,000, compared with $100,000 previously. Next year, the total annual appropriation for the program will double, from $6 million, to $12 million.
The divisions awarded school security equipment grants can be found here: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2019/october/headline-848378-en.html
A local match of 25 percent is required of most divisions. Three school divisions with composite indices of local-ability-to-pay of less than 0.2 — Buena Vista, Lee County, and Scott County — and the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind are exempt from the local-match requirement.
The School Security Equipment Grants program was established by the 2013 General Assembly in the aftermath of the December 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
According to the VDOE, these grants must be used within 6 months of the issue date.
https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2019/october/headline-848378-en.html
