U.S. Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.) joined U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.) and Representative Mike Garcia (R-Calif.-25) in introducing the Safe Schools Act, legislation to allow COVID relief dollars allocated to schools through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund to be used by schools to harden themselves with physical security measures, such as locks, panic buttons, individual room security systems, video surveillance and staffing armed school resource officers.
The legislation will exempt expenses for school security improvements from current ESSER guidelines that require expenses to be related to COVID-19.
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Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have cosponsored the legislation.
“While we made some progress in previous legislation to make our schools stronger, harder, and safer, certainly there is more that can and must be done immediately to protect kids,” Sen. Marshall said. “What happened in Uvalde was a horrific tragedy. While many have been quick to play politics, one thing we can all agree on is that Congress must act to harden schools. For these reasons, I am introducing this legislation that allows the abundance of unused COVID relief dollars to be allocated to secure schools in Kansas and throughout the nation.”
Nationwide, of the $189.5 billion of COVID money awarded under ESSER, State Education Agencies have yet to spend $150.1 billion (79.2 percent) and the Indiana Department of Education spent less than half of the funds awarded under their ESSER Fund.
“Too often our schools are tragically viewed as ‘soft targets,’” Sen. Braun said. “The remaining COVID relief funds that have been largely unused or mismanaged would be well spent protecting our children by hardening schools and bolstering school security.”
There were 67 disrupted plots against K-12 schools from 2006 to 2018 – 66 percent of the schools had no system for alerting officials to concerning or threatening.
“Now more than ever, we must be proactive in securing our schools,” Congressman Garcia said. “All Constitutional options need to be examined to ensure our children are safe in the classroom. I’m proud to join Senator Marshall in introducing the Safe Schools Act, a commonsense bill that would allow schools to spend leftover COVID relief funds on crucial security improvements to protect students from harm.”