Resources
As students spend more and more time online, it is essential that we remind them of the dangers of inappropriate online activity, including viewing explicit adult content. This type of online content is prevalent, and it is essential that we educate students on its dangers and how to avoid it.
According to The Third Talk, an organization whose mission is to initiate conversations between parents and their children about avoiding exposure to explicit adult material online, the proliferation of this content virtually assures every young person in middle and high school will feel its impact, whether they personally view it or not.
Explicit adult content can have a negative physical effect on young developing brains. It can lead to depression, aggression, loneliness, and despair, as well as unrealistic relationship expectations, intimate partner violence, and even assault. Young people can also begin to normalize the actions they view online, facilitating potential child exploitation by adults and others.
The North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, indicated that the number of cyber tips they received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has recently doubled. Online threats are growing and they are not going to go away, so it is essential that young people have the information and tools to deal with them.
Karen Fairley, Executive Director of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Center for Safer Schools, stresses the need to raise awareness with students of the potentially dangerous situations that they may encounter online, their role in protecting themselves and their friends, and the importance of reaching out to trusted adults for assistance and guidance.
Attention Superintendents, Principals, School Counselors, School Social Workers and School Safety Directors: to help raise awareness of this important issue, we encourage you to watch the video and share it with your middle and high school students.
*This video was produced in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Center for Safer Schools, the State Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and The Third Talk.
The NC School Suicide Prevention Toolkit is now available. It is a framework for school use in their development of access to care protocols for students struggling with suicidal/homicidal ideation.
School Safety Equipment grants 2019-2020
The sum of six million one hundred thousand dollars ($6,100,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2019-2020 fiscal year for the purchase of safety equipment for school buildings and related training.
School Safety Training grants 2019-2020
The sum of four million five hundred thousand dollars ($4,500,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2019-2020 fiscal year to allow qualifying public school units to contract with community partners that provide training to help students develop healthy responses to trauma and stress.
Students in Crisis grants 2019-2020
The sum of four million five hundred thousand dollars ($4,500,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2019-2020 fiscal year to allow qualifying public school units to contract with community partners that provide evidence-based crisis services to students.
School Resource Officer grants 2019-2020
The sum of three million dollars ($3,000,000) in recurring funds for the 2019-2020 fiscal year and the sum of six million dollars ($6,000,000) in recurring funds for the 2020-2021 fiscal year for the employment and training of school resource officers.
School Safety Grant Programs
In 2018, the General Assembly worked with State Superintendent Mark Johnson to launch a new $35 million School Safety Grants Program to improve safety in public school units by providing grants for school safety resource officers, services for students in crisis, training to increase school safety, safety equipment in schools, and additional school mental health support personnel.
School Resource Officer Grant Program
In 2018 the General Assembly worked with the State Superintendent Mark Johnson to launch a new School Safety Grants Program. A part of that program includes grants for the training and/or employment of school resource officers in North Carolina's elementary and middle schools.
School Mental Health Support Personnel Grant Program
The School Mental Health Support Personnel grant program can provide all or a portion of the salary and benefits needed to employ additional school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, and school social workers for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Funds were awarded through a competitive grant process and must be used to supplement, not supplant, state or non-state funds already provided.
Community Partners Grant Program
The purpose of the Community Partners Grant Program is to increase school safety by providing evidence-based and evidence-informed crisis services and training to help students develop healthy responses to trauma and stress. $5 million was awarded towards Students in Crisis and Training to Increase School Safety. (2018)
School Safety Equipment Grant Program
The School Safety Equipment Grant Program includes up to $3 million dollars to North Carolina public schools for school safety equipment. This competitive grant program will inform state policymakers and lawmakers on the specific needs regarding school safety equipment across the state. $3 million was awarded towards School Safety Equipment. (2018)
Other School Safety Grants
The remaining grant applications will be posted here, along with their individual deadlines, once they are available.
The National Center for School Safety (NCSS) is focused on improving school safety and preventing school violence. We are the BJA STOP Program Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) provider.
NC Healthy Schools focuses on improving the health of students and staff by providing coordination and resources within the context of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The goal is to create students who are healthier, in school, in class, and ready to learn. Students who are healthier are more alert, more focused on learning, and miss less school. They not only learn better in every class, but they also learn lifelong healthy behaviors. It just makes sense.
The North Carolina Center for Safer Schools is not a funding organization. However, our staff has located several resources you may wish to research in efforts to find funding for school safety projects. There are local, state and federal government grants as well as philanthropic organizations and corporate funding opportunities. Below is a list of funding resources:
- Grants.gov is your place to FIND and APPLY for federal grants. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the managing partner for Grants.gov.
- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) commonly has competitive discretionary grant funding available. Their listing of funding opportunities can be found at OJJDP Grant Opportunities
- COPS Grants are the Community Oriented Policing Service of the U.S. Department of Justice. Commonly, this agency releases funding opportunities for local law enforcement agencies to create new school resource officer (SRO) positions.
- North Carolina Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils (JCPCs) annually identify program areas for funding. Contact your local JCPC to see what program areas they have identified for funding.
- The N.C. Governor's Crime Commission annually has funding available under specified categories and strategies. Its grant application period is open to state and local agencies and nonprofit organizations.
- Fundsnet Services.com's purpose is to help spread the word about grants programs initiatives, fundraising programs, philanthropy, foundations and 501(c)(3) nonprofits organizations sources by posting related links on this site. For North Carolina sources visit http://www.fundsnetservices.com/searchresult/45/North-Carolina-Grants.html.
- The Grantsmanship Center's funding database lists top-giving foundations in North Carolina. All of the foundations listed have been prescreened to ensure that they have a staff, issue RFPs or otherwise indicate an interest in receiving proposals. More detailed information about these foundations, including their program areas, types of funding, application procedures, and more can be found on GrantDomain, The Grantsmanship Center's exclusive online database of funding information. Each link will provide you with contact and web information.
- The North Carolina Network of Grantmakers is the state's only forum for sharing information and promoting cooperation among North Carolina's grantmakers. They are committed to helping private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor advised fund holders, and community foundations strengthen their impact and effectiveness. They seek to be a primary resource for North Carolina networking, news, and information on philanthropy. There are many small philanthropic funders in our communities that might be inclined to assist a local project. See this organization's membership page to better understand what they can offer.
- North Carolina Center for After School Programs developed an overview of the available afterschool funding streams in the state. Funding streams come from state agencies and private organizations, and are divided into Academics, Juvenile Justice, Health and Wellness, Needs-Based funding, and private funding.
SchoolSafety.gov was created by the federal government to provide schools and districts with actionable recommendations to create a safe and supportive learning environment where students can thrive and grow.
Abstract: The COPS Office School Safety Working Group, which is composed of representatives from eight national law enforcement organizations, has identified 10 essential actions that can be taken by schools, school districts, and law enforcement agencies to help prevent critical incidents involving the loss of life or injuries in our nation's schools and to respond rapidly and effectively when incidents do occur. These actions are applicable to school shootings as well as to other areas of school safety, including natural disasters and traumatic events such as student suicide. Adopting policies and practices based on the recommendations in this publication can help make school communities safer and save lives.
This Report, To Protect and Educate: The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence in Schools, addresses recent criticism of policies by public school officials to fashion campus safety plans around interagency partnerships, not the least of which involve the use of law enforcement personnel known as school resource officers (SRO). This aspect of education law, now commonly known as “school safety law,” has been the subject of considerable and thoughtful development over the last thirty years. However, recent criticism has called into question the fairness and effectiveness of this type of interagency collaboration in the school context. By focusing on child welfare reform, student rights, victim’s rights, and liability, the Report corrects misimpressions about the purpose and use of school resource officers as an integral part of school safety teams, primarily by documenting the success of public educators maintaining a safe campus climate using the team approach.
REPORT: To Protect & Educate: The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence in Schools
North Carolina Association of School Resource Officers (NCASRO) is a non-profit organization that helps put the needed tools in hands of today’s SROs. SROs work to reduce school violence by enforcing violations of the law occurring on school property, by informing students of the dangers of substance abuse, by introducing programs that will enhance acceptable social behavior, and by serving as positive role models.
North Carolina Association of School Resource Officers
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. NCMEC works with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement, and the public to assist with preventing child abductions, recovering missing children, and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitation.