The North Carolina Center for Safer Schools serves to promote safe learning environments for North Carolina K-12 schools. The Center serves as a hub of information and technical assistance on school safety to school faculty and staff, law enforcement, youth-serving community agencies, juvenile justice officials, policymakers, parents/guardians and students.

Center staff focus on school climate, school discipline, and emergency preparedness concerns for North Carolina’s public K-12 schools. Staff are available to provide trainings, guidance and technical assistance upon request for school faculty and staff, and those working with children and adolescents.

A Message from the CFSS Executive Director

The NC Center for Safer Schools is the state of North Carolina’s clearinghouse for resources and training whose main goal is to maintain our schools as centers of learning and not fear.  By building a collaborative and layered approach to school safety, we bring subject matter experts together ranging from mental health professionals to law enforcement/public safety professionals blended with emerging technologies, such as the new Student Safety App.  These collaborative efforts are what will help encourage, empower, and sustain our youth and help them to realize they are key participants in the safety of our schools. 

Our outreach and scope are derived from the district level and not from the top down which allows us to provide support across the diverse school districts that make North Carolina great.  Our hope is that you find this website informative and helpful as you make use of these resources to foster and to maintain a safe environment for our students to learn. 

Karen W. Fairley
Executive Director, NC Center for Safer Schools
karen.fairley@dpi.nc.gov

Mission

Develop and implement strategies to ensure that students are safer in schools.

Vision

All schools in the state are safer, secure and offer an environment conducive to learning.

Who We Serve

NC Center for Safer Schools (NC CFSS) is a statewide customer focused school safety and crisis prevention resource for over 2500 public schools.

Programs and Services

NCCFSS accomplishes its mission by:

• Education and Training of schools and other stakeholders
• Receiving consultation and assistance from advisory Task Force
• Anonymous Reporting
• Focusing on 6 sub-areas:
  1. Mental Health
  2. Physical Security & Emergency Preparedness
  3. School Climate & Discipline
  4. Substance Use
  5. Gang Intervention
  6. School Resource Officers (SROs)

NC School Safety Grant Program Awards 2020-21

These are grant awardees that have received funding to hire and/or train School Resource Officers (SRO) for the academic year 2020-21.

School Safety Grant Reports Due

Attention School Safety Grant Awardees,

In order to be in compliance with the NC Safety Grants Program requirements, awardees are required to complete the mid-term and final grant reports. These reports are used to generate reporting requirements to the NC General Assembly. Also, please note that all state funding is contingent upon state appropriations by the NC General Assembly (NCGA).

Nearly all of the mid-term reports have been submitted. Thank you! For those who have not yet submitted their mid-term reports, please do so ASAP. Complete and submit your mid-term report to schoolsafetygrants@dpi.nc.gov.

Templates for the mid-term and final reports are provided below.

• Mid-term Report Template (Report due ASAP)

• Final Report Template (Final reports due July 9, 2021; this report is formatted as a survey, please use this link to complete and submit your report)

Year-2 School Safety Grant Funding - Updates Required in CCIP

School Safety Grant awardees do not have to reapply for funds for next school year (2021-22); however, beginning July 8th, you must access CCIP and indicate if there are any changes to your requested funding amounts for the 2021-22 school year. You may decrease the amounts, but you may not increase them. As we move forward in this process, please continue to check this web page for updates.