Pictured: Gov. Reynolds during her 2022 Condition of the State Address
Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced the state is allocating $100 million to create a school safety improvement fund to support the more than 500 public and private districts in Iowa. Money for the program is being sourced from Iowa’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. All 1,500+ K-12 school buildings in the state will be offered a free vulnerability risk assessment, and up to $50,000 will be made available for each building to address deficiencies identified in the risk assessments. Reynolds says, “Every family should be able to confidently send their children to school knowing they’ll be safe. These investments will make a tremendous impact on our ability to prevent violence in schools while also taking steps to ensure schools and communities are in the best position possible to respond to an active event.” Over 80 percent of the funds will go directly towards physical school safety infrastructure enhancements and evaluations. The remaining $18 million will be used to purchase radios for school staff and local law enforcement, risk tracking and reporting software, School Safety Bureau operational funding, and incident mapping technology. Reynolds introduced her plan during a joint press conference Tuesday with the Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS), Department of Education, and Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
