Sec. 144.7. School safety grant program

(a) Scope of section.

The purpose of this section is to establish standards and procedures for the awarding of grants pursuant to section 551 of chapter 170 of the Laws of 1994 to school districts for the conduct of school safety programs.

(b) Definitions.

As used in this section: school districts, school safety and violence prevention programs, extended day programs, conflict resolution/violence prevention programs, safe corridors program, parent centers, additional support staff, collaborative school safety programsand needs assessments shall have the meanings ascribed to them by subsection 1 of section 551 of chapter 170 of the Laws of 1994.

(c) Applications.

(1) Each school district applying for a grant under this section shall submit an application on forms prescribed by the commissioner. Such applications shall be submitted not later than June 1st of each year for programs to be conducted during the following school year, provided that applications for grants for the 1994-95 school year shall be submitted by August 22, 1994.

(2) Applications shall set forth the information required in subsection 2 of section 170 of chapter 551 of the Laws of 1994 and a budget and budget narrative to support the amount of funding being requested to finance the program.

(3) Applications shall describe how the program is coordinated with related programs and projects, including, but not limited to, education, law enforcement, judicial, health, social service, juvenile justice programs, alcohol and drug counseling and mental health programs and projects, and relates to improved student achievement and identifies how the objectives of the program will become part of the overall school program.

(4) Applications shall be evaluated on criteria that give priority to school districts that can document and/or demonstrate:

(i) a high rate of referrals of youth to family courts;

(ii) a high rate of youth under the supervision of the courts;

(iii) a high rate of expulsions and suspensions of students from schools;

(iv) a high rate of extraordinary needs students, based on the extraordinary needs aid formula;

(v) a program design that proactively addresses issues which contribute to school violence, as well as providing intervention for ongoing and crises situations;

(vi) the number of violent incidents occurring for each participating school in the school year prior to the application year; and

(vii) School Under Registration Review (SURR) status.

(5) Applications which are incomplete shall not be reviewed.

(d) Supervision and reporting requirements.

(1) All projects for which funds are allocated pursuant to this section shall be subject to the general supervision of the commissioner.

(2) Financial records shall be maintained and a report of expenditures submitted to the department no later than August 15th next following the school year for which a grant was awarded.

(3) Each school district receiving funds under this section shall submit to the department by July 1st of the next following school year a report which shall include, but not be limited to:

(i) a description of the program(s) being funded;

(ii) the number of violent incidents occurring during the grant program for each participating school and the number of such incidents in the prior year; and

(iii) any other relevant information.

(4) Each school district receiving funds under this section shall be required to submit such additional reports as may be required by the commissioner.