WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) co-sponsored Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Congressman Mike Garcia’s (R-CA) Safe Schools Act, which allows 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 hiring and paying the salaries of 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.

“With billions of dollars in existing COVID-19 funding unspent, schools should be able to leverage those dollars to improve the safety and security of these ‘soft targets.’ The Safe Schools Act repurposes already allocated dollars to help ensure students and teachers have nothing to fear in the classroom,” said Senator Cramer.

“I am grateful that support is growing for our Safe Schools Act, which allows the abundance of unused COVID relief dollars to be allocated to secure schools in Kansas and throughout the nation. 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,” said Senator Marshall. “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.”

“Now more than ever, we must be proactive in securing our schools. 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 common-sense bill that would allow schools to spend leftover COVID relief funds on crucial security improvements to protect students from harm,”said Congressman Garcia.

Senator Cramer joins Senators Tim Scott (R-SC), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Steve Daines (R-MT), Rick Scott (R-FL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Todd Young (R-IN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Jerry Moran (R-KS), John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Kennedy (R-LA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).

Click here for bill text.

Background:

  • Nationwide, of the $189.5 billion of COVID money awarded under ESSER, State Education Agencies have yet to spend $150.1 billion (79.2%).
  • There were 67 disrupted plots against K-12 schools from 2006-2018 – 66% of the schools had no system for alerting officials to concerning or threatening.
  • Recommendations from the Trump Administration’s 2018, “Final Report of the Federal Commission on School Safety” included:
    • School security strategies should use a layered approach that incorporates multiple, reinforcing echelons of policy, programs, and protective measures.
    • Entry control measures limit the number of access points, allow access only to those who should be on the campus, and provide an opportunity to conduct searches of suspicious items or persons.
    • Schools can implement security measures such as fencing, bollards, planters, curbs, or walls to create a single point of entry to the campus.
    • Video surveillance is a valuable security measure for entry control.
    • Depending on their construction, classroom doors can significantly delay or prevent an attacker from reaching individuals in a classroom.