Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley
Baton Rouge – The Louisiana Department of Education is launching a grant program for schools to use towards funding a single point of entry for their campus to increase student safety. Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley said 42 grants of half a million each will be awarded. He said some schools might only need minor adjustments others more substantial.
“There are a number of different things that the funding can be used for, that’s why it’s important that systems just do an analysis of their schools and if they think they need some financial support for access control to submit an application,” said Brumley.
Brumley said the grants can be used to add fencing, locks, cameras, or install metal detectors.
A single point of entry is considered best practice and Brumley said that’s a priority for the modern construction of schools.
“But it necessarily wasn’t that way 50 years ago, and what we see here is an opportunity to retrofit some of those older facilities potentially as well, with some of the new learnings about what helps to keep kids and employees safe,” said Brumley.
A webinar to further explain the application process for the one-time funding will be held for school principals today.
“And then they’ll have around a month or so to submit an application and then we’ll make awards after that,” said Brumley.
The state received $21 million for the grants from the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022.
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