Oregon’s Governor Kate Brown announced that she has dedicated $3.3 million from federal Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund for school safety and violence prevention throughout Oregon. The funds were reserved for allocations by governors through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education recently informed the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) that Oregon is eligible for over $8.2 million in federal funding from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

“Oregon schools should be safe, welcoming, and inclusive places for every student who walks through their doors,” said Governor Brown. “Every student in Oregon deserves to be safe from gun violence. Every parent should be able to send their child to school knowing they will come home safe. Every teacher and school employee should be able to go to work without fear for their safety or that of the students under their care.”

It was the Governor’s party that passed SB 554 allowing public schools and universities to install gun bans on the premises. Not to mention her support in removing Resource Officers from schools. Both have had negative effects on schools and students. Where Resource Officers were funded providing security, now she is replacing them with $3.3 million in new funds for 19 School Safety and Prevention Specialists positions across all 19 education service districts. “Free” money to start or expand programs means, to make it ongoing, it will require a raise in the school budget and raise in taxes.

Governor Brown says, “With this $3.3 million, school districts can build on their existing violence prevention programs and safety-based crisis intervention systems, as well as their programs to prevent bullying, cyberbullying, harassment, and intimidation, and to promote student mental health and well-being. Combined with incoming funding from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, school districts will have new resources to keep students safe.”

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Combined with Student Success Act dollars and funding from Adi’s Act, the GEER funds will be used to fund new School Safety and Prevention System specialist positions in education service districts serving all 197 school districts across the state. These positions will continue to expand support to bolster the areas of the state in need of additional resources.

When removing Resource Officers had a negative impact, ODE implemented the Safe and Inclusive Schools team in partnership with the current School Safety and Prevention Specialists, to support initiatives to address school culture and climate. These initiatives include: an integrated model of mental health with guidance to support centering mental health, collaboration with OHA on Strengthening Mental Health in Education project, and supporting the implementation of “Every Student Belongs” to address threats to school safety related to biased or discriminatory behavior. A bias incident response guide was designed to center equity and restorative practices in instances of bias-based behaviors.

The19 new School Safety and Prevention Specialists will collaborate with ODE and Oregon Health Authority to also support the statewide implementation of ODE’s suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention efforts, including Section 36 of the Student Success Act and Adi’s Act. These efforts have included implementation of the School Suicide Prevention and Wellness Program through Lines for Life with 5 positions statewide to provide technical assistance and training to districts to improve their suicide prevention efforts through the development of Adi’s Act plans. The SSPSs have also established crisis response teams in ESDs designed to respond to behavioral or mental health crises in schools, and have developed a three-year school suicide prevention research project to identify and develop statewide best practices for policy and implementation framework in partnership with the Alliance to Prevent Suicide.

The SSPSs will work collaboratively across regions, districts, schools, and community organizations to provide the most well-rounded and relevant practices and support available––now with a full-time staff member leading effort at each of the 19 ESDs. This regional-based team of Specialists well be an immediate resource to districts and schools who require real-time crisis intervention. This network of care is heavy on response and care, but lacks the prevention that School Resource Officers provided.

SSPS is intended to be the cornerstones of Oregon’s School Safety and Prevention System, which means look for a cry for more school funds in the next session.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2022-10-01 07:25:13