RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia will receive more than $800,000 to go toward a program designed to improve school security, according to an announcement from the governor's office Tuesday afternoon.
The announcement says that the $869,508 in federal funds goes towards the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety.
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The program is designed to improve school security by providing students and teachers with the tools they need to recognize, respond quickly to and prevent acts of violence, according to the governor's office.
Virginia is one of eight states to receive over $650,000 from this grant, and the governor's office says the state will use the money to develop and maintain threat assessment teams throughout the Commonwealth.
According to the announcement, this three-year grant will allow the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety to expand training opportunities, establish a group of threat assessment trainers, offer consultation on threat assessment team implementation and improve the efficiency of threat assessment data collection through the development of a case management tool.
The grant award comes from the Department of Justice, under the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Student, Teachers and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Threat Assessment and Technology Reporting Program.
The Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety serves as a resource and training center for information and research about national and statewide safety efforts and initiatives in K-12 schools and institutes of higher education.