What Does Walker's $100M School Safety Plan Mean For Unified?

RACINE COUNTY, WI — Gov. Scott Walker signed his $100 million School Safety Plan into law Monday morning, which creates a grant program for school districts to enhance school safety resources. Every Wisconsin school is eligible for the grant program.

"Our $100 million School Safety Plan will help ensure that every student, parent, and teacher feels safe at school," Walker said. "This bill provides important grant funding that will allow districts to invest in safety measures that will help protect against all threats. This will help protect our students and their future."

State officials say every school in Wisconsin, private, public, and tribal are eligible to apply for these grants. That means every school in the area would be able to apply for the grants.

You might be wondering what impact this might have for the Racine Unified School District. Patch.com reached out to the district, and Stacy Tapp, Chief of Communication and Community Engagement with the district was able to help us shed more light on what might be coming for Racine Unified.

1) Does your district have an idea on how its going to interact with the new office to affect school safety?

"Not yet. We look forward to receiving more information."

2) Does your district have a wish list for improvements that could boost school safety?

"We're pleased to see the school safety bill pass. We have much work in place and many of the initiatives outlined in the bill are things we have underway in RUSD. We're hopeful this funding will help us to continue to ramp up our efforts."

3) What does your district do particularly well when it comes to school safety?

"We are extremely fortunate to have a long-standing, collaborative partnership with our local police departments. Most recently we have launched the Community Policing Model in our schools, which is a proactive approach that helps develop positive, trusting relationships between officers and students.

We've seen positive results already. We have recently trained our staff on ALiCE, which is a new model (new to our community) for active shooter response. We will be communicating with our families about the move to ALiCE this spring and then officially implementing with our students in the fall. Additionally, RUSD has been working for the past several years to budget each year for improvements to secure entrances at our schools.

We have also been fortunate to work with the Johnson Foundation's Children's Mental Health Collaborative and the many community partners involved in that initiative these past several years. This collaborative has helped RUSD focus on supporting mental health in our schools and community. We are one of very few districts with school-based mental health clinics as well as (new this year) a community clinic.

These are just some of the initiatives we are very proud to have in place as we work to address school safety on many fronts."

Provisions of Gov. Walker's School Safety Plan:

• Creates an Office of School Safety within the Wisconsin Department of Justice to work with law enforcement and schools to establish best practices for school safety and provide training opportunities and other relevant resources to schools.
• Provides $100 million to fund a new grant program for security upgrades to school buildings and other eligible costs.
• Mandates reporting for any threats of school violence.
• Allows grant funding to implement Trauma-Informed Care and Adverse Childhood Experiences in Schools.
• Strengthens school safety plan requirements by requiring all schools to consult with local law enforcement and conduct on-site assessments of all pupil occupied areas.

Patch.com File Photo