Call for Applications: School Violence Program 2025 (United States)

This funding opportunity aims to support school safety by implementing solutions to enhance school climate, establish school-based behavioral threat assessment and intervention teams to identify violence risks, introduce technologies like anonymous reporting tools, and apply other evidence-based strategies to prevent violence.

Goals

• Goal: The goal of the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Grant Program (STOP)School Violence Program is to improve school safety by providing students and teachers with the tools they need to recognize, respond quickly to, and help prevent acts of violence:
  • Train school personnel and educate students on preventing student violence against others and themselves. This can also include any program shown to improve school climate, such as anti-bullying training, or specialized training for school officials and law enforcement to respond to mental health crises.
  • Increase school safety by developing and implementing threat assessment and/or intervention teams to identify school violence risks and implement strategies to mitigate those risks.
  • Implement a technology solution, such as an anonymous reporting technology that can be implemented as a smartphone app, a hotline, or a website in the applicant’s geographic area designed to provide a way for students, teachers, faculty, and community members to anonymously identify school violence threats, or other technology solutions that will improve school safety.
  • Implement other school safety solutions that help prevent school violence and improve school climate, such as increasing access to school-based behavioral health services, implementing social and emotional learning programs, or applying other interventions that promote a positive and healthy school climate.
  • Train school-based law enforcement officers or probation officers who work with school-based populations.
  • Hire personnel to improve a school climate and positive responses to student behavior.

Categories

• Category 1: States
• Category 2: Localities, Nonprofits and School Districts

Funding Information

• Total Amount To Be Awarded Under This Funding Opportunity: $83,000,000
• Anticipated Award Ceiling:
  • Category 1: Up to $2,000,000
  • Category 2: Up to $1,000,000 Anticipated Period of Performance Duration: 36 months

Deliverables

• The proposals may include one or more of the following deliverable areas:
  • Develop and operate technology solutions.
  • Develop and implement multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment (BTA) and/or intervention teams.
  • Train school personnel and educate students on preventing school violence, including strategies to improve a school climate.
  • Provide specialized training for law enforcement who work in schools and/or with school-age populations such as school resource officers (SROs) and probation officers.
  • Hire school support personnel such as climate specialists, school psychologists, school social workers, school-based violence interrupters, and others directly supporting the prevention of school violence.
  • Implement community violence intervention strategies in a school setting.
  • Implement simulation-based experiential learning.
  • Partner with local law enforcement.
  • Support school-based diagnostic mental health services or school-based mental health treatment services.

Eligibility Criteria

• Government Entities:
  • State governments
  • County governments
  • City or township governments
  • Special district governments
  • Native American tribal governments (federally recognized)
• Educational Organizations:
  • Independent school districts
  • Public and state-controlled institutions of higher education
  • Private institutions of higher education
• Nonprofit Organizations:
  • Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), other than institutions of higher education
  • Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
• Other:
  • Units of local government
  • Private K–12 schools, including private charter schools
  • Public charter schools

Review Criteria

• Applications that meet the basic minimum requirements will be evaluated for technical merit by peer reviewers based on how the proposed project/program addresses the following criteria:
  • Statement of the Problem/Description of the Issue (20%): What critical issue or problem the applicant is proposing to address with this project.
  • Project Goals and Objectives (10%): How the proposed project will address the identified need and the purpose of the funding opportunity.
  • Project Design and Implementation (20%): The strength of how the applicant will implement activities, including the soundness of the project design and how the activities align to the stated goals and objectives.
  • Capabilities and Competencies (20%): The applicant’s administrative and technical capacity to successfully complete this project.
  • Budget (15%): Completeness and cost effectiveness.
  • Plan for Collecting the Data Required for This NOFO’s Performance Measures (5%): The applicant’s understanding of the performance data reporting requirements and the plan for collecting the required data.
  • Sustainability (10%): Applicant’s sustainability plan to address how the project or technology will continue to operate and be maintained once the award funding has ended.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.