School districts across the state are vying for millions of dollars in grants.

The money from Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security would be used for school security.

Hire and train a school resource officer. Do a threat assessment. Buy equipment such as metal detectors. Those are just some of the things school districts could decide to do with free money up for grabs from the state.

State Rep. Tim Brown, a Republican from Crawfordsville, continued the list. “Entryways, cameras, lighting, security issues, those types of alarm systems.”

Districts can apply grants from $35,000 to $50,000 for fiscal year 2019, which starts July 1.

Brown said, “We’ve found that it’s the school resource officers that are probably the most important thing that can make the children and the staff feel safe in their building.”

“This bill we’ll be dealing with in the special session, HB 1320 will be an additional to what we appropriated in the budget in 2017,” Brown said.

But Indiana’s Department of Homeland Security website states requests have outnumbered available money for the program. According to the department, Gov. Eric Holcomb will request an additional $5 million for the grant program during a special legislative session in May.

State Rep. Greg Porter, a Democrat from Indianapolis, said Tuesday, “We had about $3.5 million more in requests than we had. So, I think at this point, in light of what’s going on in this country, that we need to move forward and have another $5 million-plus to address the needs of our communities.”

The first deadline for school districts to submit an intent-to-apply form is Friday.

To know exactly how much your school district was awarded in grant money last year, click here. 

To learn how much your child’s school district received in 2017, click here.

To learn how much your child’s school district received in 2016, click here.

To learn how much your child’s school district received in 2015, click here.

To learn how much your child’s school district received in 2014, click here.