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Public School Infrastructure Fund: department details school safety grants, waitlist and award process
Summary
Department staff described the Public School Infrastructure Fund and the Safe Grants (school safety) program, summarized past allocations following school shootings, outlined award priorities (access control, surveillance, emergency alerting), and reported a multi‑million dollar waitlist.
Tim Kearney described the Public School Infrastructure Fund and how the department has used competitive awards to prioritize school safety projects.
Why it matters: the fund has been used repeatedly for school security measures since 2018 and remains a vehicle for smaller infrastructure projects that are not eligible for larger building aid awards.
Kearney traced the fund’s origin to a 2017 legislative mechanism that places excess audited general funds into a public school infrastructure fund for eligible projects. The department said the initial $18 million tranche was devoted to school safety after the Parkland shooting, and subsequent funding rounds added roughly $10 million from other state and federal sources after later national shootings. The fund has prioritized access control, surveillance and emergency alerting projects; awards require schools to have a security assessment from the Department of Homeland Security and an emergency response plan.
The department described how awards are processed on a reimbursement basis. Kearney said some projects take time to draw funds because of local budgeting cycles, capital timing and installation schedules; as a result, some approved awards remain open while other schools wait on the active waitlist. The packet provided to the committee listed a waitlist (point‑in‑time) of approximately $9.2 million remaining as schools close out previously awarded projects.
Ending: the department said it will continue to accept applications in future rounds as funds permit and will share the waitlist and award status with the committee for oversight.
