Michigan Governor Releases Details on $20 Million School Safety Plan

Gov. Rick Snyder is recommending $20 million to help schools upgrade their security.

• By Sydny Shepard
• Apr 19, 2018

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has released the details of his new school safety plan, which recommends $20 million to help schools upgrade their security and calls for a permanent Safe Schools Commission to review safety plans each year.

"Recent tragedies taking place in schools nationwide have escalated emotions and driven some people to entrench upon a single position," Snyder said in a news release. "But there is no one simple solution to solve this terrible problem and prevent it from ever happening again."

There are 18 initiatives included in Snyder's plan:

• $18 million in fiscal year 2019 for school safety grants that will allow school leaders to strengthen buildings, improve lock systems and upgrade communications
• $2 million in the current fiscal year for schools that require basic security upgrades, such as functioning, locking doors
• Schools would submit incident reports to law enforcement
• Schools would develop comprehensive security plans that would include behavioral health policies, student reporting mechanisms, emergency response and building safety requirements
• A temporary school safety task force would make recommendations and a permanent Safe Schools Commission would be created to review and help update the state's school safety plan year to year
• School teachers, administrators and faculty would be trained to identify when students are in need of mental or emotional counseling and support
• The state would pilot a $2 million grand program for intermediate school districts to offer behavioral assessment training for their administrative and academic teams
• The Michigan Council on Law Enforcement Standards would be directed to create a tiered training program for school resource officers. The organization would also be directed to develop a standard for active violence response training for police officers