PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia Department of Education is helping meet the safety needs of hundreds of Commonwealth schools.
VDOE recently awarded 472 schools across 96 school divisions with a $12-million-dollar security equipment grant backed by the General Assembly. Each of the divisions selected will receive up to $250,000 in funding.
“Children need to be safe and feel safe when they’re at school,” says Todd Reid, Virginia Department of Education Senior Communications Advisor. “And this money enables schools and school divisions to implement the equipment and needs that they have.”
Reid said some of the schools selected from the application process were ones with a high number of offenses.
“What we do see is an increased number of threats coming to schools and school divisions,” he said. ” And, you know, and many of these threats have proven to be either scams or, you know, maliciously false.”
The security equipment includes surveillance cameras, internal communication systems, two-way bus radios and I.D. badge systems for visitors.
12 school divisions in Hampton Roads have received $1,548,876 in funding to be used across 104 schools.
