Overview

Retains, with some changes, State formula grants and national discretionary activities for drug and violence prevention.

Requires (in Title IX General Provisions) States to allow students who attend a persistently dangerous school, or who become a victim of a violent crime at school, to transfer to a safe school; requires States to report on school safety to the public; and requires school districts to implement drug and violence prevention programs of demonstrated effectiveness.

Major Changes from Current Law

• New Program - Within the authorization of appropriations for National Programs, adds several authorities for specific programs that are not in current law, including:

  Community service for expelled or suspended students. This program authorizes formula grants to States to carry out programs under which students expelled or suspended from school are required to perform community service. Funds are allocated to the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico half on the basis of school-aged population and half on the basis of each State's share of Title I concentration grant funding for the preceding year, with a small State minimum allocation of one-half of one percent of the total.

  School security and technology resource center. This program authorizes the Secretary, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Energy to enter into an agreement for the establishment at the Sandia National Laboratories, in partnership with the National law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center-Southeast and the National Center for Rural Law Enforcement in Little Rock, Arkansas, of a center to be know as the "School Security Technology and Resource Center." This Center, which the statute requires to be administered by the Attorney General, would be a resource to local educational agencies for school security assessments, security technology development, evaluation and implementation, and technical assistance relating to improving school security. The Center would also conduct and publish school violence research, coalesce data from victim communities, and monitor and report on schools that implement school security strategies.

  National center for school and youth safety. Authorizes the Secretary and the Attorney General to establish a National Center for School and Youth Safety which is required to carry out four prescribed activities: (1) emergency assistance (including counseling for victims and enhanced security) to local communities to respond to school safety crises; (2) a national, toll-free telephone anonymous student hotline for students to report criminal activity, threats of criminal activity, and other warning signs of potentially violent or criminal behavior; (3) consultation with the public regarding school safety through the use of a toll-free telephone number staffed by individuals with expertise in enhancing school safety; and (4) information and outreach. Under this last category, the Center would be required to compile information about best practices in school violence prevention, intervention, and crisis management, and serve as a clearinghouse for model school safety program information; and ensure that local governments, school officials, parents, students, and law enforcement officials and agencies, especially those in rural and impoverished communities, are aware of the resources, grants, and expertise available to enhance school safety and prevent school crime.

  Grants to reduce alcohol abuse. Authorizes the Secretary, in consultation with the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the Department of Health and Human Services, to award competitive grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to develop and implement innovative and effective programs to reduce alcohol abuse in secondary schools. The Secretary may reserve up to 20 percent of the amount used to carry out this section to enable the Administrator of SAMHSA to provide alcohol abuse resources and start-up assistance to the LEAs receiving these grants, and 25 percent of the funds under this program to award grants to low-income and rural LEAs. As a condition of funding, all grantees are required to implement one or more of the proven strategies for reducing underage alcohol abuse as determined by SAMHSA.

  Mentoring programs. Authorizes the Secretary to award grants to local educational agencies (LEAs), non-profit community-based organizations, or a partnership of the two to establish and support mentoring programs and activities for children who are at risk of educational failure, dropping out of school, or involvement in criminal or delinquent activities, or who lack strong positive role models. The programs must be designed to link these children (particularly those living in rural areas, high-crime areas, or troubled home environments, or children experiencing educational failure or attending schools with violence problems) with mentors who have received training and support in mentoring and are interested in working with such children to, among other things, provide general guidance and emotional support, promote personal and social responsibility, offer academic assistance and encourage them to excel in school and plan for the future, and discourage illegal use of drugs and alcohol and violence. Funds must be used for activities including but not limited to, hiring and training mentoring coordinators and support staff; recruiting, screening, and training mentors; and disseminating outreach materials. However, the mentors may not be compensated directly with grant funds.

• Authorization Trigger for National Programs - Does not authorize an increase in funding for National Programs in any fiscal year in which the appropriation for State grants is not increased by at least 10 percent over the previous year.

• Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) Advisory Committee - Establishes a new Advisory Committee composed of representatives of other Federal agencies, State and local governments (including school districts), and researchers and expert practitioners to advise the Secretary of Education and to help coordinate Federal school- and community-based substance abuse and violence prevention programs.

• Local Plan for Safe and Drug-Free Schools - Requires LEAs that receive SDFSC funds to have a plan for keeping schools safe and drug-free that includes appropriate and effective discipline policies, security procedures, prevention activities, a student code of conduct, and a crisis management plan for responding to violent or traumatic incidents on school grounds.

• New Limit on Local Administrative Costs - Institutes a cap of 2 percent on the amount of SDFSC formula funds that an LEA may use to administer the program. (There is no LEA cap on administrative costs under current law; however, under the Department's general administrative regulations, LEAs are limited to administrative costs that are reasonable and necessary.)

• Local Uses of Funds - Retains the 20 percent cap on the amount of SDFSC funds LEAs may spend for school security-related activities, but doubles this cap to 40 percent for funds used to hire and train school security personnel.

Accountability

• Requires local prevention programs to meet principles of effectiveness. To be funded, programs must be: (1) based on an assessment of objective data about the drug and violence problems in the schools and communities to be served; (2) based on performance measures aimed at ensuring that these schools and communities have a safe, orderly, and drug-free learning environment; (3) grounded in scientifically based research that provides evidence that the program to be used will reduce violence and illegal drug use; (4) based on an analysis of the prevalence of "risk factors, protective factors, buffers, assets, or other variables," identified through scientifically based research, that exist in the schools and communities in the State; (5) include consultation with and input from parents; and (6) evaluated periodically against locally selected performance measures, and modified over time (based on the evaluation) to refine, improve, and strengthen the program.

• Establishes a new Uniform Management Information and Reporting System under which States will provide information on a school-by-school basis to the public on truancy rates and on the frequency, seriousness, and incidence of violence and drug-related offenses resulting in suspensions and expulsions; and also report to the public on the types of curricula, programs, and services provided by grantees, and on the incidence and prevalence, age of onset, perception of health risk, and perception of social disapproval of drug use and violence by youth.

Allocations

• Federal to State - State grant allocations are based 50 percent on the Title I concentration grants formula and 50 percent on population, with a hold-harmless to ensure that no State receives less in 2002 or future years than it received in 2001. Governors may elect to receive up to 20 percent of their State's allocation; the remainder goes to the State educational agency.

• State to Local - SEA allocations to LEAs are based 60 percent on Title I basic and concentration grants, and 40 percent on enrollment.

Set-Asides

• Federal Reservations of State Grant Funds - (1) 1 percent or $4.750 million (whichever is greater) for the Outlying Areas; (2) 1 percent or $4.750 million (whichever is greater) for the BIA; and (3) 0.2 percent for programs for Native Hawaiians.

• Federal Reservations of National Programs Funds - (1) Up to $2 million for a national impact evaluation; and (2) the amount necessary to make continuation awards to grantees under the Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative.

• State Reservations of SEA Funds - Up to 5 percent for program activities and up to 3 percent for administrative costs (and for fiscal year 2002 only, up to 4 percent for administrative costs, if the additional funds are used to implement the required uniform management and reporting system) - provided that, in any fiscal year, at least 93 percent of the SEA's allocation is distributed to LEAs.

• State Reservations of Governors' Funds - Up to 3 percent for administrative costs.