COPS in Schools (CIS)
The COPS in Schools (CIS) grant program is designed to help law enforcement
agencies hire new, additional school resource officers (SROs) to engage in
community policing in and around primary and secondary schools. CIS provides an
incentive for law enforcement agencies to build collaborative partnerships with
the school community and to use community policing efforts to combat school
violence.
The COPS in Schools program provides a maximum federal contribution up of to
$125,000 per officer position for approved salary and benefit costs over the
3-year grant period, with any remaining costs to be paid with local funds.
Officers paid with CIS funding must be hired on or after the grant award start
date. All jurisdictions that apply must also demonstrate that they have primary
law enforcement authority over the school(s) identified in their application,
and also demonstrate their inability to implement this project without federal
assistance. Funding will begin when the new officers are hired on or after the
grant award date, and will be paid over the course of the 3-year grant
period.
COPS has announced 19 rounds of funding under the COPS in Schools program,
including five that were a part of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative,
a joint initiative between the Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and
Human Services. The Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant program was developed to
provide students, schools, and communities with the benefit of enhanced educational,
mental health, and law enforcement services to promote a comprehensive healthy
childhood development.
COPS announced the first round of the CIS program in April 1999, and the most
recent in July 2005. COPS has awarded in excess of $753 million to more than 3,000
grantees to hire more than 6,500 SROs through the CIS program. COPS has provided more
than $10 million to hire approximately 100 SROs through the Safe Schools/Healthy
Students program.
In addition, in FY 2004 the CIS program coordinated with OJP and other DOJ
components to provide funding for SROs to three agencies for 12 positions ($1.5
million in federal funding) in conjunction with OJP's Gang Reduction Project.
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