Budget Amendment ID: FY2023-S4-646

EDU 646

Holistic School Health and Safety Practices

Ms. Chandler, Ms. Jehlen, Mr. Moore, Ms. Rausch and Ms. Chang-Diaz moved that the proposed new text be amended by adding after Section 78 the following section:-

SECTION XX. Chapter 69 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 1T the following:-

Section 1U. Subject to appropriation, the department of elementary and secondary education shall administer the Holistic School Health and Safety Practices grant program  to support school districts and/or individual public schools with the cost of transitioning to, and/or implementing, holistic school health and safety practices that do not include law enforcement presence; provided that “Holistic School Health and Safety Practices” are practices that: a) have been shown to strengthen positive relationships and communication between students and adults; b) contribute to building a school-wide culture that is affirming and embracing of the diversity of cultural, linguistic, and racial backgrounds of enrolled students and their families; c) support non-disciplinary strategies of resolving conflicts with students; and d) are effective without unnecessary reliance on school exclusion or referral to law enforcement; provided further, that Holistic School Health and Safety Practices include, but are not limited to: (1) The creation of advisory groups that enable students to meet regularly with a school staff member and a group of their peers; (2)Practices that support the creation of healthy relationships and counter sexual harassment, sexual assault, and harassment based on other identities, including race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion; (3) Restorative justice, and related practices shown to resolve and reduce conflict among students and/or between students and staff; and (4)Staffing students’ arrival, dismissal, and other transition periods with adults with ties to students’ communities who are skilled at engaging youth and deescalating conflicts; provided further, that eligible expenses under Holistic School Health and Safety Practices grants include, but are not limited to: (1) Identifying and planning the transition to holistic school health and safety practices; (2) implementing holistic school health and safety practices; (3)Hiring and training staff to implement holistic school health and safety practices, including licensed clinical social workers; (4) Supporting and/or creating school safety teams that include parents, students, teachers, emergency responders, and community to develop or modify the individual school safety plans; (5) Providing information and training to members of the school community, including students and parents, on the school safety plans and holistic school health and safety practices described above; (6)Documenting and/or evaluating the impact of the grant, and, (7)Identifying ways to allocate the cost savings of not placing police or other security personnel in schools, including continuation of holistic school health and safety practices upon completion of such grants; provided further, that the purchase of metal detectors, weapons, or surveillance technology, or the hiring or employment of school-based security personnel is not an eligible use of such grant funds, nor shall such purchases or hiring be made with other sources of funding during the grant term; provided further, that for the purposes of the Holistic School Health and Safety Practices grant program, “school-based security personnel” are defined as school resource officers, special service officers appointed by local law enforcement agencies at the request of other departments of their cities, other law enforcement agents, or security guards who are assigned to the premises of a school or district, whether or not they are employed directly by the school or the district seeking such grants; provided further, that nothing in this section shall prohibit a school from contacting law enforcement in an emergency; provided further, that a school or district is eligible to apply for such a grant whether or not it had previously staffed any school-based security personnel, including school resource officers as defined in section 37P of chapter 71, but a school or district is not eligible to receive such a grant if it intends to continue staffing any school-based security personnel beyond the transition allowed in the first year of such grant; provided further, the department of elementary and secondary education shall establish application requirements for such one- and/or two-year grants, which must include the prior three years’ worth of data on school-based policing pursuant to section 37P of chapter 71, as well as the cost to the school and/or district of employing or assigning school-based security personnel and the sources of funding used to do so; provided further, that, among grant applicants, schools and districts with higher percentages of low-income students will be given a competitive preference for award of such a grant; provided further, that recipients of the Holistic School Health and Safety Practices Grant Program be given a competitive preference for Social Emotional Learning grants, Safe and Supportive Schools grants, and other grants administered by the department that promote holistic school health and safety; provided further, that recipients of the Holistic School Health and Safety Practices Grant Program who received a one-year grant to plan their transition to police-free schooling may apply for an additional one- or two-year grant to support the implementation of their holistic school health and safety practices; provided further, that the department shall also establish reporting requirements for grant recipients to evaluate the impact of the grant on school safety, including data on school-based policing as described above; provided further, that the department shall serve as a repository for information on holistic school health and safety practices at use in the Commonwealth and elsewhere, establishing a community of practice for grantees and other interested schools and districts to share best practices.