SUMMARY

2017 Wisconsin Act 143 appropriated $100.0 million to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in fiscal year 2018-19 for awarding school safety grants to school districts, private schools, independent charter schools, and tribal schools. In 2018, DOJ awarded $94.5 million in 1,325 school safety grants. We reviewed all 779 school safety plans submitted to DOJ as of mid-April 2019 and found that most contained information about at least six of seven types of statutorily required guidelines and procedures. However, a number of plans contained relatively little information pertaining to certain guidelines and procedures. The 779 plans contained a number of examples of best practices, which we describe in our report. We also surveyed 1,210 school administrators and 521 local law enforcement agencies about school safety issues. We recommend DOJ use the results of our surveys to consider ways to provide school districts and schools with additional training and support pertaining to school safety issues.