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This Web site is a component of the SAMHSA Health Information Network.

Saturday, Sept. 11, 1999
Contact: Melinda Malico, ED, (202) 401-1008
USDOJ Public Affairs, (202) 514-2007
Marsha Corbett, SAMHSA, (301) 443-2957

In his weekly radio address, President Clinton today announced more than $100 million in grants to 54 communities to make schools more safe and help safeguard young people from aggressive and violent behavior, as well as drug and alcohol use.

Under the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, urban, rural, suburban and tribal school districts will receive support to help link community-based services and prevention activities into one communitywide approach to violence prevention and healthy child development -- including promoting children’s skills to show self-control and rebuff the use of violence or aggression.

The unprecedented joint effort involving the U.S. Departments of Education (ED), Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) aims to help communities design and implement comprehensive educational, mental health, social service, law enforcement and juvenile justice services for youth. The grants announced today fund the first year of three-year projects.

"Research shows that a far-reaching, communitywide and schoolwide approach is the best strategy to promote healthy child development and reduce school violence and drug abuse," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. "Our children's health, safety and future success depend on partnerships that pool the strengths of schools, families and community organizations and offer a broad-based preventive approach to violence and drug use. These partnerships will also address children's emotional and developmental needs."

"These funds will assist local communities and school systems in working collaboratively to develop comprehensive approaches to reduce violent behavior in our young people," said Attorney General Janet Reno. "We’ve been preaching collaboration at the community level for years. Now we’re finally doing it on a significant scale at the federal level."

"We need to nurture the personal strengths of children and adolescents so they can resolve problems without resorting to violence, alcohol, drugs and suicide," said U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala. "We must enter the 21^st century using the knowledge we have to promote healthy development among our children and provide prevention and treatment services for them."

The school-based community partnerships are as diverse as Washington, Maine, and Washington, D.C.; as Delta Junction, Alaska and Des Moines, Iowa. School districts submitted comprehensive plans generated under a formal partnership with law enforcement officials and local mental health authorities, in collaboration with families, juvenile justice officials and community-based organizations. To be considered, the plans were required to address the following six elements:

• a safe school environment;
• alcohol and other drugs and violence prevention and early intervention programs;
• school and community mental health preventive and treatment intervention services;
• early childhood social and emotional development programs;
• school reform; and,
• safe school policies.

Research demonstrates that preventing violence by building on children’s strengths and promoting healthy development yields better results and is more cost-effective than strictly punitive measures. Grantees are encouraged to intervene early and to use programs that have a solid base of evidence showing their effectiveness -- such as life skills development, mentoring, conflict resolution, support for families, professional development for staff, truancy prevention, after-school activities, teen courts and alternative education.

The initiative is funded in Fiscal Year 1999 with $60 million from ED’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, $25 million from HHS’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), $15 million from DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and an additional $6 million from DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) -- to fund the hiring of 53 police or school resource officers in schools. In addition, President Clinton today announced that another 46 communities will receive nearly $17 million to fund the hiring of 147 additional school resource officers.

Urban school districts were eligible for up to $3 million, suburban districts were eligible for up to $2 million and rural and tribal districts were eligible for up to $1 million. Applications – judged for their strength, comprehensiveness, viability and likelihood to succeed -- were peer reviewed by an interdepartmental team that made recommendations to the cabinet departments.

Descriptions of the funded projects will be available Saturday on the various department web sites at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osdfs/index.html?src=mr, www.samhsa.gov and www.usdoj.gov.

NOTE TO EDITORS: A list of grantees, contacts and grant amounts follows. Also included are DOJ’s funds for school resource officers, funded under the COPS program.