Sen. Alexander drafts school security bill,

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., as chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee and sponsor of the Ever Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and 21st Century Cures Act of 2016, has put together legislation, called the School Safety & Mental Health Services Improvement Act, to help improve student safety at our nation’s schools.

“I have drafted legislation to help states and communities keep schools safe. Safe schools are for the most part a local responsibility, but in this case, the federal government can and should help. One way to do this is to give states and local school boards the authority to use federal dollars in different ways to make schools safer. For example, this bill would allow Tennessee to use federal dollars to upgrade school safety procedures, hire school counselors and develop mental health programs,” Sen. Alexander said in a press release.

There are 100,000 public schools in the United States and most of the responsibility for making them safer for children lies with state and local governments that provide 90 percent of schools’ funding. But in passing this legislation, Alexander believes the federal government can help in the following ways:

› Encouraging more school counselors

› Encouraging school infrastructure upgrades

› Encouraging the development of mental health programs for crisis intervention training and mental health

› Assessments

› Creating a presidential task force to increase interagency communication

The School Safety and Mental Health Services Improvement Act would expand the use of federal funding to improve school safety, ensure federal mental health funds are made available to children and youth, and create a Presidential Task Force to better coordinate resources between the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Interior and Homeland Security.