TEA seeks $54M for school safety
AUSTIN — The Texas Education Agency is asking lawmakers for $54 million to fund school safety initiatives in the next two years.
The agency said it needs the money for the Safe and Healthy Schools Initiative, which will support mental health services, positive school culture, facilities safety and emergency response coordination. TEA proposes using the money to add school counselors and mental health professionals. The funds could also be used to expand the school marshal program, which gives firearms training to teachers and allows them to have a weapon on campus.
TEA’s legislative budget request, filed Thursday, comes four months after a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School left 10 dead and injured 13 others. In the aftermath of the shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott and other lawmakers vowed to provide more funding to schools to invest in security and mental health professionals. TEA’s request will join the dozens of other appropriation requests put together by state agencies as lawmakers prepare to craft a new budget next year.
“The request is a good start. We are optimistic that legislators will provide additional funding beyond this proposed down payment in order to meet the significant student mental health needs that state and local leaders have identified in recent months,” said Josette Saxton, the director of mental health policy at Texans Care for Children.
The agency also is requesting $50 million to provide special education services to students who were previously denied them. For more than a decade, TEA set a de-facto cap on the number of students schools could identify to receive special education services. Following a Houston Chronicle investigation, the Department of Education found the cap was illegal and required TEA to find students who were previously denied services and offer them resources to make up for the ones that they did not receive.
TEA plans to use the $50 million to reimburse school districts for costs related to offering those compensatory services.
Texas education officials will present their budget request to lawmakers on Sept. 12.