FY 2022 School Violence Prevention Program | O COPS 2022 171214

Opportunity Information: Apply for O COPS 2022 171214

The FY 2022 School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) is a competitive, discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (the COPS Office). The COPS Office is the DOJ component focused on advancing community policing nationwide through grants and practical resources for state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies. Through SVPP, the COPS Office directs funding to help jurisdictions strengthen safety and security at elementary and secondary schools (including certain Bureau-funded schools) by supporting evidence-based approaches and carefully selected safety technologies that align with community policing principles and a positive school climate.

SVPP is authorized by the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act of 2018 (34 U.S.C. 10551 et seq.). Under this authority, the program funds specific categories of school safety improvements. These include strengthening coordination with local law enforcement (often by supporting civilian personnel who serve as liaisons or coordinators), training local law enforcement officers to prevent student violence against others and self-harm, and purchasing and installing certain physical security measures and deterrents such as metal detectors, locks, lighting, and similar improvements. The program also supports technology that speeds up emergency notification to law enforcement, along with other measures the COPS Office Director determines will significantly improve school security. In practice, SVPP is meant to back projects that can show a clear connection between identified risks and the proposed solutions, rather than one-size-fits-all purchases.

The program frames success around practical operational outcomes: better information sharing and coordination between schools and law enforcement, more frequent and higher-quality communication between school officials and public safety partners, reduced time to notify law enforcement during emergencies, and improved response to threats and critical incidents. It also emphasizes accurate identification and follow-up on potential dangers without relying on discriminatory stereotypes or violating student privacy. Beyond immediate security gains, SVPP highlights longer-term capacity building, including increased use of community policing principles in school safety work and stronger planning for sustainability after the grant period ends.

A key condition of SVPP funding is that recipients must conduct comprehensive school safety assessments during the award period for every school included in the project. Those assessments are expected to guide what gets implemented, helping applicants justify that proposed equipment, technology, training, or coordination activities respond to real, documented needs. The broader message throughout the solicitation is that security upgrades should be part of an overall school safety strategy, not isolated add-ons, and that planning should involve the wider school community, including students, parents, teachers, and administrators as well as local law enforcement and other partners.

The solicitation also draws a clear boundary around what SVPP does not fund under COPS. Several activities are described as out of scope for this particular COPS program and are instead associated with related STOP Act funding administered by other DOJ offices, such as the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Examples of out-of-scope activities for COPS SVPP include training school personnel and educating students on violence prevention, building or operating anonymous reporting systems and related apps or hotlines, developing and operating school threat assessment and intervention teams, and specialized training for school officials responding to mental health crises. The solicitation explicitly notes that those kinds of projects may fit better under BJA or OJJDP solicitations, which cover different purpose areas even though they draw from the same overall STOP Act framework.

Throughout the opportunity, the COPS Office underscores that effective school safety work should protect civil rights, support racial equity, maintain student privacy, and avoid creating an overly punitive or prison-like environment that undermines learning or worsens student trauma. The solicitation encourages a trauma-informed approach, recognizing that some security measures can unintentionally increase fear or harm students who already feel unsafe. It also stresses that technology is not a cure-all: equipment can fail without training, can be circumvented without the right culture and procedures, cannot compensate for poor building design, and can impose long-term costs for maintenance, repair, upgrades, and replacement. Applicants are encouraged to select technology based on specific, well-defined problems identified through assessments and to plan for long-term support.

The opportunity provides extensive references to federal planning tools and research-based resources applicants can use when designing projects, including SchoolSafety.gov, the Department of Education REMS Technical Assistance Center, FEMA school emergency planning toolkits, and research from RAND and the National Institute of Justice on school safety technology. It also points applicants toward resources on school climate measurement (like ED school climate surveys), bullying prevention tools, and evidence-based program registries.

Basic grant details included in the posting indicate this is a DOJ COPS Office grant (CFDA 16.710) with an award ceiling of $500,000 and an anticipated 160 awards. Eligible applicants include state governments, local governments (including counties and cities/townships), independent school districts, and federally recognized tribal governments, among others as clarified in the full eligibility section of the solicitation. The FY 2022 posting shows an original application closing date of June 14, 2022.

• The Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2022 School Violence Prevention Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.710.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 21, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 14, 2022. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 160 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Independent school districts, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O COPS 2022 171214

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