AASA Co-Hosts School Safety Briefing on Capitol Hill

On Thursday, AASA was proud to co-sponsor “Smart School Safety: How Schools and Congress Can Maximize Investments for Kids” along with Sandy Hook Promise and the National Association of School Psychologists. 

The briefing featured Shane Hotchkiss, Superintendents of Bermudian Springs, along with staff from Sandy Hook Promise and the National Association of School Psychologists. This exclusive briefing for Capitol Hill staff was an opportunity to better understand how school safety decisions and investments are made at the local level and the importance of engaging students, parents, educators and community leaders to create safe and healthy school environments. Several pieces of legislation were discussed including the recently introduced PLAN for School Safety Act and the CARE for Student Mental Health Act. 

Dr. Hotchkiss pleaded with staff to move away from competitive federal school safety funding grants and passionately argued that this must be a larger funding priority for Congress.