ABOUT SAFE SCHOOLS/HEALTHY STUDENTS:

The Safe School/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative is a discretionary grant program that provides students, schools, and communities with federal funding to implement and enhance, coordinate, comprehensive plan of activities, programs, and services that focus on promoting healthy childhood development and preventing violence and alcohol and other drug abuse. It brings together education, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and mental health systems to provide integrated resources for prevention and early intervention services for children and youth.

Since 1999, the Safe School/Healthy Students Initiative has spread to 49 states. Out of the 485 districts that submitted their application San Benito Consolidated Independent School District was 1 of 19 schools Nation Wide that was awarded the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative Grant in the fall of 2006 in the total amount of $5,633,361. The grant will continue until the end of the 2009 school year.

The grant was awarded from the U.S. Department of Education, Health and Human Services and Justice for the purpose of creating safe learning environment that promotes healthy childhood development and prevents youth violence and drug abuse.