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WCASD Awarded Competitive School Safety Grant
The West Chester Area School District has been awarded a $20,000 school safety grant. The District is one of only two school districts in Chester County to receive the Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE) competitive Safe Schools Targeted Program Grant.
"The grant money will be used to fund staff training for the state’s Student Assistance Program (SAP) for all ten of our elementary schools," said Dr. Leigh Ann Ranieri, Director of Pupil Services.
"SAP has been in existence in our middle and high schools for at least 25 years. The program helps us to identify alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and mental health issues among our students. We are finding these problems are starting to affect children at a younger age, prompting the need to extend the program to the elementary level. SAP helps to reduce students engaging in risky behaviors."
The primary goal of SAP is to help students overcome these barriers so that they may be successful in school.
According to PDE, $1.04 million has been awarded to 60 public school entities to establish and implement programs to prevent and reduce violent incidents. Applicants were able to receive up to $20,000 to fund such programs.