A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to establish a grant program to provide safety resources to schools using funds from the north carolina education lottery.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑105.56 reads as rewritten:
"§ 115C‑105.56.  Task Force for Safer Schools; powers and duties.
The Task Force shall have all of the following duties:
(1)	To serve as an advisory board to the Center for Safer Schools.
(2)	To provide guidance and recommendations to the Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the General Assembly to improve statewide policy to enhance statewide and local capacities to create safer schools.
(3)	To encourage interagency collaboration among State and local government agencies to achieve effective policies and streamline efforts to create safer schools.
(4)	To Assist the Center for Safer Schools in collecting and disseminating information on recommended best practices and community needs related to creating safer schools in North Carolina.
(4a)	To make formal recommendations based upon applications submitted to the Department of Public Instruction in its administration of the School Safety Grant program pursuant to G.S. 115C‑105.57.
(5)	Other duties as assigned by the State Board of Education."
SECTION 2.  Article 8C of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 115C‑105.57.  School Safety Grant Fund; program.
(a)	The School Safety Grant Fund is established in the Department of Public Instruction, to be administered by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in accordance with rules adopted by the State Board of Education. The School Safety Grant Fund shall be used to award grants to local school administrative units to be used to improve school safety. The Department of Public Instruction shall award grants to local school administrative units based upon the recommendations of the Task Force for Safer Schools.
(b)	A local school administrative unit may submit an application to the Task Force for Safer Schools for a School Safety Grant. The application submitted by the local school administrative unit shall include an assessment, to be performed in conjunction with local law enforcement, of the need for improving school safety within the local school administrative unit. The application shall identify current and ongoing needs and estimated costs associated with those needs.
(c)	In making recommendations for grants pursuant to this section, the Task Force for Safer Schools shall assess applications received from local school administrative units and prioritize the grant requests based upon criteria established by the Task Force for Safer Schools. In assessing grant applications, the Task Force for Safer Schools shall consider at least all of the following factors:
(1)	The overall need demonstrated in the grant application.
(2)	The level of resources available to the local school administrative unit.
(3)	Whether the local school administrative unit has received other grants or funding for school safety resources.
(4)	The overall impact on student safety if the identified needs are funded.
(d)	A single grant awarded pursuant to this section shall not exceed seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000). On or before March 1, the Department of Public Instruction shall submit an annual report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee and the Fiscal Research Division detailing the number of grants issued, the amount of each grant issued, and the school safety need the grant was intended for."
SECTION 3.1.  Section 5.3(a) of S.L. 2017‑57 reads as rewritten:
"SECTION 5.3.(a)  The appropriations made from the Education Lottery Fund for the 2017‑2019 fiscal biennium are as follows:
	FY 2017‑2018	FY 2018‑2019

Noninstructional Support Personnel	$383,888,897	$385,914,455
Prekindergarten Program	78,252,110	78,252,110
Public School Building Capital Fund	100,000,000	100,000,000
Needs‑Based Public School Capital Fund	30,000,000	75,000,000
School Safety Grant Program	–	70,000,000
Scholarships for Needy Students	30,450,000	30,450,000
UNC Need‑Based Financial Aid	10,744,733	10,744,733
LEA Transportation	43,277,192	1,386,090

TOTAL APPROPRIATION	$676,612,932	$781,747,388"
SECTION 3.2.  The appropriation to the School Safety Grant Program in Section 3.1 of this act is made notwithstanding G.S. 143C‑5‑2.
SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2018.