GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2025

H                                                                                                                                                    1

HOUSE BILL 832

Short Title:      Revise School Safety Grant Program.		(Public)
Sponsors:	Representatives Blackwell, Campbell, Cunningham, and Wheatley (Primary Sponsors). For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
Referred to:	Education - K-12, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

April 10, 2025

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to revise the purposes for which school safety grants program funds may be used.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Section 7.36(f) of S.L. 2023‑134, as amended by Section 3J.17 of S.L. 2024‑57, reads as rewritten:

"SECTION 7.36.(f)  Grants for Training to Increase School Safety. – Of the funds appropriated by this act for the grants provided in this section, the Executive Director of the Center for Safer Schools, in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services, shall award grants to public school units to contract with community partners to address school safety by providing training to help students develop healthy responses to trauma and stress. The training shall be targeted and evidence‑based and shall include any of the following services:

(1)        Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) training for school health support personnel, local first responders, and teachers on the topics of suicide prevention and reducing access by students to lethal means.

(2)        Training for school health support personnel on comprehensive and evidence‑based clinical treatments for students and their parents or guardians, including any of the following:

a.         Parent‑child interaction therapy.

b.         Trauma‑focused cognitive behavioral therapy.

c.         Behavioral therapy.

d.         Dialectical behavior therapy.

e.         Child‑parent psychotherapy.

(3)        Training for students and school employees on community resilience models to models, violence prevention, and developing personal and interpersonal skills to (i) enhance individual level protective factors, (ii) mitigate or reduce risk taking or harmful behavior, and (iii) improve understanding and responses to trauma and significant stress.

(4)        Training for school health support personnel on Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, or Conduct problems (MATCH‑ADTC), including any of the following components:

a.         Trauma‑focused cognitive behavioral therapy.

b.         Parent and student coping skills.

c.         Problem solving.

d.         Safety planning.

(5)        Any other training, including the training on the facilitation of peer‑to‑peer mentoring, training or education programming that is likely to increase school safety. The training or education programming authorized in this subdivision includes training on the facilitation of peer‑to‑peer mentoring, education on personal and interpersonal skills or character education, and education or training addressing violence prevention and suicide prevention. Of the funds appropriated by this act for the grants provided in this section, the Executive Director shall use no more than three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) in the 2024‑2025 fiscal year for the services identified in this subdivision."

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.