One of the steps taken after the Covenant School tragedy led to millions of dollars being spent on adding school resource officers at schools in Tennessee. $140 million was awarded to the state last year.
An update on the program shows every county in the state is now benefiting from the grant. It’s allowed them to get money upfront to find candidates and train them.
Deputy Commissioner of Homeland Security Gregory Mays recently provided an update. He said that of the $140 million, $98 million has been dispersed since July 1.
More than 1,300 schools entered into an agreement to receive the money and of that, 94 percent now have an SRO assigned. This means six percent are still working on hiring and training someone.
The law is helping to fill the gaps in certain areas of security that were missing before, especially helping in more rural counties across the state that didn’t previously have the budget.
“We think we have made tremendous progress with the SRO Grant. There are at least four counties in the state that I’m aware of that went from zero SRO’s to fully staffed,” said Mays. “We believe that SRO money is money well spent and it’s benefiting the communities.”