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Ohio distributes nearly $11.2M in school safety grant money

Posted at 8:10 AM, Mar 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-08 08:10:25-05

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Attorney General's Office says the state has distributed most of the $12 million that lawmakers allotted last year for school safety grants.

A spokesman for the office, Dave O'Neil, says schools claimed nearly $11.2 million of that.

Schools were eligible to get $5.65 per student, or at least $2,500 per school, to be spent on efforts such as training school resource officers and funding programs to help students struggling with mental health issues.

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Schools were required to work with local law enforcement representatives to decide how to spend the grants.

The state extended the application deadline by a few weeks last November to encourage more schools to seek their share.

O'Neil says officials are discussing what should be done with the unclaimed amount of about $820,000.