NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — 13 school districts in North Dakota have been awarded nearly $6 million to fund programs focused on student mental health and school security.

The federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act allocated $4.83 million to the state for mental health and school security, and the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction supplemented nearly a million more in federal funds because of the strong grant demand from state schools. That brings the total to $5.93 million, which was split among the school districts — including Dickinson, Rugby, and Divide County.

“The goal is, it’s pretty loosely based for safe and healthy school projects,” said ND Public Instruction Educational Improvement and Support Director, Amanda Peterson, “but also to enhance both the physical and psychological safety of students coming off of the Pandemic and other situations.”

The grant money was awarded through a competitive process, where districts wrote grant applications and were scored based on aspects such as percentages of students living in poverty and chronic absenteeism. The funds will be distributed over three years, starting with the 2023 to 2024 school year.

“Our application consisted of providing two days a week of a school nurse, which we previously had one day a week throughout Pierce County Health District and so we’ll bump that up to an additional day,” stated Rugby Public Schools Superintendent, Mike McNeff. “We also provide some mental health therapy for our kids at both our elementary school and our high school, and we’re hoping to use of that grant funding to pay for that.”

Funding in the Rugby Public School District will also help hire a social worker, add security cameras outside of schools, and aid in professional development for staff members. McNeff says these programs are important to be implemented for the nearly 600 K-12 students in the district.

“I think we always want to make sure we owe it to our parents and our community to ensure that their children are safe when they enter our schools,” said McNeff.

North Dakota even received national recognition for its ability to get grant money to the school district.

“We actually heard from the U.S. Department of Education,” said Peterson. “Secretary Cardona himself that he was very proud of North Dakota for being able to, as rapidly as possible, get these grant funds out to the districts that needed them the most.”

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which is where most of this grant money came from, was signed into law a month after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The goal is to protect children, keep schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across the country.