U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Announce Additional Grant Competition Under Family Engagement and School Support Partnership

Today, the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the School Safety Enhancement program Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 competition to bolster school safety and school infrastructure security.

School Safety Enhancement is a new competitive grant program, leveraging School Safety National Activities funds, designed to implement best practices to ensure students are safe while they are learning. This competition will use Secretary McMahon's Returning Education to the States Supplemental Priority, which is designed to better align federal funding with state goals and create more coherence across state systems.

"In partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services, we are committed to ensuring that students are secure, protected, and safe in their learning environments," said Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education Kirsten Baesler. "These grants will support schools in establishing and strengthening safe and secure systems to ensure that students can focus on their academic development."

"Every child deserves to learn in a secure and protected environment," said Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families Alex J. Adams. "Our partnership with the Department of Education reinforces this commitment to child safety and ensures families can trust that their children are safe while pursuing their education. By streamlining the grants processes, together HHS and ED are making it easier for states to implement proven safety measures that create the necessary environment for children to thrive academically."

This announcement builds on the partnership between ED and HHS to support states in implementing evidence-based school safety measures - including improvements for school infrastructure security, stronger emergency response planning and coordination, and enhanced training and preparedness exercises for school personnel and school resource officers.

Background:

To date, ED has announced 10 Interagency Agreements (IAAs) with five agencies to break up the Federal education bureaucracy, ensure efficient delivery of funded programs, and pursue the President's promise to return education to the states. Learn more about the efforts to return education to the states here.

This grant program will run through the ED-HHS partnership, formalized through an IAA, a tool routinely utilized by government agencies to procure services from each other. Under this partnership, and in accordance with 31 U.S.C. § 1535, HHS will help manage grant funds, provide technical assistance, and integrate ED's school safety and security programs with the suite of programs that HHS already administers.

ED and HHS will continue to provide grantees with additional guidance as these efforts are implemented.

For more information on this grant competition, please visit the grant notice on grants.gov.