Larsen and Brooks Launch School Safety Caucus

Reps. Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Susan Brooks (R-IN) this week launched the School Safety Caucus to focus on best practices for school safety and investments to help schools meet their unique safety needs.

Larsen and Brooks launched the Caucus at a briefing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to address safety challenges and opportunities that schools face.

"Schools must be a place where our students feel safe. The School Safety Caucus is a forum to look at the best ways for schools to approach their safety needs, as well as to push for investments in security and other safety measures," Larsen said. "I want to see Congress do more in supporting our schools and communities to shrink the cycle of violence, and I thank Congresswoman Brooks for her partnership on this issue. By supporting safety, we can empower schools to focus on what they do best: teaching our students and preparing them for the future.

"Keeping our schools safe takes all of us, and our children deserve a quality education in a safe environment," Brooks said. "The School Safety Caucus is an important way that we as policymakers can join parents, students, teachers, security professionals, law enforcement and emergency personnel and advocate for the best ways to keep our kids safe at school. We all have to work together to craft solutions that meet the challenges posed by our increasingly digital and mobile world and to protect and ensure the safety of schools so that students and educators alike can focus on learning. I'm looking forward to working with Congressmen Larsen to address this important issue."

Larsen also introduced the School Safety Act, which would reauthorize the Secure Our Schools program to provide matching grants to local, state and tribal governments to meet schools' individual security needs. Brooks is a cosponsor of the bill.

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