Congressman Ruben Hinojosa Announces Karnes City ISD Awarded Over Half of a Million Dollars in Federal Grants

Press Release

Congressman Rubén Hinojosa announces the U.S. Department of Education has awarded the Karnes City Independent School District $602,128 under their School Climate Transformation Grants Program to school districts. Karnes City ISD will use the funds for several programs that will improve the learning environment in schools.

They include:

-Counseling (mental & conflict resolution)

-Training of students, teachers, and staff

-Character Building, Self-Esteem Building, Conflict Resolution

-Hiring of 2 counselors, and a preventive specialist

These programs will be implemented beginning January 1, 2015.

"Creating a safe learning environment in our schools is the first step in encouraging our students to learn and to build confidence," said U.S. Rep. Hinojosa. "I congratulate Karnes City ISD for their dedication to assisting their students in every way possible. This grant funding will help the school district build on an already sturdy foundation of educational success."

The grant funding to be used to help keep students safe and improve their learning environments, the U.S. Department of Education awarded more than $70 million to 130 grantees in 38 states. The Department made the awards under four new grant programs that were among the common-sense proposals included in President Obama and Vice President Biden's "Now Is The Time," a comprehensive plan to make our schools safer, reduce gun violence by keeping guns out of dangerous hands, and increase mental-health services.

The School Climate Transformation Grant funds will be used to develop, enhance, or expand systems of support for implementing evidence-based, multi-tiered behavioral frameworks for improving behavioral outcomes and learning conditions for students. The School Climate Transformation grants to school districts provide more than $35.8 million to 71 school districts in 23 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The goals of the program are to connect children, youths, and families to appropriate services and supports; improve conditions for learning and behavioral outcomes for school-aged youths; and increase awareness of and the ability to respond to mental-health issues among school-aged youths. School districts also will use funds to implement models for reform and evidence-based practices that address the school-to-prison pipeline--the unfortunate and often unintentional policies and practices that push our nation's schoolchildren, especially those who are most at-risk, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The grants provide funding for up to five years, for a total of nearly $180 million. Many of the school districts receiving this funding also will coordinate their efforts with support from Now Is The Time programs administered by other agencies. One hundred school districts received the Department of Health and Human Services' Project AWARE grants, including 29 of the Department of Education grantees. In addition, five grantees will receive assistance through the Department of Justice's School Justice Collaboration program.

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