Thirty-eight Alabama school districts have been selected to receive grant money made available through the $1 billion federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The Alabama Stronger Connections Grant Program funds can be used for a range of activities from drug awareness and suicide prevention to trauma-informed classroom management and reducing suspension and expulsions.

Alabama’s focus of the program is to establish safe and healthy learning environments and engage parents, families and the larger community. Applicants were encouraged to include goals and plans for how they would help school officials and families form trusting and respectful relationships and conduct activities like neighborhood walks and open houses.

High-need districts – those with high rates of poverty, high rate of out of field teachers, or where schools are a part of state or federal school improvement programs – were given priority.

Districts were required to apply for the grant funds, according to state department of education officials, and have three years to use the funding.

The full list of districts receiving funding can be found here.