Ensuring Safer Schools Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Ensuring Safer Schools Act uses the COPS grant statute as the delivery vehicle for school-resource-officer staffing. It adds hiring and training veterans and retired law enforcement officers as an eligible COPS grant use, gives preferential consideration to applications for that purpose, authorizes Attorney General technical assistance for annual mental-health screening and annual tactics-response training, adds a community-engagement duty for school resource officers, and directs the VA to connect interested veterans with local law enforcement agencies in school-based partnerships.
Who Benefits and How
Veterans seeking school safety jobs benefit because VA coordination would connect them with local agencies using COPS grants. Retired law enforcement officers benefit because the bill makes their hiring and training a preferred school-resource-officer grant use. Schools using COPS grants benefit from a clearer federal funding path for trained school resource officers. Students benefit if annual officer training, mental-health screening, and community meetings improve school-safety interactions.
Who Bears the Burden and How
DOJ COPS Office staff must update grant guidance, preferences, and technical-assistance materials. Grant-recipient law enforcement agencies must handle screening, training, and school-based partnership requirements. The Department of Veterans Affairs must coordinate veteran referrals with participating local agencies. School districts hosting officers must manage community-engagement meetings and day-to-day officer integration.
Key Provisions
- Adds veterans and retired law enforcement officers as eligible hires for school-resource-officer COPS grants.
- Requires grant preference for applications focused on hiring and training those school resource officers.
- Authorizes Attorney General technical assistance for annual mental-health screening and tactics-response training.
- Directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to connect veterans with local school-based law enforcement partnerships.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Expands COPS grant uses and preferences so veterans and retired law enforcement officers can be hired and trained as school resource officers, with mental-health screening, annual tactics training, and VA coordination.
Key Policy Areas
Public Safety, Education, Veterans
Primary Purpose
Expands COPS grant uses and preferences so veterans and retired law enforcement officers can be hired and trained as school resource officers, with mental-health screening, annual tactics training, and VA coordination.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Veterans seeking school safety jobs
- Retired law enforcement officers
- Schools using COPS grants
- Students
Identified Costs
- DOJ COPS Office staff
- Grant-recipient law enforcement agencies
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- School districts hosting officers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Van Drew introduced the following bill; which was referred …
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
DOJ COPS Office staff, Department of Veterans Affairs
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology