Favorable with Amendment
House Appropriations Committee
R00A07.03

The Maryland Catholic Conference offers this testimony of favorable with amendments for the Nonpublic School Safety Grant Program, R00A07.03.

The Catholic Conference is the public policy representative of the three (arch)dioceses serving Maryland, which together encompass over one million Marylanders. Statewide, their parishes, schools, hospitals and numerous charities combine to form our state’s second largest social service provider network, behind only our state government. We offer this testimony on behalf of the families of more than 50,000 students served by over 150 PreK-12 Catholic schools in Maryland.

Approximately 200 schools annually have participated in the Nonpublic School Safety Grant Program, which provides grants to schools specifically for school security improvements. Schools utilized the funding for safety improvements such as auto-locking security doors, locking hardware, security systems with video capabilities, locking safety windows and safety lighting. It is anticipated that this program will make for a safer school day for tens of thousands of our nonpublic school children in FY 2024.

However, the current budget language wraps this program into the public school safety improvements fund. This was an oversight in last year’s budget, as well, but the House and Senate corrected the issue by separating the program out with the attached language as in years past. We ask this committee to take the same course of action it did last year with that attached amendment language from the FY 2023 budget, so that our schools do not get locked out of this program which has for years been done through specific application through MSDE and Center for School Safety.

Many of the schools with lower-income student enrollments would not have been able to complete the security upgrades without this funding. The program is making an impact statewide and is highly popular with administrators in every jurisdiction.

The safety of the children in every school in Maryland should be a paramount consideration. We thank the State of Maryland for partnering with our Catholic schools in making for an even safer environment for their children to learn in. Maryland’s Catholic school community requests that this committee please continue its support for this program in FY 2024.

Amendment No. 1

R00A07.03 School Safety Grant Program
General Fund Appropriation, provided that
$3,500,000 of this appropriation made for
the purpose of funding security
improvements in nonpublic schools may be
provided only to nonpublic schools that
were eligible to participate in the Aid to
Non–Public Schools R00A03.04 (for the
purchase of textbooks or computer
hardware and software for loans to
students in eligible nonpublic schools)
during the 2021–2022 school year or
nonpublic schools that serve students with
disabilities through the Non–Public
Placement Program R00A02.07
Subprogram 0762, with a maximum
amount of $65 per eligible nonpublic school
student for participating schools, except
that at schools where at least 20% of the
students are eligible for the free or
reduced–price meal program or for schools
that service students with disabilities
through the Non–Public Placement
Program, there shall be a distribution of
$85 per student, and no individual school
may receive less than $5,000. Payment for
work completed under this program will be
through reimbursement to the grant
recipient…