{"id":649,"date":"2026-05-23T04:04:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arizonamovinginsider.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2026-05-23T04:04:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T04:04:52","slug":"schools-worry-over-lack-of-funding-for-safety-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arizonamovinginsider.com\/?p=649","title":{"rendered":"Schools worry over lack of funding for safety resources"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Although school is ending for the 2025-2026 year, districts are thinking about the coming school year. Amongst that, the change in potential allocations of funding for school resource and safety officers as well as mental health professionals.<\/p>\n

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When Zygeydy and her mom heard that her younger sister\u2019s school in the Phoenix area may not have a school resource officer next year, it was a concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s important to have some type of safety there because you really never know,\u201d Zygeydy said.<\/p>\n

According to a document presented to the Arizona State Board of Education on Monday, it appeared several school districts lost out on funding for some law enforcement and\/or mental health professionals in their schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no sugarcoating it. We are devastated by the results,\u201d Dr. Michael Winters said Friday morning. Winters is the superintendent for the Saddle Mountain Unified School District.<\/p>\n

In SMUSD, Winters said this year, they had two officers and five mental health professionals paid for by the state. In the documents presented on Monday, they would\u2019ve received enough funding for five school resource officers and none for mental health professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want officers at every school, but we need counselors. And without them, all those services they’re providing are not going to occur or somebody else is going to have to, somebody else is already overwhelmed and overworked is going to have to pick up that slack,\u201d Winters said of educators.<\/p>\n

If they didn\u2019t have that grant funding from the state, Winters said they would not be able to incorporate them into their budget.<\/p>\n

Districts across Arizona rely on what\u2019s called the School Safety Grant Program. It\u2019s an $80 million, three-year grant funding cycle that helps districts pay for school resource officers, safety officers, counselors, and\/or social workers.<\/p>\n

A couple school district governing boards voted to cut social worker positions because of the \u2018instability\u2019 of the grant funding.<\/p>\n

In April, ABC15 reported on the Arizona Department of Education seeing \u2018unprecedented\u2019 demand of requests. The funding this cycle paid for nearly 500 officers and nearly 600 mental health staff in schools. For the next funding cycle, the state saw more than 200 additional requests for each profession.<\/p>\n

“It’s sad that we as school districts are essentially fighting over scraps to see if we can fund these supports, these needed supports for our schools,\u201d Winters said.<\/p>\n

As the approved allocations were discussed in the State Board of Education meeting Monday, several community members reached out to ABC15, concerned about their school\u2019s potential lack of funding and positions.<\/p>\n

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The document showed some school districts losing out on grant funding for both law enforcement and mental health professional positions. Other districts saw half of their requests fulfilled and some were even without school resource officer funding.<\/p>\n

If districts did not receive money from the state, they could pay for it out of their own school budgets if they so choose. However, with the notification coming so close to the finalization of the budget for the next school year, it could\u2019ve been an issue.<\/p>\n

“Essentially, we’ve been caused to eliminate five counseling positions from our schools. And we’re doing that the week before school’s out. Contracts went out in March,\u201d Winters said.<\/p>\n

A TEMPORARY FIX<\/b><\/p>\n

In a late-morning interview, Superintendent Tom Horne says since Monday, they\u2019ve found a solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very proud we found the solution.When we had to report the state board, unless the legislature appropriated more money, which is in question, we would\u2019ve had a catastrophe on our hands,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n

School districts reached out to the Arizona Department of Education, concerned about the allocations that were presented. If the Monday allocations proceeded, Horne said they\u2019d lose out on 135 police officers and 122 social workers or counselors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat generates a lot of panic, a lot of calls, a lot of people losing their jobs who are doing a good job,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n

Horne told ABC15 his office was able to identify some \u2018carryover\u2019 funding, unused money from the current or previous grant cycles that would now allow them to pay for more positions. That unused money may have not been expended by school districts because they couldn\u2019t fill a law enforcement or mental health position in the district. Horne\u2019s office said that came out to $46 million.<\/p>\n

When districts applied for the grant, they had to indicate what they would want as a \u201cfirst position,\u201d or priority, in their application as well as a second requested position. Horne said through additional identified funds, they\u2019ll be able to pay out all school districts’ first priority requests, school officers and\/or mental health professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s solved for this year, but the legislature has to do something for this year or next year so it can continue for the three-year cycle,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n

If the legislature allocates an additional $40 million that Horne\u2019s been asking for, the superintendent said he could fund second priority positions for districts as well.<\/p>\n

School districts were also encouraged to ask for resource or safety officers as their first priority. However, Horne said districts can reach out to the Arizona Department of Education if they want to change their requests as they finalize the additional money.<\/p>\n

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Although school is ending for the 2025-2026 year, districts are thinking about the coming school year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state-of-education"],"yoast_head":"\nSchools worry over lack of funding for safety resources - Arizona Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arizonamovinginsider.com\/?p=649\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Schools worry over lack of funding for safety resources - Arizona Moving Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although school is ending for the 2025-2026 year, districts are thinking about the coming school year.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arizonamovinginsider.com\/?p=649\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arizona Moving Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-23T04:04:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/?p=649#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/?p=649\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9c272b4cf18e019eb01eb3c1b5d855fb\"},\"headline\":\"Schools worry over lack of funding for safety resources\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-23T04:04:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/?p=649\"},\"wordCount\":927,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/?p=649#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/dd3e52c1f43b3049af05de211e23a4b0.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"State of Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/?p=649#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/?p=649\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arizonamovinginsider.com\\\/?p=649\",\"name\":\"Schools worry over lack of funding for safety resources - 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