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The State Education Department awarded $160,000 in Child Abduction Prevention Education (CAPE) grants to four school districts and three consortia of school districts and BOCES, Commissioner MaryEllen Elia announced today. The funds will be used to develop or adopt curriculum and training programs designed for K-8 students, parents, teachers, school librarians, and support staff to aid in the prevention of child abduction.

“The world is evolving rapidly and we need to educate our children on how to live in this world safely,” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa said. “Programs developed using these grants will help ensure that parents, educators and students have effective, age-appropriate resources focused on real-world safety. These funds will be used to teach students how to better protect themselves online, on the way to and from school, while at home, or playing outside.”

“There is literally nothing more important than the safety of our students,” Commissioner Elia said. “Educators, parents and students should have every resource possible to understand how to prevent a child’s abduction. These grants are critical to support districts in developing effective programs that teach students how to avoid and escape potentially threatening situations with strangers, bullying and people they know both online and off.”

State Education Law requires public schools to provide courses of study in prevention of child abduction to all pupils in grades K-8. CAPE grants assist in development or adoption of these programs, as well as in training teachers, parents, school librarians and support staff. New York State public school districts, BOCES, and consortia thereof were eligible to apply.

Plans submitted include strategies to address a wide range of issues impacting students and families including cyberbullying, social media harassment, child trafficking and predatory behavior. Among the outreach districts plan are regional teacher training, webinars available to teachers, parents and community-based partners, and “parent nights” to raise awareness of information and training available.

Awardees may adopt existing curricula or develop their own. The curriculum, whether existing or developed, must provide developmentally appropriate content to meet the diverse needs of students, parents and school personnel. Professional learning resources, curriculum, online learning courses or materials created with grant funds must be published on the district or BOCES’ websites to be freely shared with other districts.

Each eligible applicant could apply for a maximum award of $10,000. Consortia are allowed to pool their funds, so their allocation would be the total of the participating district/BOCES allocations, not to exceed $40,000. The grant term runs through August 31, 2019

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