Department of Justice

New DOJ training grant focuses on the prevention of school violence

Colleen Rich — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 17:12:05 +0000

New DOJ training grant focuses on the prevention of school violence Colleen Rich Thu, 08/28/2025 - 13:12

With the support of a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) training grant, �鶹��Ƶ researchers are working to integrate comprehensive school-based mental health systems as part of proactive violence prevention programming in public middle schools in Prince William County, Virginia.

Elizabeth Levine Brown. Photo provided

Funding for this project, Comprehensive Safety and Violence Prevention in Diverse Middle Schools, will approach $2 million over three years.

Elizabeth Levine Brown leads the research team, which comprises faculty from across several programs within the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD). Co-Principal investigators include Stephanie Dailey and Samantha Viano.

The primary goals of this project are to improve school climate, increase perceptions of safety, and reduce violence in all 17 middle schools within the Prince William County Schools (PWCS) system.

Students’ access to school-based mental health systems can play a critical role in creating a school environment conducive to learning. Although existing preparation programs for teachers and other school leaders provide introductory training on how a student’s social, emotional, and behavioral responses can impact their learning, there is an increasing need for more in-depth mental health training. This project will address that need through the development of on-site training that will provide school personnel with the skills necessary to support student mental health as part of a proactive violence prevention program.

Stephanie Dailey. Photo by Office of University Branding

Brown, an associate professor in the Elementary Education and Educational Psychology Programs, is a developmental psychologist and a recognized expert in school-based mental health programming. Dailey, an assistant professor in the Counseling Program, has extensive experience in the design of responsive schoolwide violence prevention initiatives and inclusive trauma-informed education. Viano, associate professor in the Education Leadership and Education Policy Programs, is known for her extensive research on school safety and security, and related implications for educational policy and leadership.

In addition, the researchers have ongoing collaborations with other universities and national centers, such as the National Center for School Mental Health and the National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments.

“This grant provides opportunities to train within multidisciplinary teams by bringing together teachers, leaders, school mental health providers, and school resource officers to have a common understanding of procedures and policies to support violence prevention with clear extensions to implementation exercises that can be used across the whole school site,” Brown said.

Samantha Viano. Photo provided

“Safety is not just the absence of violence—it is the presence of belonging, trust, and proactive support,” said Dailey. “We aim to build school climates that cultivate resilience, connection, and student and staff empowerment. By embedding these principles into middle school systems, this project will create lasting impact.”

The initiative is being developed in tandem with the strategic planning process currently underway within PWCS. The researchers’ goal is to facilitate the development of a violence prevention plan that is multi-tiered, developmentally appropriate, inclusive and responsive, trauma-informed, and centered around prevention rather than reaction.

The project will be implemented in four phases:

A comprehensive needs assessment will be conducted across all 17 PWCS middle schools using the School Mental Health Quality Assessment (SMH-QA), which can help identify strengths and gaps that may exist in a school’s mental health intervention services and supports.
Multidisciplinary teams will be formed at each school comprising middle school leaders, teachers, school mental health professionals, school resource officers (SROs), and students.
Evidence-based training focused on school climate, mental health literacy, multi-tiered systems of support, threat assessment, and violence prevention will be codeveloped and delivered to school personnel.
A series of in-school training exercises and activities, tailored to the school’s specific needs as identified during the assessment, will be implemented over a three-year period to ensure long-term adoption of best practices.

“We will conduct focus groups to gather the perspectives of school personnel on school climate, staff requirements for tiered levels of services and supports, multidisciplinary teaming, and current school safety and prevention protocols,” Brown explained.

The team chose to focus on middle school students because of the heightened emphasis on peer dynamics and social status that takes place during early adolescence. However, Brown believes that their approach could be applied to elementary and high schools in the future.

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DOJ grant supports study of the effects of school security equipment on student outcomes

Katarina Benson — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 16:17:09 +0000

DOJ grant supports study of the effects of school security equipment on student outcomes Katarina Benson Wed, 04/02/2025 - 12:17

�鶹��Ƶ professor Samantha Viano is leading a multi-university team to assess the impact of school security equipment (SSE) grants on school violence, safety, and related outcomes. The team has received a $1.7 million grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) of the U.S. Department of Justice to support of the project, “The Impact of School Security Equipment on Students and Schools.”

Samantha Viano. Photo provided

Working with Viano are Lucy Sorensen of University at Albany, Trevor Fronius of WestEd, Benjamin W. Fisher of University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Meagan Call-Cummings of Johns Hopkins University. The study focuses on the impact of SSE on school- and student-level safety, climate, disciplinary, and juvenile justice outcomes at all levels of K-12 education.

“This initiative is crucial because it addresses whether the billions of dollars U.S. schools are spending on security equipment is leading to the intended outcomes,” said Viano, an associate professor in the School of Education at George �鶹��Ƶ. “Despite the substantial funding, there is limited causal evidence on the effectiveness of SSE in improving school safety. This study aims to fill this gap by providing rigorous, mixed-methods research to inform educational policy and practice.”

The goals of this project are to identify the impact; determine how the impact of these grants varies depending several factors; compile a security contract database; understand the reasons why schools apply for SSE grants; and contextualize study findings through participatory action research with youth.

A unique aspect of this initiative is the direct involvement and engagement of students through Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) within George �鶹��Ƶ’s Youth Research Council. YPAR is a type of community-engaged research designed and conducted by youth, in collaboration with adult mentors. Approximately 50 youth from more than 20 high schools in Virginia will participate in co-designing and co-facilitating research as part of Viano’s study.

Viano said this approach will ensure that the findings of the study include the perspectives of students who are the individuals most significantly affected by the installation of school security measures.

When asked why she became involved in this project, Viano said her “motivation stems from what I believe is an urgent need to address school violence and the lack of empirical

evidence on the effectiveness of school security equipment. This project aligns with my interest in educational policy, school safety, and equity, aiming to provide actionable guidance for schools and policymakers.”

This study is one of several important research initiatives led by Viano that will help close the gap in the available data and evidence needed to enhance our understanding of how security measures can affect student outcomes in K-12 schools.

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�鶹��Ƶ expands forensic science training in rural areas with $2 million grant

Colleen Rich — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 18:06:25 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ expands forensic science training in rural areas with $2 million grant Colleen Rich Fri, 12/04/2020 - 13:06

Anthony Falsetti and Mary Ellen O'Toole of �鶹��Ƶ's growing Forensic Science Program at the site of the new Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory. Photo by Ian Shiff/Creative Services.

The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has awarded a $2 million grant to �鶹��Ƶ to further the advancement of forensic science.

The funding from the NIJ will create a National Center on Forensics at �鶹��Ƶ to provide medical and legal learning opportunities for medical students training as deputy medical examiners/ coroners in rural areas while also offering forensic science and legal training to district attorneys, judges and law enforcement officials. The award, which was announced by the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, is expected to also develop other opportunities as appropriate among designated partners that will benefit current and future practitioners in the field.

Mary Ellen O’Toole, the former FBI profiler who is the director of the Forensic Science Program within �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Science, said the grant will allow her program to collaborate with partners to ensure that all victims and their families receive justice.

“Too often victims and their families and the professionals investigating the crimes who reside in rural areas don’t have access to the same resources as those from urban, metropolitan areas,” O’Toole said. “This gap can be significant and stand between case resolution and years of never knowing what happened. This grant will allow us and our partners to work to increase the number of much-needed forensic experts like medical examiners and coroners and to provide state-of-the-art training for them and other professionals.”

Joseph DiZinno, an associate professor and a former FBI forensics expert, will serve as the project’s principal investigator, while Anthony Falsetti, an associate professor and forensic anthropologist, will serve as the co-PI.

�鶹��Ƶ will partner with the National Institute of Justice, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the National Association of Attorneys General, the University of Washington Schools of Medicine and Law, and the Montana Forensic Science Division to serve as a national resource to raise awareness about and address the shortage of medical examiners and coroners, particularly in rural areas, DiZinno said.

“By increasing the number of forensic pathologists and by training the medical examiner, coroner and legal communities, the National Center on Forensics will directly impact the criminal justice system’s ability to determine if crimes have been committed and ensure that the guilty are held accountable and the innocent are not unfairly charged or convicted,” DiZinno said.

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Katharine T. Sullivan, provides federal leadership, grants, training and technical assistance, and other resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

“In spite of geography, every case and every victim should be afforded the same commitment and range of resources for a thorough and comprehensive investigation and resolution within our criminal justice system,” O’Toole said. “This unique grant will allow us to bring these resources to the communities and people who need it the most.”

The grant is part of the continued expansion of the �鶹��Ƶ program, which recently unveiled its new Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory that is slated to open next semester on the Science and Technology Campus in Manassas. The five-acre facility will be just the eighth in the world capable of transformative outdoor research in forensic science using human remains.

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New DOJ training grant focuses on the prevention of school violence

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