Under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) must award these funds competitively to high-need local educational agencies (LEAs) to fund activities allowable under section 4108 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). In accordance with the Stronger Connections Grant (SCG) funded under Title IV, Part A of ESEA, the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) is proposing the following definition of a “high-need LEA” and seeks public input. 

For the purposes of the SCG competition, a “high-need LEA” is a school district that has a forty percent poverty rate or higher and at least one or more of the following: 
•    high rates of bullying/harassment.
•    high rates of chronic absenteeism
•    high rates of exclusionary discipline

Relevant LEA personnel should review the proposed definition and submit questions or comments by December 6, 2022, to Aveene Coleman, Interim Director of the Office of Student Intervention Services, by email to acoleman@ed.sc.gov or 803-734-3057.