Kyrene and Tempe schools just scored a significant influx of state cash for campus safety, with the State Board of Education approving a new round of School Safety Program awards that will send roughly $1.8 million to Kyrene schools and just over $890,000 to Tempe Elementary. The money will pay for counselors, social workers and school resource officers, and is tied to the FY27 cycle of the statewide program, which funds positions beginning July 1, 2026. Hundreds of requested positions made the cut in this first year of the cycle, but thousands more landed on a waitlist, so the new East Valley hires arrive with a clear caveat that the need is much bigger than this check.
The School Safety Program is a competitive state grant that helps districts place school resource officers, juvenile probation officers, school safety officers, counselors and school social workers on campuses, according to the Arizona Department of Education. ADE’s SSP hub also breaks out officer awards and counselor or social worker awards for the FY27 Year 1 cohort in public lists. The department notes that the program runs in three year cohorts and that grantees will continue to use the awarded funds across the full multi year cycle.
Tempe Elementary Gets Social Workers and SROs
Tempe Elementary District’s haul, just over $890,000, will fund social workers and SROs at seven campuses, including Flora Thew, Scales Technology Academy, Frank Elementary and Getz, with SRO positions slated for Cecil Shamley, Geneva Epps Mosley and Fees College Preparatory Middle School, as reported by Ahwatukee Foothills News. District officials say the funding will let Tempe expand on site counseling while keeping an on campus law enforcement presence at several middle and elementary schools. The next step for those campuses is to start recruiting and training staff so they are ready to go when the new cycle kicks in.
Kyrene's Funding Mix
Kyrene Elementary District secured about $1.8 million to cover counselors, social workers and SROs at roughly 14 schools, with SRO slots assigned to all six of the district’s middle schools, according to ADE’s FY27 award lists. The state documents show counselor and social worker grants flowing to several elementary campuses, including C.I. Waggoner, Kyrene de las Lomas and Kyrene de la Esperanza, while SRO allocations are earmarked for Aprende, Centennial, Kyrene, Akimel A Al, del Pueblo and Altadena middle schools. The package reflects the program’s dual focus on building up mental health staffing while also keeping school based safety officers on site.
Demand Far Exceeds Available Funding
State officials were blunt about how competitive the process was. Applicants requested about $181 million for roughly 1,519 positions across Arizona, while the first year awards distributed only about $82 million, leaving nearly 1,000 additional positions on a waitlist, according to Ahwatukee Foothills News. Board president Katherine Haley called the decisions “really difficult,” and board member Jason Catanese warned that districts face “impossible choices” when they have to decide between counselors, SROs and social workers. ADE staffer Mike Kurtenbach pointed to the length of the waitlist and added, “$181 million in requests, I think it speaks for itself,” a reminder of just how far demand outpaces the current pot of money.
With many requests still unfunded, East Valley districts will now juggle which campuses get priority as the fall term approaches. Parents and community members who want to see exactly who was funded, and who is still waiting, can check the Arizona Department of Education’s SSP pages and the Year 1 award PDFs, which lay out the line by line recipient data.
