Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh/Northampton) announced June 3 that $207,832 in state funding has been awarded to three nonpublic schools in Northampton County through the FY 2025-26 Targeted School Safety for Nonpublic Schools Grant Program by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD).

“It’s absolutely essential to ensure that our schools are safe places for children to learn and develop and these state grants will allow these schools to enhance their efforts to provide a safe learning environment,” Boscola stated. “This funding of over $19 million statewide is further proof that assisting our schools to better provide a safe learning environment for our children and our educators continues to be a Commonwealth priority.”

The following grants awards were approved for schools in Northampton County:

• Bethlehem Catholic HS $68,000

• Moravian Academy $64,832

• Notre Dame HS $75,000

Section 923.3-A. of the Public School (Act 14 of 1949) provides for School Safety and Security Enhancements for nonpublic schools. That section declares that “(t)he welfare of this Commonwealth requires that all school children should be afforded the opportunity to attend a school that is safe and secure. It is the intent of the General Assembly to ensure that all of this Commonwealth’s nonpublic schools are afforded opportunities to provide safety and security enhancements for their students similar to the opportunities provided to the public schools.”

PCCD approved 353 of the 395 eligible applications submitted through the FY 2025-26 Targeted School Safety for Nonpublic Schools Grants Program totaling $19,356,596, subject to resolution on outstanding programmatic or fiscal concerns.

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