School Safety and Facility Management Bureau

School Building Aid Program

This state-funded program provides grants to school districts which support the construction or substantial renovation of public schools. Building aid awards are based upon the ranking of the school district’s building aid application and availability of state and local funding. Building aid awards may cover between 30-60% of eligible project costs.

School Safety Grants Program

This program provides funding to New Hampshire schools to improve school safety. Currently, the program administers the Security Action for Education (SAFE) grants which supports school security and safety improvements for K-12 public and nonpublic schools throughout New Hampshire. SAFE grants were established in 2022 and include $3 million of Public School Infrastructure funds and $10 million of Covid-19 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. These grants focus on supporting school improvements in categories of access control, surveillance, and emergency alerting. The program continues to seek new funding for school security projects.

School Facility Inspection and Approval Program

This program works to ensure schools operate in healthy and safe facilities. The program inspects and approves new facilities prior to student occupancy, conducts routine onsite facility inspections of existing public schools, and assists other agency programs with facility related support. This program also provides leadership, technical assistance, and resources regarding operating and maintaining healthy and safe school facilities.

Charter School Lease Aid Program

This state-funded program provides aid to approved public chartered schools to offset the costs of leasing their facilities. The amount of lease aid is dependent upon the amount appropriated by the legislature each year. Lease aid shall be 30% of the eligible amount, or $50,000, whichever is less. If the lease aid appropriation does not fully cover the requested amount, aid is prorated among the eligible chartered public schools that applied.

Other

• Unused District Facility Survey - RSA 194:61 requires school districts to report unused district facilities to the NH Department of Education each year. An unused facility is defined as school building owned by a school district which is not used for academic purposes, extracurricular activities, administrative school function, or sports and for which the school district has no school board approved written plan for future use.
• Unused District Facility Survey Results

Contact: 

Amy C. Clark, PE, Civil Engineer, Bureau Administrator
Division of Education Analytics & Resources
Bureau of School Facilities
603-892-8530
amy.c.clark@doe.nh.gov