Extra school safety grant money will go toward mental health training

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel announced more funding for schools to upgrade security, but there's money left over that's going towards another important issue in school. 

The state has now awarded most of the security grants Wisconsin schools have applied for but they had almost half of the available $100 million left over. 

Now, $45 million will go toward mental health training. 

Attorney General Brad Schimel made the announcement Monday as he also awarded some of those physical security upgrades at Northwest Catholic School in Milwaukee. 

Ninety-seven percent of public schools applied for the first round of grants which allowed schools to pay for secure main entrances and shatterproof glass. 

The next round will not only offer mental health training for teachers, it will form school safety intervention teams between local law enforcement and schools. 

Milwaukee County Sherrif Richard Schmidt says the partnership will prevent school violence. 

"It helps us to help them. It will allow us to partner with the educational system to train them, to work with them, to come in and make some assessments. To work on some of the issues that quite frankly have not been very good in the past. So this is tremendous, and this money is a tremendous way, these grants are a tremendous way to help this take place," Schmidt said. 

Schimel says schools can start applying for the new mental training grants in September. He hopes to give them out by October.