MAKING THE GRADE: Unknown future for school safety initiative

It looks like the State Superintendent’s signature piece of education legislation will not move forward.

Sheri Ybarra has now officially asked lawmakers to fund her KISS initiative. That stands for Keep Idaho Students Safe.

Ybarra wants 18 and half million dollars to allow school districts to apply for safety grants.

Administrators would have local control on how to use the dollars to increase security at their schools.

Superintendent Ybarra presented her plan before J-FAC. It's that budget committee, that’s really in control of whether the KISS initiative comes to fruition.

"She talked on a couple of occasions about the KISS initiative. And there were zero questions from the twenty members of the committee. Zero. Nobody asked her about this school safety initiative. Which you know, pardon the pun, that was a kiss off from the committee," Kevin Richert with Idaho Education News said.

Superintendent Ybarra also talked about KISS while in front of the House Education Committee. There she received a warmer response to the plan, but until its funded through J-FAC the KISS initiative may just be dead on arrival.