• Video Clips
• Evidence of Success
• Impact of Ambassadors
  • Benefits to Schools
  • Measurement & Impact
• Frequency and Effectiveness of Ambassador Interventions
  • Download Report
• What Others Say
• Key Documents
  • Program Overview
  • Research Base
  • Measurement & Impact
  • Suspension Cost Analysis
• FAQs
• Initial SSA Training
  • Implementation Questions
  • Materials Supplied
• Follow-Up Training & Support
  • Refresher Training
  • Expansion Training
  • Expansion Combo Training
  • Training of Trainers
  • - Trainers Support Sign-in
• Other Services
• Program Costs & Funding Sources

School Administrators are invited to order our Funding Toolkit, a guide for fundraising opportunities and sample letters to donors to support Safe School Ambassadors program. To request your copy, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Program Costs & Funding Sources

Investment/cost for the program

For the materials, Initial Training, pre- and post-training program support and coaching, a school site invests $4300.

Schools also cover the travel-related expenses for a trainer for the 2-day training; these are estimated and typically range from $200 - $1300, depending upon the location of the school and trainer.

Some of the 6-8 adults in the training may need substitutes, and this additional cost is paid by the school or district. The host school also provides basic training supplies like flipchart paper and post-its, food for participants, and transportation if the training is not held at the school site. In most cases, schools have limited direct costs for these items because they are either already available, are donated, or are covered by the district.

Sources of Funds

As a research-based program, Safe School Ambassadors can be launched and supported with Safe & Drug-Free Schools funding.

Schools also secure funds from their Site Council, the general operating budget, principal’s discretionary funds, funds for student activities, funds from PTAs, and funds from special school-safety-related grants.

Some schools have found additional funds from external sources like police departments, businesses, service clubs, hospitals, and local or community foundations.

We can provide more specific assistance if it would help you secure start-up funds.

Return on Investment

Since the direct outlay of funds is clear, it is important to be equally clear about the return on that investment.

Schools often see a decrease in discipline incidents. If one suspension costs a school roughly $300 in lost ADA and administrative time, 25 suspensions prevented by Ambassadors recovers the cost of the program. More details on the Suspension Cost Analysis available for download. The Clear Creek Independent School District saved more than $200,000 in its first year of the Safe School Ambassadors program because Ambassadors reduced the number of on-campus incidents that would have caused students to be sent to the District’s Alternative Educational setting at a cost of roughly $2500 per placement.

Attendance typically increases, which increases ADA funds. This occurs as Ambassadors create a more welcoming climate, which reduces the number of students – many of whom are chronically targeted by their peers – who stay home due to fear of how they will be treated at school. It is also common for Ambassadors’ school attendance rates to climb.

Consider the cost of more unlikely but serious events:

• a lawsuit against the school because a student was bullied. Settlements of $10,000 to $100,000 are not uncommon.
• a bomb threat, with the associated costs of response and investigation exceeding $10,000
• an actual attack on the school, or a bullied student committing suicide, with the incalculable costs of lives lost.

Costs in the Second and Subsequent Years

Schools have several options for continuing the program.

• Community Matters can conduct 2-day Expansion Trainings that add NEW Ambassadors and adults to the program. These are $4100, plus expenses as discussed above. The 1-day Refresher Trainings for CURRENT Ambassadors are $2100, plus expenses.
• School staff who participated in the Initial Training are free to combine their innate expertise as educators with their experience and materials from that Initial Training to provide training for NEW and/or CURRENT Ambassadors at the school site that received an Initial Training from Community Matters.
• Community Matters can conduct a Training of Trainers that equips a cadre of site-based and district-level staff with the knowledge and tools to conduct Expansion and Refresher Trainings at school sites that received an Initial Training from Community Matters and purchased a one-time Site License.