The New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) held its first meeting with schools yesterday. Applications for the School Security Guard Program are currently being accepted until November 1st for 2016-2017 school year. For questions related to the nonpublic school application process, it is really worth your while to check out the FAQ‘s. If you still have questions, contact Latesha Parks – lmparks@dcas.nyc.gov. We feel that DCAS has been making this process user-friendly.

Eligible schools. To be eligible to participate in the program, a school must meet the following:

• Must be New York City nonpublic school;
• Must be nonprofit;
• Have 300 or more students in any combination of grades Pre-K through twelfth grades only;
• Have been assigned a Basic Educational Date System (BEDS) code by the New York State Education Department (NYSED).

Eligible security guard companies. DCAS is working to establish a list of qualified security vendors. In order to receive reimbursements, schools will only be able to utilize firms that are on the qualified vendor list.  Once a list is available, DCAS will notify schools of its availability via email or letter.  The list will also be available on the DCAS website. Information about how security guard companies can apply to become qualified vendors can be found in the FAQ’s.

Contracts. One piece of advice. As a school you will contract directly with a qualified security vendor. You should make sure to stipulate in the contract that should the designated City funds become unavailable, that the school has the option to decide whether to continue or terminate the contract.(n.b., the law caps the expenditure at approximately $20 million, so there is a slight possibility that the funding might run out).

There will be up-dates – so check frequently with JCRC-NY and at the DCAS website.