School safety grants provided by the legislature will help schools make additional safety improvements for the 2019-2020 school year

Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen congratulated Alexandria and Osakis Public Schools on their recent rankings in the Top Ten Safest Schools in Minnesota, according to a new report released by Niche.com. Alexandria Public Schools ranked eighth safest in Minnesota, while Osakis Public Schools ranked fifth safest, beating out 346 and 349 other public and private Minnesota schools respectively. Both school districts received an A+ rating in Health and Safety.

“Students, parents, teachers and staff of Alexandria and Osakis Public Schools should be extremely proud of this recognition. Our schools are consistently at the top of the pack in test scores and college readiness, which can only be accomplished when students feel safe in their learning environments. I’m proud to have supported $25 million in new state funding for school safety grants this spring. Every public school in Minnesota has the opportunity to apply for this funding to improve student safety even more for the 2019-20 school year,” said Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria).

The Safest School rankings are fifty percent based on data from the federal Office for Civil Rights and National Center for Education statistics, including area crime rates, expulsion rates, suspension rates, and school related arrests. Student and parent surveys of health and safety make up the other fifty percent of the calculation. Niche is a data analysis company that calls itself “the best place to research U.S. colleges, schools, neighborhoods, and companies.”