Federal

Schumer Tells Trump to Immediately Reinstate School Safety Board

By Evie Blad — January 27, 2025 2 min read
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Washington on March 6, 2021.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The Trump administration broke the law when it disbanded a school safety board created by Congress to advise federal agencies on preventing and responding to school shootings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security dismantled the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse External Advisory Board, which held its first meeting in October, as part of a broad, Inauguration Day directive that applies to all external advisory committees that work with the agency.

“I’m asking President Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem] to immediately bring the safety board back because it is the law,” Schumer said at a Jan. 26 news conference covered by New York news station PIX 11.

The 26-member board included school superintendents, experts on school safety and child well-being, civil rights and disability rights advocates, and parents of children who died in school shootings. It was codified into law as part of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to advise federal agencies on school safety concerns and what content should be included on SchoolSafety.gov.

President Donald Trump created that clearinghouse of best practices during his first term following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Parkland survivors pushed for the creation of the clearinghouse to make school safety research more accessible for schools and policymakers. The board’s members included Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina died in the Parkland shooting.

“No matter how somebody feels about guns, we agree that more needs to be done to keep kids in school safe,” said Cameron Kasky, a survivor of that shooting who spoke alongside Schumer at the news conference.

Members of the board said it was disassembled through a memo that applied to all of the agency’s external advisory boards, including those that handle issues like cybersecurity, as part of the agency’s commitment to “eliminating misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security.” That memo invited members to reapply, but did not say if or when boards would be reconstituted.

The Homeland Security press office did not respond to questions from Education Week following Schumer’s news conference.

“Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security will no longer tolerate any advisory committee[s] which push agendas that attempt to undermine its national security mission, the President’s agenda or Constitutional rights of Americans,” the agency’s press office said in a statement to Education Week last week following the initial decision to dismantle the board.

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Well-Being Webinar
Creating Resilient Schools with a Trauma-Responsive MTSS
Join us to learn how school leaders are building a trauma-responsive MTSS to support students & improve school outcomes.
School & District Management Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: We Can’t Engage Students If They Aren’t Here: Strategies to Address the Absenteeism Conundrum
Absenteeism rates are growing fast. Join Peter DeWitt and experts to learn how to re-engage students & families.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Opinion The U.S. Dept. of Ed. Has Been Cut in Half. We Have Thoughts
Absent clear explanation and deft management, the push to downsize the department invites confusion and risks political blowback.
7 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
Federal Linda McMahon Abruptly Tells States Their Time to Spend COVID Relief Has Passed
Secretary Linda McMahon said the Education Department would no longer honor the extensions it had granted states.
3 min read
Education Secretary Linda McMahon arrives before President Donald Trump attends a reception for Women's History Month in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Washington.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon arrives before President Donald Trump attends a reception for Women's History Month in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Washington. In a letter Friday, McMahon told state leaders on March 28 that their time to spend remaining COVID relief funds would end that same day.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Federal McMahon Says Schools With 'Gender Plans' Could Be Violating Federal Privacy Law
The U.S. Department of Education opened investigations under FERPA into two states, alleging violations of parents' rights.
5 min read
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. McMahon said that the U.S. Department of Education would make a "revitalized effort" to pursue federal student privacy law violations for parents' rights, asserting that school "gender plans" that aren't available to parents violate the federal law.
Ben Curtis/AP
Federal Dramatic Cuts to Ed. Data Programs Will Have Far-Reaching Consequences, Researchers Warn
Education research organizations asked Congress to intervene in cuts to ed. data, research staff.
6 min read
Image of performance data analysis.
NicoElNino/iStock/Getty