Bleeding Out: How SWATing events Drain Schools Dry

Texas public schools are funded by grants that are calculated both per-student, and per-day. The $6,000 per-student budget over the course of the academic year comes out to about $35 per-day. Since absences impact that funding, mass drops in attendance can have huge impacts on the ability for schools to cover their operational costs (all while your property taxes which fund the schools remain unchanged).

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It's only natural that security threats to our schools—credible or not—lead to drops in attendance. Those drops can cause substantial financial impact. For example, at Kingwood Park High School, a non-credible shooting threat led to a 70% student absence rate, resulting in an estimated operating loss of around $50,000 for that day alone. At even larger schools, these losses can approach $200,000 per day.