NPSE grant: New York nonpublic school security funding, what it covers, how Tec-Tel helps

1. What NPSE is

The Nonpublic School Safety Equipment grant, NPSE, is New York State's funding source for security equipment at religious and independent schools. The New York State Education Department administers it through the Office of Religious and Independent School Support, and it runs on a roughly $45 million annual state appropriation. The purpose is plain: reimburse nonpublic P-12 schools for the cost of certain school-safety and health equipment so cost is not the reason a school goes without cameras, secured entrances, or a lockdown system.

Two features make NPSE different from most security grants. First, the core of it is non-competitive. Every eligible school has its own allocation calculated from enrollment, so a school is not bidding against other schools for the per-pupil portion. Second, the allocation rolls over. Unless a school closes, unused allocation accumulates year to year rather than lapsing. A school that has never claimed often has several years of allocation waiting.

2. Who is eligible

Eligibility is narrow and clear. The school must be a currently open, nonprofit religious or independent (nonpublic) school serving any grades from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 in New York State. To claim, the school needs two things on file with the state: a valid OSC Vendor ID and a NYSED-issued BEDS code. Public schools are not eligible for NPSE; they have separate state school-safety funding.

In practice that covers yeshivas and Jewish day schools, Catholic and other Christian schools, Islamic schools, and independent and private academies across the state. A preschool or day school operating on a religious institution's campus is the kind of nonpublic school NPSE is built for. If a school is already registered with NYSED and holds a BEDS code, the eligibility question is usually already answered.

3. Funding amounts and how the allocation works

NPSE is a per-pupil allocation, so the dollar amount follows enrollment. NYSED takes the available pool, divides it across the statewide nonpublic enrollment from the prior year, and sets a per-pupil rate. A school's allocation is that rate multiplied by its own enrollment. Year 10, the 2022-2023 cycle, worked out to roughly $120 per student against the $45 million appropriation. Beginning in Year 11, NYSED set aside $6.8 million of the appropriation for a new competitive RFP component, which can pull the per-pupil rate down in a given year. Treat $120 as a historical reference point, not a guaranteed current rate, and confirm your school's number against its NYSED ORISS allocation notice.

• Administered by. New York State Education Department (NYSED), Office of Religious and Independent School Support (ORISS).
• Annual appropriation. $45 million statewide (recent years). In Year 11, $6.8 million of that was set aside for a separate competitive RFP component.
• Per-pupil basis. Non-competitive. Each eligible school gets an allocation calculated from the prior-year statewide nonpublic enrollment. Year 10 (2022-2023) worked out to roughly $120 per student.
• Match required. None on the non-competitive per-pupil allocation.
• Funding model. Reimbursement. The school pays the vendor in full, then claims against documented proof of payment.
• Rollover. Unused per-pupil allocation accumulates and rolls into the next cycle. Unless a school closes, the allocation does not expire.

The rollover is the part schools underuse. Because unused allocation accumulates, a school can hold several years of per-pupil funding and then combine it into one coordinated install. That is often the difference between a piecemeal camera here and a door there, versus a complete entrance-hardening, access, camera, and lockdown package funded in a single project.

Source: New York State Education Department, NPSE program guidance and allocation notices. Per-pupil rates and the RFP set-aside are set by NYSED each year; confirm the current figures on the NYSED NPSE page before you scope.

4. What security NPSE funds

NYSED publishes an eligible-purchases list and a separate ineligible-purchases list. The eligible side centers on equipment that hardens a building and lets staff detect, communicate, and respond to a threat. Each category below reflects what nonpublic schools commonly claim.

• Security cameras and video. Interior and exterior cameras at entrances, hallways, stairwells, parking areas, and approach walkways, plus the recorder and video management that retains footage. This is one of the most-claimed NPSE categories because cameras map cleanly to a documented safety need and reimburse against a clear invoice.
• Secured building and campus entrances. Door-hardening hardware, bullet-resistant or laminated glazing at the main entrance, electronic visitor intercoms, secured-vestibule equipment, and at the campus edge, bollards and security fencing. NPSE treats the single controlled point of entry as the spine of a nonpublic school safety plan.
• Access control and visitor management. Card or credential readers, electrified locks where code allows, and a visitor intercom and buzz-in system at the front entrance. Access control limits who reaches classrooms during the day and produces the entry record administrators ask for after an incident.
• Communication, panic, and notification systems. Panic buttons or duress alarms, public-address and parent-notification systems, and intercoms that reach every classroom. NPSE names these communication systems explicitly. They are how a school signals a threat to staff and to families in seconds.
• Central lockdown and alarm systems. A central lockdown system that secures the building from one action, intrusion and burglar alarm systems, and the monitoring tie-in. Pairing lockdown with access control and cameras means one alert can lock doors, route video, and notify staff together.
• Exterior lighting and physical hardening. Exterior lighting to illuminate primary entries and approach paths, convex mirrors, and classroom-side safety items such as door-hardening helpers. These often get overlooked early, then turn out to use allocation efficiently because they are low-cost, clearly eligible, and tied to an obvious safety rationale.

The line that catches schools at claim time is the boundary between an eligible safety item and an ineligible general-facilities or building-repair item. Exterior lighting at a primary entry reads as safety; relamping the whole building reads as maintenance. A camera and its recorder are eligible; rewiring an office for unrelated reasons is not. Read the NYSED eligible and ineligible lists before scoping, and keep the bill of materials mapped to named eligible categories.

Source: New York State Education Department, NPSE eligible and ineligible purchases lists. Categories are set by NYSED and can change between cycles; confirm against the current lists before submission.

5. The reimbursement model and deadline

NPSE reimburses; it does not pay upfront. The school buys the eligible equipment and installation, pays the vendor in full, and then submits a claim with proof of payment in full to draw down its allocation. A school should only submit for expenses already paid in full, which makes documentation a planning concern, not an afterthought. Itemized invoices that map cleanly to eligible categories are what make a claim go through without back-and-forth.

On timing: the per-pupil allocation is non-competitive and rolls over, so there is no single application deadline to win funding the way a competitive grant has. What does carry a deadline is the annual claim submission window for reimbursing a given cycle's work, and NYSED publishes those dates each year. The newer competitive RFP component runs on its own application cycle. Confirm the current claim deadline and any RFP dates with NYSED ORISS before you plan around them. We do not state a fixed date here, because a wrong grant deadline is worse than none.

6. How Tec-Tel helps

Tec-Tel designs the security system to NPSE grant scope and supports the reimbursement claim. That breaks into three pieces, all tied to how NYSED actually pays.

• Design to grant scope. We walk the building with your administration and facilities lead, map the gaps against the NPSE eligible-purchases categories, and design a camera, access, secured-entrance, lockdown, and communication package that fits inside your accumulated allocation. Every line on the bill of materials references the eligible category it falls under, so the scope and the claim line up from the start.
• Allocation-aware budgeting. Because NPSE allocation rolls over, the right scope depends on how much accumulated allocation the school has. We help you read that against your NYSED ORISS notice and decide whether to spend one year's allocation on a focused upgrade or combine several years into one coordinated install. The goal is to use the funding that is already sitting there.
• Reimbursement-ready documentation and application assist. Reimbursement runs on clean paperwork. We provide itemized invoices that map to eligible categories, the proof-of-payment-ready documentation NYSED asks for, and a vendor record that supports the claim. We assist the school's claim package so the reimbursement draws down without avoidable rejections.

What Tec-Tel does not do. We do not act as the applicant or the grant administrator of record. The school holds its OSC Vendor ID, its BEDS code, and its relationship with NYSED ORISS, and the school submits its own claim. Our job is the security design, the install, and the documentation that makes the claim clean. We design to the grant; the school owns the grant.

7. NPSE alongside federal NSGP

Many nonpublic schools, faith-based ones especially, also qualify for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. NSGP awards up to $200,000 per site to at-risk nonprofits on a separate threat-narrative basis, and it funds target-hardening that NPSE may not reach. The two can complement each other: NPSE reimburses school-safety equipment on the per-pupil side, NSGP funds threat-tied hardening. The rule is that the same dollar of expense cannot be reimbursed twice, so the expense lines have to stay separate across the two claims.

One site assessment can support both. For the deeper federal walkthrough, see our NSGP grant security installs page, and for the faith-based context where the two most often overlap, the houses of worship hub. If federal dollars are involved, the NDAA Section 889 covered-equipment rule applies to the federally funded portion.

Last updated: 2026-06-05. We refresh this page when NYSED publishes a new NPSE allocation rate, updates the eligible or ineligible purchases lists, or posts a new claim or RFP cycle. Per-pupil figures cited reflect published NYSED guidance and are historical reference points; confirm your school's current allocation against its NYSED ORISS notice.