Norman Public Schools can apply for up to $900,000 in state opioid abatement grants after the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office opened a new funding round.

Applications are due Monday, Nov. 30, according to the Attorney General's Office. Individual awards range from $105,000 to $900,000 over three years, depending on the applicant's size and type. Groups of institutions that apply together may qualify for more.

The funding matters locally because Norman Public Schools already showed what the money can do. The district received a $150,000 opioid abatement grant, according to an Aug. 25, 2025, Attorney General's Office press release. Director of Counseling Kitrena Hime used the money to build a multi-tiered support system for students caught with drugs or alcohol, replacing long suspensions with education, counseling and recovery resources.

Drug and alcohol infractions across the district fell 40 percent during the 2024-2025 school year. Middle school infractions fell 58 percent to 27. High school infractions fell 30 percent to 82. The district also cut suspension time for substance violations from 10 days to five.

Before the grant, the numbers had been climbing. Substance-related suspensions totaled fewer than 100 per year before the COVID-19 pandemic, rose to 165 by 2022 and hit 212 for the school year ending in 2023. More than half of suspended students fell behind on graduation credits, and 95 percent were chronically absent, according to the district's counseling office.

Superintendent Nick Migliorino said in the Aug. 25, 2025, press release that the prior grant let the district focus on prevention, education and recovery instead of punishment. Hime said in the same statement that the district chose to be "less punitive and more supportive."

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who chairs the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Board, said in a statement that schools serve as a front line against opioid dangers and that his office will help applicants through the process.

The board has distributed nearly $42 million in grants to more than 150 cities, counties and schools statewide, KGOU reported. The most recent round, awarded in August 2026, totaled $12 million to 24 recipients, including Norman Regional Hospital Authority. Oklahoma has been awarded at least $920 million in settlement agreements alleging drug companies used deceptive marketing and misrepresented the addictiveness of opioids. At the crisis peak in 2023, 810 Oklahomans died of opioid-related overdoses in a single year.

Grant uses must align with priority strategies set by the Opioid Abatement Board, including school-based prevention programs, family skills training and naloxone distribution. Colleges and universities became eligible in 2025 after lawmakers passed Senate Bill 574.

The Opioid Abatement Board will review submissions from Dec. 1, 2026, through Feb. 28, 2027, and is expected to announce recipients in March or April 2027, according to KGOU.