The Cost of Raising a Child vs. the Cost of Protecting One
The USDA estimated in 2017 that a middle-income family spends approximately $233,610 to raise a child from birth through age 17 — not including college. Adjusted for inflation, that figure exceeds $284,000 today. Housing, food, childcare, education, healthcare, clothing, transportation — the costs are staggering and well-documented.
A door barricade device costs $69.
Yet school districts across the country continue to delay, defer, or reject spending on physical security measures for classrooms. The disconnect between what families invest in their children and what institutions spend to protect them is difficult to justify.
The Scale of the Threat
The FBI’s Active Shooter Reports document the sustained threat facing American schools:
- 2000–2019: 333 active shooter incidents, 2,851 casualties across the United States
- 2020: 40 incidents, 164 casualties
- 2021: 61 incidents, 243 casualties
- 2022: 50 incidents, 313 casualties — including 21 killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX
- 2023: 48 incidents, 244 casualties
- 2024: 24 incidents, 106 casualties
Educational facilities remain the second most frequent location for active shooter incidents, behind commercial and business settings. The names — Parkland, Santa Fe, Sandy Hook, Uvalde — represent not just tragedies but systemic failures to protect children in mandatory attendance environments.
The Bureaucratic Barrier
Why is the response so slow? A significant obstacle has been outdated fire and building codes, many of which were written decades before the active shooter threat existed. These codes were designed to ensure rapid egress — getting people out of a building during a fire. They were never designed to address the opposite problem: keeping an attacker out of a room.
Progress is happening, but unevenly. Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Kansas, New Jersey, and other states have updated their fire or building codes to permit door barricade devices in educational facilities. NFPA 101 (Life Safety Code) and the International Building Code require that egress doors unlatch with a single motion, with hardware mounted 34–48 inches above the floor — requirements that well-designed barricade devices like the Bolo Stick meet.
Remaining states are slow to act or actively oppose these devices, sometimes over the objection of their own school administrators who want them.
Funding Is Available
Budget constraints are real. State per-pupil funding has declined significantly since 2008, and administrators face impossible tradeoffs between staffing, infrastructure, technology, and safety. But federal funding exists specifically for this purpose.
The FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) awarded $454 million in FY2024 and has $274.5 million available for FY2025. These grants fund physical security enhancements — including door hardening, access control, and barricade devices — for schools, houses of worship, and nonprofit organizations at elevated risk.
"Our mission is making millions of products protecting millions of people."
— Bill Barna, Bolo Stick founder and 33-year retired police officer
Compulsory Attendance, Optional Protection
Every state in the country mandates school attendance, typically from ages 5–8 through ages 16–18. Children are legally required to be in these buildings. There is no corresponding mandate to ensure those buildings can protect them from an armed intruder.
At $69 per unit with a five-minute installation, the Bolo Stick door barricade is the most affordable classroom security device on the market. It requires no training, no maintenance, and no fine motor skills to deploy. It withstands over 4,200 pounds of force. For a school with 50 classrooms, total cost is $3,450 — less than what many districts spend on a single copier lease.
The question isn’t whether schools can afford door barricades. The question is whether they can afford not to have them.
Take the first step toward protecting your students. Shop Bolo Stick products or contact us to discuss district-wide implementation.