Three years ago, the School Safety and Resiliency Act passed, and part of that bill put in place a measure that would ensure all Kentucky schools have a school resource officer.
But, not all schools do, and a bill that’s moving through the General Assembly this session will require them to report to the state school safety center on why they can’t put one in place, which is usually due to finances or not having enough personnel. House Bill 63 passed the Senate Education Meeting Thursday, with a committee sub.
“When the Kentucky School Safety and Resiliency Act was passed a few years ago, it covered how to make our schools safer,” said Rep. Kevin Bratcher (R-Lousiville), House Bill 63’s primary sponsor. “One of them was that an SRO should be on each school campus ready to go if the unthinkable happens.”
Bratcher noted that when schools report why they can’t put in place an SRO, a plan can be made to help the school.
“This bill is not an unfounded mandate,” Bratcher said. “This bill simply clarifies how a school can meet the requirements put forward by the safety and resilience act.”
The bill had a committee sub, which had similar language to Senate Bill 120, which would allow school boards to establish police departments for local school districts.
“Basically, what this language does is it is permissive to allow a school district to create a campus police department,” said SB120 primary sponsor Sen. Danny Carrol (R-Benton). “I think we have 70, maybe 70-something, school districts in the Commonwealth that use the SLEO model.”
SLEO, or special law enforcement officer, allows individuals to perform special law enforcement duties on public property.
“The bill would allow the latitude that university police departments have,” Carroll said, “where the officers would have jurisdiction on school buses anywhere in the state, and property owned and occupied by the school district.”
Further, it would allow these school police departments to reach deals with local governments and counties to have some local jurisdiction, “So, you would have more sworn officers available in the case of an emergency,” Carroll said.
In the biennial budget that’s currently in the conference committee, there are significant increases in SEEK Funding, according to Sen. Stephen West (R-Paris). He was questioned whether some of the schools would be able to access this funding for SROs.
“It’s my understanding. Sure they could use this,” Bratcher said.