Local Education Resource Officer or school guardian information

 January 2024 Utah: A recently proposed bill would require schools to have an SRO, armed security guard, or "school guardian" 

Utah lawmakers have not only passed a requirement for armed security at every Utah school — they’ve dipped deeply into the state’s wallet to do it. After hearing concerns schools would be footing an expensive bill for the new safety requirements, lawmakers allocated $100 million in one-time funding.

The massive bill, almost 2,800 lines long, is the product of months of work done by Utah’s School Security Task Force.

It would establish several new safety standards for schools, including having a panic button in every classroom. It also gives the state security chief, a position created last year, new responsibilities.

But the piece that has received the most attention from the public and pushback is the “school guardian” program.

Each school would either need to have a school resource officer, an armed security guard or a “school guardian,” which would be a school employee who is armed and trained to respond to “active threats.” That employee can’t be a principal or teacher, unless there are only 100 students or less.

A substitute version of the bill passed the full Senate unanimously and the House concurred with those changes 63-9 on Feb. 28.

Funding

Senate Majority Whip Ann Millner said they responded to concerns from the education community that the potentially costly security requirements were an “unfunded mandate.” The previous iteration only had $4.26 million in ongoing funds and $1.36 million in one-time funding. It said school districts and charter schools could apply to the existing School Safety and Support Grant Program to pay for requirements like installing panic buttons

The passed bill now allocates $100 million in one-time funding to that grant program.

“I think we now have a bill that has the flexibility that we need, is no longer an unfunded mandate and will allow everyone to proceed with the kind of support and help they need to make sure our children are safe,” Millner said on the Senate floor.

How much money it will actually take to get schools up to the new code is not yet known. Some already have some of the required safety measures in place, while others do not.

Schools will be required to conduct a school safety needs assessment to identify their deficiencies, and grant funding will be awarded based on need. The bill also tasks the state security chief with establishing building and safety standards.

Millner and Senate President Stuart Adams told reporters that after hearing money concerns, they worked with school districts and seemed confident that the $100 million in one-time funding and $4.26 million in ongoing funds will be sufficient.

School guardians

In a Feb. 26 Senate Education Committee hearing, Rep. Ryan Wilcox, the bill sponsor, said it was his preference that each school have a school resource officer, meaning a law enforcement officer who works at a school or district.

In the absence of that, schools can either have an armed security guard or a volunteer “school guardian” to fulfill the requirement in the bill.

Wilcox told lawmakers that in one Utah high school, about two guns are confiscated from students every week. He didn’t name the school. In addition to the guns that shouldn’t be there, educators statewide are already legally carrying guns on school campuses with concealed firearm permits.

That’s why Wilcox said his bill is “not about adding more guns to schools. I promise you, they are already there.”

The goal, Wilcox said, is quicker response and intervention in an emergency situation.

One of the student members on Provo School District’s Board of Education, Will Weidner, told the committee that after talking with his peers, “we are not comfortable with armed volunteers in our schools.” He’d prefer the state give schools more funding so every school can have a school resource officer.

Floor sponsor Sen. Don Ipson said if there’s an active shooter at a school, “seconds, minutes count.”

How safe a student is at school depends on where they are in the state, Wilcox said, as some districts have more security than others.

His bill sets minimum safety and security standards for schools, both for their physical buildings and their protocols. It also requires that all school districts and first responder agencies use the same critical incident response protocol.

Support from Parkland parents

While working on this proposed legislation, Wilcox visited Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 14 students and three staff members were killed in a 2018 shooting.

Two parents whose children were killed in that shooting have spoken at committee meetings and visited the Utah Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass this bill.

“We never thought it would happen in our community,” said Max Schachter, who lost his son Alex in the shooting. He warned that “it's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when and where the next school shooting will happen.”

Lori Alhadeff’s daughter Alyssa was also killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. Since then, Alhadeff has been advocating for states to pass “Alyssa’s Law,” which requires schools to have silent panic alarms in each classroom to notify law enforcement. Wilcox has incorporated that requirement into his bill.

Response from educators

The bill was opposed by the state’s largest teachers union, the Utah Education Association.

President Renée Pinkney said there are several components she is in favor of, like the panic buttons in every classroom. She said those would be useful not only if there’s an active threat, but also if a student is having a medical emergency. She also likes the building safety assessment and the standardized safety standards and protocols across the state.

Generally, she said the Legislature’s attention to the issue of school safety, through spending months working on this bill and allocating over $100 million, is “very welcome by the school community.”

The association’s concern, Pinkney said, is with the school guardian program. While the bill requires guardians be trained in firearm safety, de-escalation tactics and the role of mental health in incidents, she’s concerned that it won’t be enough to prepare these school employees to interact with children of all ages and backgrounds in a way that “mitigates trauma.”

And while lawmakers are allocating a large amount of one-time funding, Pinkney said “safety concerns are ongoing.” To her, the support from lawmakers needs to be “continuous and it has to be consistent.”

For his part, Wilcox has said that this isn’t a one-and-done bill. He anticipates this is an issue they’ll keep working on. His bill also extends how long the state’s School Security Task Force will last from its original tenure through the end of 2023, now lasting until the end of 2025.

Wilcox’s bill also creates an Education Advisory Board for the task board. It’ll include superintendents, facilities managers, charter school representatives, private school representatives, a parent and other members of the education community.

Other school safety bills

Another bill from Wilcox that passed both the House and the Senate will make it a second-degree felony to make a hoax threat to a school. It also increases penalties for making a violent threat against a school, real or fake.

Republican Rep. Tim Jimenez’s bill, which also passed, will create a program to incentivize teachers to “responsibly secure or carry a firearm on school grounds,” by giving them free training on firearms and defending their classroom. It also gives teachers liability protection.

 

Index	Utah Code
Title 53G	Public Education System -- Local Administration
Chapter 8	Discipline and Safety
Part 7	School Safety Personnel
Section 703	Contracts between an LEA and law enforcement for school resource officer services -- Requirements -- LEA establishment of a school resource officer policy -- Public comment.  (Effective 5/1/2024)

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Effective 5/1/2024
53G-8-703.  Contracts between an LEA and law enforcement for school resource officer services -- Requirements -- LEA establishment of a school resource officer policy -- Public comment.

(1)	(a) An LEA may use a school resource officer to satisfy the school safety personnel requirements of Section 53G-8-701.5.   (b) An LEA that uses a school resource officer under Subsection (1)(a) shall contract with a local law enforcement agency to provide school resource officer services.

 

(2)

An LEA contract with a law enforcement agency to provide school resource officer services at the LEA shall require in the contract: (a) an acknowledgment by the law enforcement agency that a school resource officer hired under the contract shall: (i) provide for and maintain a safe, healthy, and productive learning environment in a school;   (ii) act as a positive role model to students;   (iii) work to create a cooperative, proactive, and problem-solving partnership between law enforcement and the LEA;   (iv) emphasize the use of restorative approaches to address negative behavior; and   (v) at the request of the LEA, teach a vocational law enforcement class;   (b) a description of the shared understanding of the LEA and the law enforcement agency regarding the roles and responsibilities of law enforcement and the LEA to: (i) maintain safe schools;   (ii) improve school climate; and   (iii) support educational opportunities for students;   (c) a designation of student offenses that, in accordance with Section 53G-8-211, the school resource officer: (i) may refer to the juvenile court;   (ii) shall confer with the LEA to resolve; and   (iii) shall refer to a school administrator for resolution as an administrative issue with the understanding that the school resource officer will be informed of the outcome of the administrative issue;   (d) a detailed description of the rights of a student under state and federal law with regard to: (i) searches;   (ii) questioning;   (iii) arrests; and   (iv) information privacy;   (e) a detailed description of: (i) job assignment and duties, including: (A) the school to which the school resource officer will be assigned;   (B) the hours the school resource officer is expected to be present at the school;   (C) the point of contact at the school;   (D) specific responsibilities for providing and receiving information; and   (E) types of records to be kept, and by whom;   (ii) training requirements; and   (iii) other expectations of the school resource officer and school administration in relation to law enforcement at the LEA;   (f) that a school resource officer who is hired under the contract and the principal at the school where a school resource officer will be working, or the principal's designee, will jointly complete the school resource officer training described in Section 53G-8-702;   (g) that both parties agree to jointly discuss school resource officer applicants;   (h) that the law enforcement agency will, at least annually, seek out and accept feedback from an LEA about a school resource officer's performance; and   (i) a designation of the school resource officer or the law enforcement agency's designee as "school officials" for purposes of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 34 C.F.R. Part 99.

 

(3)	An LEA may not require or prohibit mandatory rotations of school resource officers as part of the contract described in Subsection (2).

 

(4)	An LEA that uses a school resource officer under Subsection (1)(a) shall establish a school resource officer policy.

 

(5)	The school resource officer policy described in Subsection (4) shall include: (a) the contract described in Subsection (2); and   (b) all other procedures and requirements governing the relationship between the LEA and a school resource officer.

 

(6)	Before implementing the school resource officer policy described in Subsection (4), the LEA shall present the school resource officer policy at a public meeting and receive public comment on the school resource officer policy.

Amended by Chapter 21, 2024 General Session