School Resource Officers (SRO)

School resource officers (SROs) have become a permanent presence in many K-12 schools throughout the United States.
There has been a growing interest in placing sworn police officers in schools as SROs to improve school safety.

School-based policing is the fastest growing area of law enforcement. The primary role of law enforcement personnel in schools is to provide safe learning environments, but what role does law enforcement play in managing disruptive students and enforcing student codes of conduct? Law Enforcement and School Resource Officers (SROs) should be engaged in training to learn how to manage adolescent behaviors. Law Enforcement and SROs should partner in local collaborations with schools, mental health providers and juvenile justice representatives to minimize the use of suspensions, expulsions and referrals to the juvenile justice system, while implementing positive school discipline policies.

In September of 2016, U.S. Departments of Education and U.S. Justice released new tools to assist states, districts and schools in the implementation of best practices for the appropriate use of school resource officers (SROs). The release is the result of collaborative work between both Departments to define the best use of law enforcement officers when utilized within a school environment. The Departments also jointly released the Safe, School-based Enforcement through Collaboration, Understanding, and Respect (SECURe) Rubrics. These resources are designed to help education and law enforcement agencies that use SROs to review and, if necessary, revise SRO-related policies in alignment with common-sense action steps that can lead to improved school safety and better outcomes for students while safeguarding their civil rights.