School Resource Officer Grants Program and Fund; proceeds may be disbursed to award matching grants. (HB2244)

Introduced By

Sen. Lionell Spruill (D-Chesapeake) with support from co-patrons Del. Mamye BaCote (D-Newport News), and Del. Kaye Kory (D-Falls Church)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

School Resource Officer Grants Program and Fund. Provides that proceeds of the School Resource Officer Grants Fund may be disbursed to award matching grants to local law-enforcement agencies and local school boards that have established a collaborative agreement to employ school resource officers in elementary schools within their shared district. Under current law, funds may be disbursed only when school resource officers are employed in middle or high schools within the district. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/14/2013Committee
01/14/2013Presented and ordered printed 13103688D
01/14/2013Referred to Committee on Appropriations
01/16/2013Assigned App. sub: Elementary & Secondary Education
01/23/2013Assigned App. sub: Public Safety
01/31/2013Subcommittee recommends laying on the table
02/05/2013Left in Appropriations

Comments

ACLU-VA Students' Rights, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

The ACLU of Virginia is monitoring this bill. The over-policing of schools is a serious problem in America. Many school police deal with relatively minor misbehaviors, like drawing on desks, outbursts in the classroom, or minor fights. These are school discipline matters, not police matters. Scaling up police presence in schools can have unintended consequences and can damage learning environments. We should not respond to the critical but complicated question of how to protect students by rushing to put police in schools without understanding the serious negative consequences they can have. Further, the impact of over-policing is especially harsh on youth of color. If police are stationed in schools, they must be responsible only for serious criminal law matters, not for matters that may be minor violations best handled by schools as discipline issues. School-based police must be adequately trained to work with youth, and there must be transparency in and accountability for their activities. Law enforcement intervention (including arrest, citation, summons, etc.) ought to be a last resort.