Chapter 71 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 37P the following section:-

Section 37P½. Ratio of school resource officers to mental and social emotional health support personnel

(a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:-

“Mental and social emotional health support personnel”, employees hired by an individual school or local education agency in a role that primarily provides social emotional support or mental health services to students, including but not limited to school adjustment counselors and social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Roles that primarily provide academic, instructional, administrative, educator, or parent support are excluded from this term. 

“School resource officers”, as defined in section 37P.

(b) Local education agencies shall not employ, accept assignment of, or otherwise staff more than one full time equivalent school resource officer or other security personnel for every seven full time equivalent mental and social emotional health support personnel.

(c) Nothing in this section shall prevent local education agencies from hiring or maintaining mental and social emotional health support personnel at a rate higher that the ratio defined in subsection (b).

(d) The department of elementary and secondary education shall collect data on the number of mental and social emotional health support personnel to number of school resource officers and security personnel employed by or assigned to each local education agency, as well as the sources of funding used to employ or staff each of the above personnel pursuant to subsection (b).