Amendment #23 to H4278

Securing effective school-based law enforcement

Mr. Cantwell of Marshfield moves to amend the bill in section 6, in line 209, by inserting after “officer.” the following sentences “As part of placing a school resource officer in a school, the school district and law enforcement agency shall establish a memorandum of understanding defining the school-law enforcement partnership and detailing the roles and responsibilities of the school district, law enforcement agency, and school resource officers. Such memorandum shall clarify that school officials continue to be primarily responsible for school discipline issues.”; and in section 6, in line 211, by inserting after “community,” the following words “integrate into the school environment, avoid involvement in school discipline, and minimize diversion of youth into the juvenile or criminal justice system”; and in section 6, in line 212, by striking the word “solely”; and in section 6, in line 213, by inserting after “police.” the following sentence “Such a review shall take into account disaggregated data collected pursuant to subsection (f).”; and in section 6, in lines 216 to 218, by striking out “may waive the requirements of this section if the secretary believes a school resource officer would not assist that particular city or town, a regional school district or a county agricultural school to ensure safe schools.” and inserting in place thereof “shall waive the requirements of this section if the secretary believes a school resource officer would not substantially assist that particular city or town, a regional school district or a county agricultural school to ensure safe schools.”; and in section 6, after line 220, by inserting the following paragraphs:

“(e) The department shall also establish a grant program, subject to appropriation, for school districts to fund training for school resource officers, chiefs of police, and school administrators in effective school-based law enforcement. Training programs shall include, but not be limited to, the following topic areas: child and adolescent development, juvenile mental health and trauma, referring and connecting to local youth-serving community based organizations, crime prevention through environmental design, best practices for recognizing and responding to students with learning and language disabilities, legal protections guaranteed children with these disabilities, juvenile law, working in a school environment, positive school discipline, active shooter response, and crisis planning.”

“(f) Each city, town, district, or school shall work with its school resource officer(s) to collect data, disaggregated by age, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and English language learner status, on law enforcement contact, law enforcement referrals, arrests, and citations by offense in school or related to school behavior.”