Continuing the theme of “repairing” last year’s legislation, the Minnesota Senate today passed a bill to provide clarity on the expectations for School Resource Officers (SROs) and how they operate in schools. This bill comes in response to nearly a year of uncertainty facing law enforcement and SROs after changes proposed by the Governor raised concerns with the school and law enforcement communities.

Last year, the 2023 Education Omnibus Education Bill included language that made SROs “agents” of the school, which created new standards that conflicted with their training and would require an SRO to call in a “patrol officer” to manage many situations. As a result, many SROs were removed from schools and made students less safe. Today’s bill makes changes to give SROs the clarity and support to keep students safe and do their jobs successfully.

“Though I’m glad we’re finally addressing concerns around School Resource Officers, it’s important to remember that this was a non-issue before the Democrat trifecta passed these changes last year, and it took Republican votes to fix it,” said Senator Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake). “These officers play an incredibly important role in our schools and work tirelessly to keep students and teachers safe. Despite there being no record of issues with SROs, Democrats passed a bill that greatly altered their role in schools, which led to many schools losing their officers. This issue should have never been politicized and we should have fixed it 6 months ago when school was starting, but I’m glad it’s finally being addressed.”