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.

“School Resource Officers provide an important service to our schools, and schools should have never been forced to go without them,” said Senator Jeff Howe (R-Rockville). “Parents send their kids to school every day, expecting that they will be safe, yet last year’s bill pushed through by Democrats undermined that. As a result, law enforcement and SROs were left facing uncertainty and they were taken out of schools – taken away from their duty of keeping our kids safe. Today’s bill is a good fix, but let’s not forget that Democrats created an issue where there wasn’t one, and we only need this repair because of their poor legislation.

Upon realizing that their bill created a new issue, Democrats took nearly an entire year to recognize it, when it should have been dealt with immediately in a special session. Schools and law enforcement should’ve never been facing this issue. Though I’m glad schools will get SROs back in the building so students and teachers can remain safe, I’m disappointed this fix is not wholly adequate, and it took so long to achieve. There’s more work that needs to be done on this issue because teachers will still be hesitant to intervene.”