School safety grant program could expand under Arizona House bill

A bill that would expand what staff positions the Arizona Department of Education’s school safety grant program can pay for advanced out of the House Education Committee Tuesday with a unanimous vote.

Districts and charter schools could receive safety grant funding to hire off-duty or retired police officers if the bill becomes law in its current form.

House Bill 2400 largely delivered on recommendations made in December by the education department’s school safety task force, with one notable exception: School psychologists will not be eligible for safety grant funding under the bill's current language. Psychologists were cut from an initial version of the bill.

Multiple committee members disagreed with that change.

Rep. Jennifer Pawlik, D-Chandler, said school psychologists are often stretched thin because they juggle multiple school campuses simultaneously. Pawlik was a member of the task force that crafted recommendations last year.

“If we want to continue making sure schools are safe, we must pull every lever," said Rep. Jevin Hodge, D-Tempe. "It's unfortunate school psychologists were removed."

Currently, the School Safety Program awards $80 million in three-year grant cycles to fund four positions: school resource officers, juvenile probation officers, school counselors and social workers.

But many grant recipients this cycle — more than 130 — could not hire school resource officers because of staffing shortages in local police departments.

To cover that gap, the Department of Education had authorized schools to start hiring off-duty police, known as school safety officers, instead, even though the law does not yet explicitly provide for that alternative. Because school safety officers pick up school shifts part-time, a given school might have a different officer every day of the week.

Pawlik and Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson, said they were concerned the inconsistency of safety officers’ schedules would hinder their ability to form meaningful student relationships necessary to serve in those roles effectively.

Michael Kurtenbach, the education department’s director of school safety, said he agreed that part-time officers are not ideal but are the best alternative as long as officer shortages persist.

The bill would also allow school leaders who are unable to fill a grant-funded staff position to submit an alternative proposal for non-personnel safety measures, such as safety technology, safety training or infrastructure improvements.

In addition, it would require specialized training for all school officers on education topics like privacy laws, civil rights matters, adolescent mental health and working with special needs students. Grant-funded social workers and counselors would also receive a multidisciplinary mental health training manual akin to the safety manual already given to school officers.

Reach the reporter at nicholas.sullivan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: School safety grant program could expand under Arizona House bill