School Resource Officer.  A school resource officer (SRO) is statutorily defined as a commissioned law enforcement officer who works in community-oriented policing and has the authority to make arrests.  An SRO is assigned by the employing police department or sheriff's office to work in schools to address crime and disorder problems, gangs, and drug activities affecting or occurring in or around schools.  The SROs have a mandated focus on keeping students out of the criminal justice system when possible.  The SROs may not be used to attempt to impose criminal sanctions in matters that are more appropriately handled within the educational system.
 
School Resource Officer Program Requirements.  Beginning in the 2020-21 school year, if a school district chooses to have an SRO program, the school district must confirm that every SRO has received training on 12 mandated topics, for example, federal and state laws, best practice on working with youth, de-escalation techniques, and alternatives to arrest and prosecution.  School districts must annually review and adopt an agreement with the local law enforcement agency that incorporates specified elements, such as defining the duties of a SRO, confirmation that the SROs are trained, and a complaint process. Subject to state funding, the State School Safety Center must identify and make publicly available SRO training materials.  The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction must establish and implement, subject to state funding, a grant program to fund training for the SROs.

Educational Service Districts.  Washington has nine regionally based educational service districts (ESDs) that provide cooperative and informational services to local school districts.  The ESDs have been tasked with providing teachers' institutes, workshops for staff preparation, in-service training, and other trainings on a variety of topics, including school safety.

Criminal Justice Training Commission.  The Criminal Justice Training Commission regulates programs and standards for the training of criminal justice personnel.  Criminal justice personnel are people, serving in certain local government agencies, who are engaged in crime prevention, crime reduction, or enforcement of the criminal law.

New requirements are placed on educational service districts (ESDs), school districts, charter schools, and state-tribal compact schools related to safety and security staff.  Safety and security staff refer to school resource officers (SROs), school security officers, campus security officers, and any other commissioned or noncommissioned employee or contractors, whose primary job duty is to provide safety or security services for a public school.

Safety and Security Staff Agreement Requirements.  Existing SRO agreement requirements for school districts are made applicable to charter schools and state-tribal compact schools, and the agreements must apply to all safety and security staff, rather than just to SROs.  Public schools that have safety and security staff on school property during the school day must annually review and adopt an agreement with safety and security staff, or when applicable, local law enforcement agency or company that provides the safety and security staff on contract.  The minimum requirements of SRO agreements, such as SRO duties and responsibilities, school district policy and procedure on student interventions, and complaint procedures, are extended to safety and security staff agreements.
 
In addition, at the beginning of each school year, school districts, charter schools, and state-tribal compact schools, with safety and security staff working on school property during the school day, must present to and discuss with students information about the role and responsibilities of safety and security staff.  This information must also be distributed to students' families.  School districts, charter schools and state-tribal compact schools must also incorporate into the annual agreement:

• a jointly determined hiring and placement process, and performance evaluation process for safety and security staff;
• a policy on how safety and security staff will engage in creating a positive school climate and positive relationships with students; and
• confirmation that safety and security staff have been issued a certificate of completion or the description of a plan to provide safety and security staff the necessary training series.

Safety and Security Staff Training Requirements.  Before safety and security staff may work on school property during the school day, school districts, charter schools, and state-tribal compact schools, and any contractors, must either:

• confirm that the safety and security staff were issued a certificate of completion; or
• require the safety and security staff to complete the required training series.

 
The safety and security staff training program must be jointly developed by the ESDs, however a training program may be administered by one ESD.  These training series components require:

• all school safety and security staff complete classroom training on 13 mandated subjects before working on school property during the school day.  In collaboration with the criminal justice training commission, the ESDs must, identify or develop classroom training on 13 mandated subjects.  These subjects consist of the existing 12 mandated topics previously required for SRO training, along with the addition of the topic of "restorative justice principles and practices."  The ESDs must provide, or arrange for the delivery of, classroom training on these 13 subjects.  At a minimum, classroom trainings on each subject must be provided annually, remotely, and by one ESD;
• all school safety and security staff complete two days of on-the-job training with experienced safety and security staff, at the school of the experienced staff, within the first year of working on school property during the school day; and
• safety and security staff who are not the SROs must complete at least six check-in trainings with experienced staff within the first year of working on school property during the school day.  The ESDs must develop on-the-job training and check-in training guidelines that include specified topics.

 
School safety and security staff who complete the training series components, and staff with significant prior training and experience, may apply for a certificate of completion issued by the ESD.  Before issuing a certificate of completion, the completion of each component of the training series must be verified by the ESD.  However, in the case of safety and security staff with significant prior training and experience, the training series may be waived.

Data Collection Regarding Safety and Security Staff.  School districts, charter schools, and state-tribal compact schools must collect certain information regarding safety and security staff on an annual basis.  Examples of the required collected data include:

• the total number of safety and security staff working in the district and in each school building, and number of days per week that each staff works;
• a description of each incident where safety and security staff were involved that resulted in escalated involvement with a student, use of force against a student, or a student arrest.  This description must contain certain demographic information; and
• the number of complaints filed against safety and security staff.

 
School districts, charter schools, and state-tribal compact schools must annually submit the required information and any safety and security agreements adopted, in the manner required by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).  These agreements and information must be made publicly available by the OSPI.