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 should focus on keeping students out of the criminal justice system when possible and 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 subjects, for example, federal and state laws, best practices 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 an 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.

Security Guard License Requirements.  The Department of Licensing licenses security guards and security companies.  All security guards must complete at least eight hours of preassignment training and at least eight hours of initial post assignment training.  Once these two components are completed, security guards must complete at least four hours of annual refresher training each year.  

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.

New requirements are placed on educational service districts (ESDs), school districts, and charter schools related to safety and security staff.  "Safety and security staff" means 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.  The definition of "school resource officers" is revised to include building positive relationships with students. 

Policy and Procedure Requirements.  At the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, school districts and charter schools with safety and security staff working on school property when students are expected to be present must adopt and periodically update a policy and procedure concerning safety and security staff.  The required elements of the policy and procedure consist of certain existing SRO agreement requirements that are extended to the policy and procedure, for example:  (1) a clear statement regarding safety and security staff duties and responsibilities; (2) the recognition that trained safety and security staff know when to informally interact with students; and (3) the description of the complaint process related to safety and security staff. 
 
The adopted policy and procedure must also include:  (1) an explanation of how safety and security staff will engage in creating a positive school climate and positive relationships with students; (2) the inclusion of a description of the complaint process for companies that provides safety and security staff on contract; and (3) prescribed communication at the beginning of each school year with students and students' families about the role and responsibilities of safety and security staff. 
 
Agreement Requirements.  School districts and charter schools must also establish, when applicable, an annual agreement with a law enforcement agency or security guard company, that:

• includes a jointly determined hiring and placement process, and performance evaluation process for safety and security staff;
• confirms that safety and security staff have training series documentation provided by an ESD or describes a plan to provide safety and security staff the necessary training series; and
• involves parents, students, and community members in agreement review and adoption.

Training Requirements.  Before safety and security staff may work on school property when students are expected to be present, school districts, charter schools, and any contractors, must either:

• confirm that the safety and security staff have training series documentation provided by an ESD; or
• require the safety and security staff to complete the training series.

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

• all safety and security staff complete classroom training on 13-mandated subjects within the first six months of working on school property when students are expected to be present.  The ESDs must identify or develop classroom training on the 13-mandated subjects.  These subjects consist of the existing 12-mandated subjects previously required for SRO training, plus restorative justice principles and practices.  The ESDs must provide, or arrange for the delivery of, classroom training on these 13-mandated subjects.  The training should be self-supporting and may be provided on a fee-for-service basis.  At a minimum, classroom trainings on each subject must be provided annually, remotely, synchronously or asynchronously and by at least one ESD;
• all 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 SROs 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.

Safety and security staff who complete the training series components, and staff with significant prior training and experience may request training series documentation from the ESD.  Before providing training series documentation, 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.

Licensed security guards that have completed safety and security staff classroom training hours may apply these hours to meet either their initial postassignment training requirement or their annual refresher training requirement.

Data Collection Requirements.  School districts and charter schools must annually collect certain information on safety and security staff, for example:  (1) the total number of safety and security staff working in each building; (2) a description of each incident where safety and security staff were involved that resulted in student discipline, use of force against a student, or a student arrest; (3) and the number of complaints filed against safety and security staff.

School districts and charter schools must annually submit the collected information and any safety and security agreements adopted at the time and in the manner required by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).  The OSPI must make the agreements and information publicly available.