Hamilton County school board members adopted a resolution Thursday urging Tennessee lawmakers to increase the funding available to districts to hire school security officers.
For the past few years, local law enforcement agencies in Tennessee have been able to apply to receive funding to place school resource officers at public schools in their jurisdiction. The state’s school resource officer program grant provides up to $75,000 a year for each of those officers, called SROs.
But school districts cannot access those funds to hire school security officers. School security officers are armed and serve in a similar capacity as SROs but are not legally authorized to make arrests.
The school board’s resolution, which members approved unanimously Thursday, seeks to change that. It asks the Tennessee General Assembly to allow school districts to apply for the grant to hire school security officers in situations where local law enforcement agencies are unable to provide an SRO.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County school board approves 75 more seats at Chatt Prep)