A task force convened by Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne wants legislative changes to address a shortage of safety officers and mental health professionals in schools.
The Arizona News Collaborative reports that 138 of the 301 schools that received grants from the Arizona Department of Education for school resource officers over the past year have not been able to fill those positions.
Mike Kurtenbach, the department’s director of school safety, says there is a shortage of qualified applicants who also meet legislative requirements for the grant program.
The task force wants state legislators to tweak the law and make it easier for retired police officers to fill those open school safety positions.
Kurtenbach says they also recommend adding language to the law to ensure school resource officers will be trained on issues specific to the school environment, like civil rights and mental health issues.
The task force also recommends expanding the grant program to cover school psychologists and other safety measures, like A.I. technology, to improve the physical security of schools.