The legislation came as lawmakers renewed focus on school safety in response to the 21 people killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde in May 2022. However, it’s unclear how soon some districts will be able to implement the new security measures, as officials navigate financial hurdles and a competitive marketplace ahead of the 2023-24 school year.
The bill’s language, though, does not outline penalties for districts who do not comply with the new rules by September. In Georgetown ISD, preliminary conversations are still underway with the Georgetown Police Department, the district’s partner for staffing school resource officers. It also is a conservation the district's new leadership will have with the agency, as GISD’s board of trustees has searched throughout the summer for a new superintendent culminating in naming Devin Padavil as the lone finalist for the role July 17.
“Our partnership with GDP is really good,” said Melinda Brasher, executive director for communications and community engagement. “We’re going to continue that [memorandum of understanding] with them to keep school resource officers at our campuses. How that evolves, I don’t know that we have real solid answers to yet.”
As part of the legislation, districts will receive $10 per student and $15,000 per campus to meet the requirements. It also established a new safety and security department within the Texas Education Agency, which will be overseen by John P. Scott, chief of school safety security for TEA, who Gov. Greg Abbott appointed in October 2022.
The law also provides that Commissioner of Education Mike Morath may appoint a conservator to oversee a district’s school board and administration if the district does not submit school safety information or comply with intruder detection audits.
GISD has eight school resource officers already in place, serving its 19 campuses. With some of those campuses in close proximity to each other, the district spreads out its SROs across all of the schools to ensure officers are always close by, if not directly on campus, Brasher said.
Brasher said many of the safety measures required of schools have already been in place as well, thanks to bond propositions and “taxpayers supporting those efforts.”
“Oftentimes as those mandates come down unfunded from the state, school districts are left to scramble,” she said. “Not to say that some of the things that are coming down the line right now aren’t going to be challenges for school districts, because there may not necessarily be funding; but at the same time, when we go to our community and say, ‘These are the things that we need to do,’ we’ve been fortunate to have their support.”
Breaking down the bill
With the passage of House Bill 3 in this year’s Texas legislative session, school districts throughout Texas are now required to have one armed security guard on each campus. The security officers could include:
- School district peace officer
- School resource officer
- Commissioned peace officer employed as security personnel
- School marshal
- School district employee who completes safety training with qualified handgun instructor
HB 3 provides that school districts receive additional state funding to pay for new requirements for armed security. Some school districts have expressed concern that the extra money will not cover all of the costs associated with the new law. Under the bill, each school district will receive:
- $10 for each student in average daily attendance
- $15,000 per campus
