Sec. 2. Findings

179 words·~1 min read·/bill/115/hr/5139/ih/section-2

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds as follows: According to 2016 data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, only 24 percent of elementary schools and 42 percent of high schools nationwide have school resource officers. The absence of school resource officers in many cases has been attributed to the lack of financial resources or the availability of trained police officers to fulfill the role of school resource officers. No one is better trained and better equipped to handle a potential school shooting situation, and therefore serve as a school resource officer, than our Nation’s men and women in law enforcement, including retired officers and veterans.

In many cases, police officers and veterans retire in their early fifties, while they still have a number of years where they can provide a valuable service to our schools and communities by serving as a school resources officer. Placing highly trained and professional retired police officers and veterans in our schools as school resource officers is one of the easiest ways to bolster school security, and it can be achieved almost immediately.