Senate committee backs bill letting West Virginia schools hire safety officers, guardians or private security

The Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously to report a committee substitute for House Bill 2164, a measure that would allow public, charter and private schools in West Virginia to employ certified school safety officers, use the West Virginia Guardian program or contract with licensed private security firms.

Committee counsel said, “House bill 21 64 allows for public and private schools in West Virginia to employ security personnel,” and that the bill “creates school safety officers and requires the director of the Division of Protective Services to establish standards for school safety officers and issue them certificates.”

The bill, as explained to the committee, would: create a certified school safety officer classification; require background checks; specify detention powers and their limitations; require annual joint training with local sheriff’s offices; require schools that employ officers to have insurance; and place liability for school safety officers with the county board of education. The measure also incorporates the language of Senate Bill 450 to create the West Virginia Guardian program, which allows former law‑enforcement officers to be engaged as independent contractors to provide on‑campus security.

A strike‑and‑insert amendment adopted by the committee adds a third option: county boards, charter schools and private religious schools could contract with private security guard firms licensed under chapter 30. Counsel told the committee that those private firms would have to meet licensing requirements under chapter 30 and the statutory standards that apply to other options in the bill. “As long as they met all of the requirements in the legislation, which are fairly stringent… and met all of the requirements for being licensed under chapter 30,” counsel said in response to a committee question about bringing in guards without law enforcement backgrounds.

Senators asked several clarifying questions during debate, including whether weapons lockers were covered by the bill; counsel answered that the bill does not provide for weapons lockers and that she did not know whether they are addressed elsewhere in code. The committee adopted the strike‑and‑insert amendment and then voted to report the bill to the full Senate with a recommendation that it do pass; the chair declared the ayes have it on both voice votes.

Why it matters: the bill gives school districts and private schools multiple, statutorily defined options for hiring security personnel and sets training, certification and insurance expectations. The measure makes the use of firearms on school grounds a statutory possibility for covered officers and contractors, and it assigns final civil liability to county boards of education.

The committee’s action sends the measure to the full Senate; any further changes or floor debate could follow before final Senate passage and concurrence by the House.