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Committee narrows limits on school resource officer investigations, adds supervisory review
Summary
The Senate Committee on Health and Welfare adopted an amendment to House Bill 451 that restores some investigative authority to school resource officers when alleged abusers are not school employees and adds supervisory oversight requiring SRO reports be routed up the chain of command.
Lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare voted to adopt amendment set 1818 and reported House Bill 451 as amended after testimony from the bill sponsor explaining the change would roll back a portion of last year’s law.
Representative Vauquelin, the bill sponsor, said the earlier statute had broadly restricted school resource officers’ ability to investigate child abuse reports when a school employee was involved. “Last year … we painted too big of a brush,” Vauquelin said, and presented HB 451 as a narrower approach: if the alleged abuser is a school employee the SRO would not be the sole investigator, but if the allegation concerns a family member or another student the SRO could investigate.
The adopted amendment requires that when an SRO receives a report of abuse or neglect, the officer must report the allegation up the chain of command and a supervisor must assign an investigator; that assigned investigator may be the SRO. Vauquelin described the change as adding supervisory oversight so “someone [is] looking over their shoulder to make sure things are done correctly.”
Senators adopted the amendment by voice and then moved to report HB 451 as amended. The committee reported the bill favorably with no recorded opposition.
