Texas advisory committee begins drafting uniform job description for school marshals

A Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCO) advisory committee met Jan. 28 in Austin to begin drafting a statewide job description for school marshals intended for use by psychologists, employers and training providers.

The committee — made up of law enforcement leaders, school officials and TCO staff — opened by identifying wide variation across Texas in how school marshals are used, trained and managed. Greg Stevens, executive director of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, said the panel’s “first thing we want to start with is we do need a definitive job description, a, you know, what is it that is expected of this role.” Stevens said the work will inform a job description that marshals’ evaluating psychologists can use in fitness-for-duty determinations.

Why it matters: committee members said a single, generic job description will help standardize psychological evaluations, clarify what duties marshals may reasonably be expected to perform and give school districts a template to adapt locally. Colin Grissom, deputy chief over credentialing, education services and field services at TCO, said psychologists have sometimes refused to evaluate marshals because they lack a clear job description to use as a benchmark.

Key points discussed - Statutory scope and limits: The committee reviewed statutory limits on marshal authority, noting…