Senate advances bill to collect school disciplinary data, narrows SRO questioning role

Senators on the floor amended and advanced Senate Bill 198, a measure sponsors described as a data-transparency effort to track how juvenile-justice reforms are implemented in public schools and how school resource officers (SROs) interact with students.

Sponsor remarks said the bill “allows us to view and get the data back so that we can see just how effective we're doing” and that the aim is to identify where system changes are needed. During floor debate, senators adopted an amendment that removes language authorizing SRO questioning of students and deletes a line on certain categories of complaints. The amendment also pushed back an implementation date originally drafted as 01/01/2019 to 07/01/2020; the sponsor said vendors and school systems will need roughly 18 months to align student information systems and produce the required reports.

Supporters argued the measure would provide lawmakers and the State Board of Education with consistent data to evaluate juvenile-justice reforms and identify gaps where interventions are needed. "It collects this data," the sponsor said, adding the point of the bill is to help “identify where we can make tweaks” to improve outcomes. The sponsor also noted coordination between the Student Data Protection Act and juvenile-justice rules was necessary so that interventions tied to behavioral intervention plans (BIPs) could be shared appropriately.

The Senate voted to read SB198 for a third time; the President announced the bill received 17 aye votes, 0 nay votes, with 12 senators absent, moving the bill forward on the third-reading calendar.

What’s next: sponsors said the bill will proceed to a third reading and then to the House. Supporters indicated they plan to monitor implementation timelines and data submission details with the State Office of Education.