School resource officers describe shift in incident counting and emphasize truancy warnings

School resource officers Matt Swanson and Amanda Mundell presented the SRO program update to the Superior School District Board of Education on June 1, explaining how changed counting criteria and proactive truancy practices affect reported data.

Swanson said the district’s records department revised incident-count criteria this year so that only incidents that occur on school property, during school hours, and that generate an incident number are counted. "Our records department this year ran the numbers with this criteria," he said, and the change reduced incident totals compared with last year while arrest numbers remained "very consistent." Swanson added that the arrest figures often reflect truancy citations.

At the high-school level, presenters said incident counts are likewise affected by where an event occurs and by how reports are filed; incidents that happen in the community are recorded at the community address rather than the school. SROs described increased use of pre-citation truancy warnings as a strategy to avoid court and large fines for families. Swanson estimated he sends about 10 truancy-warning letters per week and said the letters are issued to both students and parents and are sent on department letterhead to increase attention.

Board members asked about state reporting requirements; staff said recent legislation requires district reporting to the Department of Education, and the district will provide a separate violent-crime report focused on high-school incidents in July. SROs and administrators credited coordination between administrators and law enforcement, principal-level involvement and revised truancy practices for recent declines in incident counts while noting arrests remained similar because the definition of arrest did not change.

The board thanked the presenters and endorsed continued emphasis on warnings and family engagement to reduce legal and financial impacts on families.