Je co School Resource O cers may soon have mandated training

teaches ethics lessons for operating inside a school, school-related laws and handling behavioral issues.

BY ANDREW FRAIELI AFRAIELI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

It takes 600 hours of training to be licensed by the State of Colorado as a nail technician — the person who does mani-pedis and applies toenail polish. As of 2022, it takes 556 hours and a background check to become a police o cer. Becoming a School Resource O cer — a sworn law enforcement o cer, usually armed and with arrest powers while working in a school — takes none.

at’s because under current state law, training for SROs is “encouraged” to be completed before being assigned to a school or within six months after. A bill being proposed by Senator Chris Kolker, a Democrat representing Arapahoe and Je erson counties, would change that suggestion to a mandate, and not just once, but annual training.

In the Colorado General Assembly, Senate Bill 23-070 was introduced on Jan. 27 and has already been amended by the Senate Committee on Education.

“ e initial concern with this was how to get a good o cer, and how do we keep a good o cer, and how do we keep them trained,” Kolker said. e original bill focused on mandating the training on National Association of School Resource O cers, or NASRO, best practices before o cers started their assignments which current state law only encourages. is included the caveat of mandating beforehand, “or as soon as reasonably possible,” as NASRO only has one training this year in March, according to Kolker.

Je co has almost 50 SROs across the District, according to Executive Director of School Safety Je Pierson. Each, according to him, is NASRO trained. NASRO’s basic training consists of ve, eight-hour days. According to NASRO’s course summary, it trains o cers on its concept of acting not just as a law enforcement o cer, but as a public safety educator, and informal counselor or mentor. It also

Pierson believes this mentoring aspect is crucial to building a rapport with the students, allowing o cers to answer “sometimes tough questions.”

“We get a lot of kids whose parents or families or whatever go into the system and sometimes they just have some really tough questions and they want to seek somebody out and get some answers,” he said. “A lot of time SROs serve in that purpose.” roughout the District, these contracts are almost all the same, set up with seven police departments across Je co including Golden, Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Arvada and the Sheri ’s O ce. Most notably, o cers are employed by their respective police departments, not the school, have complete control over their schedule within the school and have full discretion over whether to make an arrest or not in the school.

NASRO’s “best practices” also include recommending SROs be armed, be knowledgeable in constitutional and state law and that partnering agencies create a contract with school districts laying out expectations and goals.

According to state law, the o cer has to inform the principal of an arrest within 24 hours.