Questions and concerns about the draft SRO contract/Memorandum of Agreement for 2021-22.

On June 9, 2021, we launched an exchange with the following question, What are your questions/concerns about the draft SRO contract/Memorandum of Agreement? to understand the concerns and questions from the KSD community about the posted draft 2021-22 School Resource Officer contract/Memorandum of Agreement.

A School Resource Officer (SRO) is a commissioned law enforcement officer in the state of Washington with sworn authority to make arrests, deployed in community-oriented policing, and assigned by the employing police department or sheriff's office to work in schools to address crime and disorder problems, gangs, and drug activities affecting or occurring in or around K-12 schools.

With SSHB 1216 (2019-20), the legislature stated its intent to create statewide school resource officers (SRO) program. While it is not the intent of the legislature to require school resource officers in schools, SRO programs must ensure that district policies are in place and clear agreements between school districts and the local law enforcement agencies provide SROs. In addition, such a program must ensure consistency through minimum training requirements for SROs. These requirements are in place to establish effective partnerships which protect the health and safety of all students.

KSD has also posted detailed information about What an SRO is, What KDS School Resource Officers Do, KSD School Resource Officer Training, and Implementation.

Districts with School Safety and Security Staff Programs must annually review and adopt an agreement with the law enforcement agency or security guard company. The agreement must be adopted using a process that involves parents, students, and community members. The agreement must:

  • Meet the requirements in the policy and procedure
  • Include a jointly determined hiring and placement process and a performance evaluation process
  • Confirm the staff have completed the training series, or a plan to complete the training series
  • Be annually submitted to OSPI and must be made publicly available.

Draft 2021-22 Contract/Memorandum of Agreement

KSD Staff answered top questions about the SRO Program and draft contracts over the summer updating the SRO informational page and will host additional informational and community meetings before the KSD Board approves any future contracts with local law enforcement agencies for school resource officers in Kent School District.

You can explore the results of this exchange with the interactive tools here.  

Results

Through an online conversation platform called Thoughtexchange, 1,137 participants contributed 1,000 comments and gave 32,824 star ratings.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this exchange, including:

  • 256 KSD Students
  • 583 KSD Parents/Guardians
  • 49 KSD Teachers
  • 3 KSD Administrators
  • 41 KSD School or Central Office Staff
  • 1 School Board Member
  • 87 Community Members
  • 37 Non-KSD Community Members

Eight themes emerged from the comments and ideas shared: 

  • Do Not Support SROs or Police working with schools
  • No SROs, More Counselors, Social Workers & Support
  • Parent Engagement in School
  • Fund additional mental health Supports
  • School Discipline needs to change, including SROs
  • Support SROs in KSD with Ongoing Training
  • Fund academic and student supports
  • Contract Feedback and Questions

Thanks for participating!

Thank you for exploring this exchange and for sharing your feedback and questions. Additional communication and opportunities for our KSD community to provide feedback will occur throughout the school year.

We believe communication with our families, staff, and community is critical to student success. Kent School District (KSD) uses a wide variety of tools to distribute information to our diverse community. 

Sign up for an account at my.thoughtexchange.com and be part of future exchanges.