Corrected: A prior version had incorrect descriptions for the Edmonds, Wash., Hayward Unified (Calif.), Hopkins, Minn., and Frewsburg, N.Y. districts, and an incorrect status for Alexandria, Va.
Though it is only one segment of the school safety conversation, school policing tends to dominate the public discourse about keeping students safe.
After the murder of George Floyd in 2020 at the hands of police, a small number of school districts began to reconsider their use of school resource officers. But a series of subsequent school shootings—including one that killed 19 students in Uvalde, Texas—has caused some to restart their programs and other districts to bolster them, despite limited evidence of their effectiveness in preventing such tragedies.
To develop this interactive database, the Education Week Library tracked news reports on school resource officers from May 2020 through June 22, 2022. The figures reported here are probably an undercount, since not all changes may have been captured by local media.
From May 2020 through June 2022, at least 50 districts serving over 1.7 million children have ended their school policing programs or cut their budgets. Eight districts that had removed police from schools have since reversed course and added them back.
Data Note:
- Ended - School officials decided to end their contract with local police for school police officers or to disband their own police division.
- Budget cut - The district significantly decreased their budget for school police, but did not remove all police from schools.
- Alternate - School officials have not yet removed police, but implemented different plans to try to address community concerns about police and discipline in schools.
- Unknown - No decision has been made yet.
- Considered; Kept SROs - School officials discussed removing SROs from schools but decided not to.
- Reversed course - The district ended its policing program, but has since brought it back.
Got any feedback for us? Want us to add your district? Email us at library@educationweek.org.
Contact Information
For media or research inquiries about this data, contact library@educationweek.org.
How to Cite This Page
School Police: Which Districts Cut Them? Which Brought Them Back? (2021, June 4). Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from /leadership/which-districts-have-cut-school-policing-programs/2021/06
