What's happening
This bill allows school districts in New York to pay for school resource officers, provided such agreements increase officer staffing.
Why it matters
Shifts Financial Responsibility. By allowing school districts to pay all or part of school resource officer (SRO) salaries, the bill enables local education budgets to directly support or expand police presence in schools, potentially impacting how districts allocate funds for safety versus other needs.
Guarantees Net Staffing Increase. School districts can only enter into these agreements if they *increase* the total number of SROs employed by the relevant police agency—meaning districts can’t simply “buy” existing officers’ time, but must fund additional positions. This could lead to more officers in schools overall.
Clarifies Employment Status. Even if a school district pays an officer’s salary, SROs remain employees of their respective police department or district—not the school district—maintaining clear lines of supervision, liability, and authority.
Potential Community Impact. The law could affect school climate, student-police interactions, and debates over the appropriate level of law enforcement presence in educational settings, with possible implications for disciplinary practices, student safety, and civil rights concerns.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Let Schools Pay School Officers
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Referred to local government
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.935
- Referred to local government
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Schools Can Pay Resource Officers
In Assembly Committee · Education · Sponsor Fred Thiele
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4254
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 5, 2019
Introduced by Sen. MARTINEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Local Government
AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to authorizing educational institutions to pay the salaries and compensation of school resource officers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The general municipal law is amended by adding a new section 208-i to read as follows:
§ 208-i. School resource officers. The duly constituted authorities of any city, town, or village or any county police department or police district may designate, authorize and appoint such a number of persons as such authority shall deem necessary, and at such salaries as such authority shall deem advisable, as school resource officers to aid in protecting school children. A board of education or trustees of a school district may enter into an agreement with any city, town, village or county police department or police district whereby such school district pays for all or any portion of the salaries of the school resource officers providing services pursuant to this section to the students of such district. Notwithstanding any agreement entered into pursuant to this section, school resource officers shall not be considered employees of the school district. The authority of a board of education or trustees of a school district to enter into such agreement shall only exist when such agreement results in an increase to the number of school resource officers employed by the city, town, village, county police department or police district.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10121-02-9
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Purpose
To increase the number of school resource officers across New York
Summary of provisions
Section I. Amend the general municipal law to allow school districts to enter into an intermunicipal agreement with a local police department to pay for all or a portion of school resource officers when the agreement results in an increase of school resource officers.
Justification
This legislation would authorize school districts to enter into munici- pal agreements to pay the salaries of school resource officers. School resource officers receive special training to deal with various school issues and interact with students. School resource officers play a crit- ical role in counseling school children, providing educational programs, such as drug and gang prevention, and increasing school safety.
Unfortunately, police departments are often only able to provide a limited number of active duty officers to serve as school resource offi- cers. Rarely do school districts have a full time resource officer assigned to one school, and in some cases an officer may serve multiple school districts and multiple schools within a district. When school resource officers have the time to integrate into a single school system, community relationships are built and school violence is reduced.
This legislation will increase the number of school resource officers in a municipality as agreements can only be entered where the result is a net result in school resource officers.
Prior legislative history
None.
Fiscal implications
None to the state.
Effective date
Immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.