School finance-school resource officers.

WORKING DRAFT
2014
STATE OF
WYOMING
14LSO-0195

HOUSE BILL
NO.

HB0117

School finance-school resource officers.

Sponsored by:
Representative(s) Freeman, Blake, Campbell, Connolly, Gingery, Paxton, Sommers and
Winters
and Senator(s) Christensen, Coe, Cooper, Craft, Hastert and Nutting

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to school safety and security; establishing supplemental financial assistance available to school districts for school resource officers for
the
protection and safety of schools;
prescribing prioritization criteria,
specifying eligibility and
providing for
distribution
;
granting rulemaking authority for program administration; providing
an
appropriation; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.

(a)

For school year
s
201
4
-
201
5 and 2015
-
2016
,
s
upplemental
financial assistance
shall be made available
to school districts to acquire school resource officers for enhancing the protection and safety of students, faculty and staff attending or employed within the schools of the district.
Assistance shall be predicated upon promoting community and cost

sharing in addressing school safety and security
,
and shall
be
prioritize
d

among school districts
as follows
:

(
i
)

School districts n
ot employing school resource officers
during the school year immediately
preceding
that school year for which financial assistance application is submitted;

(ii)

School districts c
omprised of
rural
schools located outside of population centers
that would
experience a
reduced
response
time

through
the employment of a school resource officer
;

(iii)

School districts e
ntering into agreement
s
with local law enforcement agencies and other school districts in sharing school safety and security costs;

(iv)

School districts
u
sing any financial assistance received under this section to supplement
existing
school resource officers
employed by the district
to increase daily school resource officer contacts within
its
schools.

(b)

Each school district may apply to the department of education for financial assistance under this section on or before
May 15 of the
school
year immediately
preceding
the school year for which application is submitted. Application shall be
on a form and in a manner prescribed by the department
and a
ssistance shall be based upon prior school year attendance reports. Application review
shall be in accordance with
a
process established by department rule and regulation

and shall
at
minimum,
require
the following
documentation:

(
i
)

T
he district
's
safety and security plan, identifying
h
ow the district would deploy
supplemental assistance under this section
, including a description of the duties which would be assigned to the school resource officer,
describing the impact of the program on school operations
and assurance that local law enforcement is included within its safety and security plan and that local law enforcement agencies provide
respective safety and security plans
to the district;

(ii)

Assurance that the district would restrict
expenditure
s
of
supplemental assistance to the
costs of employing school resource officers

and
to
safety and security equipment
approved by the department as necessary to execute its safety and security plan
;

(i
ii
)

A
report
of
any federal funds available to the applicant district for the costs of employing school resource officers
or security aides
within its schools.

(c)

On or before
July 1 following the date of application,
t
he department shall notify each district of its eligibility to
receive financial assistance
, together with an estimat
e of the amount

of assistance
the
eligible
district
would receive
for the

school year
of application.
The department shall distribute assistance
under this section
to each eligible district on or before
August 1 of the appropriate school year.

(d)

Financial assistance under this section shall be based upon prior year
a
ttendance reports submitted by each eligible school district pursuant to W.S. 21
‑
13
‑
309(
m)(iv).
The amount of assistance
shall be computed by the
department for the eligible applicant district as if the education resource block grant model contained
a component for school resource officers generating

one (1) FTE position for a total district ADM of one thousand (1,000) or less, and one (1) additional FTE position for each additional one thousand (1,000) district ADM thereafter. The FTE positions shall be funded at a salary equal to forty-nine thousand five hundred dollars ($49,500.00) per school year, adjusted for regional cost differences as determined for each district under W.S. 21
‑
13
‑
309(
m)(v)(C), but not adjusted for any other compensation

related benefit.
The amount received under this subsection shall also be reduced by all federal funds received by the school district for the purpose of funding salaries for school resource officers.

Each
FTE
position
generated
under this
subsection above the first FTE
shall be prorated up and down from the specified FTE position level specified for each
district
similar to computational operation of other components within the block grant model
.
"FTE" and "ADM" as used in this section shall be as defined in ATTACHMENT "A", as referenced in W.S. 21
‑
13
‑
101(
a)(xvii).

(e)

Financial assistance to each qualifying applicant school district shall be made by the department from
amounts appropriated by the legislature
from
the foundation program account for purposes of the
assistance
program established by this section and shall be in addition to the foundation program amount computed for that district under W.S. 21
‑
13
‑
309(p). If there is an insufficient amount within the
school
foundation program account from amounts appropriated by the legislature for financial assistance under this section, the department shall make a pro rata reduction in financial assistance payments among all qualifying districts. District expenditures of amounts distributed under this section shall be solely for
district security resource officers
in accordance with the
safety and security plan
submitted by the district under subsection (b) of this section
, and for necessary safety and security equipment approved by the department
. The department may withhold
or request repayment of
a portion or the entire amount to be distributed to any district under this section for noncompliance with program documentation required to be submitted by the applicant district. Any appropriated amounts not expended or encumbered under this section as of July 1
, 201
6
,
including any amounts distributed to districts which are not spent by July 1, 201
6
,
shall revert to the foundation program account.

(f)

Each district shall report to the department of education on expenditures of amounts distributed under this section
,
together with additional information required by the department on
the
use of school resource officers and an evaluation of the impact of these officers
and the use of any safety and security equipment procured from supplement assistance
on the effectiveness of the district's school safety and security programs as documented by data.
The department shall compile the information reported by districts under this subsection and
on or before October 1, 201
5
,
and again on
or before
October 1, 2016,
report the compilation to the joint education interim committee
.

(g)

Information reported under subsection (f) of this section, together with other available data and resources, shall be used by the joint education interim committee in undertaking recalibration of the education resource block grant model pursuant to W.S. 21
‑
13
‑
309(
t).

Section 2.

For the period
commencing July 1, 201
4
, and ending June 30, 201
6
,
four
million
six
hundred thousand dollars ($
4,6
00,000.00) is appropriated from the school
foundation program account to the department of education to fund the safety and security supplemental assistance program created under and subject to requirements specified under section 1 of this act.

Section
3
.

This act is
effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

(END)

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HB0117