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2000 SESSION

004686508
SENATE BILL NO. 589
Offered January 24, 2000
A BILL to amend and reenact § 9-171.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to school resource officers.
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Patron-- Norment
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Referred to Committee on Education and Health
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 9-171.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 9-171.1. School Resource Officer Grants Program and Fund.

A. From such funds as may be appropriated for such purpose and from such gifts, donations, grants, bequests, and other funds as may be received on its behalf, there is hereby established the School Resource Officer Grants Program, to be administered by the Criminal Justice Services Board, in consultation with the Board of Education, and a special nonreverting fund within the state treasury known as the School Resource Officer Incentive Grants Fund, hereinafter known as the "Fund." The Fund shall be established on the books of the Comptroller, and any moneys remaining in such Fund at the end of the biennium shall not revert to the general fund but shall remain in the Fund. Interest earned on such funds shall remain in the Fund and be credited to it.

Subject to the authority of the Criminal Justice Services Board to provide for its disbursement, the Fund shall be disbursed to award matching grants to local law-enforcement agencies and local school boards that have established a collaborative agreement to employ uniformed school resource officers in middle and high schools within the relevant school division. Such school resource officers shall be certified law-enforcement officers and shall be employed to help ensure safety and, to prevent truancy and violence in schools, and, within the scope of their employment within the school division, to enforce school board rules and codes of student conduct in the same manner and subject to the same constitutional standards and principles as any other school board employee in this Commonwealth.

B. The Criminal Justice Services Board shall establish criteria for making grants from the Fund, including procedures for determining the amount of a grant and the required local match. Any grant of general funds shall be matched by the locality on the basis of the composite index of local ability to pay. The Criminal Justice Services Board may issue guidelines governing the Program and the employment and duties of the school resource officers as it deems necessary and appropriate.

C. During such time as any school resource officer is performing his duties as set forth in the guidelines for the Program and the school board's contract or other stipulation of his scope of employment, the school resource officer shall be deemed to be a school board employee in the same manner and under the same conditions as teachers and principals and shall enforce school board rules and codes of conduct subject to the constitutional principles and standards applicable to school officials. School resource officers shall only use police authority during the time on duty in a public school when the observed conduct constitutes a violation of state law or local ordinance.