The House K-12 Subcommittee is set to hear potential legislation that would allow school systems to hire retired law enforcement officers and veterans to fill school resource officer positions.
House Bill 1899 (HB1899), sponsored by Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro-District 34), would authorize LEAs and public charter schools to hire “retired law enforcement officers who are retired from a federal, state, or local law enforcement agency and honorably discharged veterans of the United States armed forces” to be school resource officers.
The House K-12 Subcommittee will consider the bill on Tuesday, February 6.
If the legislation passes, it could relieve SRO staffing issues that some school systems have faced. As The Tennessee Conservative previously reported, some districts were forced to provide officers with hours of overtime to patrol schools, meaning there were potentially not enough officers available to hire them for those positions full-time.
