Background: School Resource Officer (SRO) programs do not reduce school violence and increase school discipline. We describe the use of a culturally responsive framework to form a school community collaborative among students, parents, staff, administrators, and law enforcement to reform an SRO program, promote school safety, and reduce punitive measures.
Methods: Members of a participating school district, a local county, and a university collaborated. Adapting an identified culturally responsive model, a racially/ethnically diverse school community co-developed and implemented a School Community Collaborative (SCC) to address a school safety priority (SRO program reform). The main outcomes were SCC model development and implementation, policy change, and school community feedback.
Results: Sixteen community members participated in the 5-week SCC with students, staff, law enforcement, and parents. The SCC revised the district's SRO memorandum of understanding (MOU) with law enforcement. Participants reported favorable feedback, and 89% reported the inclusion of diverse voices.
Conclusions: Co-development and implementation of an SCC process with schools were feasible. School SCC participated in a community-engaged evaluation and revision of an MOU.
Keywords: collaborative; safety; school resource officer; schools.
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