School Safety: SRO vs School Safety Officer Explained
Why trained safety professionals matter and how their presence strengthens student well-being, trust, and community morale.
An SRO is a sworn police officer; a school safety officer is usually an unarmed civilian. How the two roles differ, what research shows, and what to ask.
School safety officers and school resource officers can look alike in a school hallway, but they hold two very different positions. A school resource officer, or SRO, is a sworn police officer assigned to a school. A school safety officer, sometimes called a school security officer, is usually a civilian employed by the district or a security company, without the power to arrest. Parents often hear both titles and assume they mean the same thing. The difference shapes what each one can do when something goes wrong, and how each one spends an ordinary school day.
The question matters to more families than ever. In the 2021–22 school year, 44 percent of public schools had an SRO on campus at least once a week, and about a quarter had non-sworn security staff, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Several states now require armed officers or guards at every school. This article explains the role of each position, how their training differs, what the research says about police in schools, and what parents and school leaders should ask.
What is a school resource officer?
A school resource officer is a sworn law enforcement officer assigned to work in one or more schools, usually through an agreement between the district and a local police or sheriff’s department. The National Association of School Resource Officers describes the job through a three-part model: law enforcement officer, public safety educator and informal counselor or mentor. An SRO can respond to emergencies, investigate crimes and make arrests, and in most schools an SRO carries a firearm: among schools with a sworn officer, 93 percent said the officer routinely carried one, according to the same federal survey.
Good SROs spend much of their time on the other two parts of that model. They teach lessons on safety, help with emergency planning and threat assessment, and become adults students trust. NASRO’s basic SRO course adds 40 hours of school-specific training to an officer’s police academy preparation, covering how to work with young people and school staff.
What is a school safety officer?
A school safety officer is a non-sworn staff member hired by the district or a contracted security firm to keep the campus safe day to day. Virginia’s law, for example, defines a school security officer as someone employed by the school board to maintain order and discipline and prevent crime, and the state requires a certification course for every security officer in its public schools. School safety officers do not have arrest powers, and in most districts they are unarmed.
Their work is prevention. They watch entrances and hallways, check visitors, supervise lunch and dismissal, respond to fights and conflicts, and get to know students well enough to notice when something is wrong. NASRO offers a separate 24-hour course for non-sworn school security officers. In New York City, the nation’s largest district, school safety agents are trained for up to 17 weeks at the NYPD Police Academy and work unarmed.
SRO vs. school safety officer: the key differences
The two roles differ in who employs them, what authority they carry and how they are trained. An SRO is employed by a police or sheriff’s department, holds full police powers, completes a police academy plus school-specific training, and usually carries a weapon. A school safety officer is employed by the district or a security company, has no arrest authority, completes shorter state or district training, and usually does not carry a weapon. An SRO’s day includes law enforcement and emergency response as well as teaching and mentoring; a safety officer’s day centers on supervision, de-escalation and prevention.
Many schools use both. A district may assign one SRO to a high school while safety officers cover the entrances, the cafeteria and the buses, with the SRO responding when a situation requires police authority.
What is the role of safety officers in schools?
The role of safety officers in schools is to prevent problems before they start and to respond calmly when they do. That means controlling who enters the building, supervising the places where students gather, stepping in early when a conflict starts, and helping during lockdowns, evacuations and medical emergencies. Because they see students every day, safety officers are often the first adults to hear about a threat, a fight being planned or a student in distress, and the relationships they build are a large part of what makes them effective.
What the research says about school police
The evidence on school police is mixed, and fair-minded readers will find support for more than one view. A 2023 study by Sorensen and colleagues in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, using national data from 2014 to 2018, found that SROs reduced some forms of violence in schools but did not prevent gun-related incidents. It also found that SROs increased suspensions, expulsions, police referrals and arrests, with the largest increases for Black students, boys and students with disabilities. An earlier study of Texas schools by Weisburst found that federal grants for school police raised discipline rates in middle schools and were associated with small declines in high school graduation and college enrollment.
A 2024 review by RAND summed up the research this way: SROs are associated with more detection of weapons and drugs and less violence, and also with more discipline and law enforcement referrals. Much depends on how officers are selected and trained and on the agreement that defines their role, which is why NASRO and many researchers stress clear written expectations about when an officer is and is not involved in school discipline.
States are requiring more officers and guards
Several states now require security staff at every school. Texas has required at least one armed security officer at each campus during regular school hours since 2023, with an exception when funding or qualified staff are unavailable, under its Education Code. Florida requires a safe-school officer at every school, who may be an SRO, a school safety officer, a trained school guardian or a contracted guard. Kentucky requires a certified, armed SRO on site at each campus where funding and qualified officers are available, under state law.
Other districts moved the other way. After 2020, at least 50 districts ended or cut their school policing programs, and some later reversed course, Education Week found. Denver’s school board, for example, voted in 2023 to bring officers back.
What parents and school leaders should ask
Parents can ask a few direct questions. Does my child’s school have an SRO, a safety officer, or both? Who employs them, and are they armed? What training have they completed? Most important, what is the written agreement between the district and the police department, and does it say when an officer handles a discipline matter and when the school does?
For school leaders, the research points to the same priorities. Choose officers for their ability to work with young people, train them for the school setting, define their role in writing, and track what happens, including arrests, referrals and who is affected. Whether a campus relies on an SRO, safety officers or both, the safest schools tend to be the ones where students know the adults in the hallway and trust them enough to tell them when something is wrong.
Video: understanding school resource officers
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