School Resource Officers in Financial Crisis: Which Programs Get Cut and Why

Abstract

In recent years, K–12 education programs throughout the United States have been impacted by budget reductions, particularly in areas that are outside of traditional academic programs. Anecdotal evidence suggests that one of the areas receiving the greatest reductions may be school safety programs. In this article, we use data from school resource officers (SROs) in Kentucky to examine the types of SRO activities that are impacted by budget reductions and the school- and county-level factors associated with those budget reductions. The findings presented here suggest that SRO training and equipment are most impacted by budget cuts; SROs are more likely to serve more than one school in times of budget reductions as well. Results from multivariate logistic regression models suggest a web of economic factors that impact which SRO programs receive budget reductions, including a county's poverty rate, median household income, and population change. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.