Update given about the SRO program during 11/7 Safe and Successful Kids Interlocal Meeting

November 7, 2024

The Safe and Successful Kids (SSK) Interlocal Board, composed of members from both the Lincoln Board of Education and the City of Lincoln, held their regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at the Lincoln Public Schools Steve Joel District Leadership Center in the Boardroom. The purpose of the meeting was to review the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program, School Perception and Discipline Data Reports for the 2023-2024 school year.

Lincoln Public Schools and the City of Lincoln share the goal of promoting school safety which is an essential element of a positive and safe school climate. Building that environment includes building positive relationships with students and families, providing proactive instruction for positive behaviors, offering a wide-range of student supports, focusing on de-escalating conflicts and negative behaviors, engaging and assigning developmentally appropriate and fair processes and consequences and utilizing those consequences and supports to address the root causes of misbehavior.

This is the fifth year of gathering data based on the goals and expectations established by the 2018 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the SSK Interlocal Board. The MOU had six goals:

• Create a common understanding that school administrators and teachers are ultimately responsible for school discipline and culture, and SROs should not be involved in the enforcement of school rules.
• Minimize student discipline issues so they do not become school-based referrals to the juvenile justice system.
• Promote effectiveness and accountability.
• Provide training as available to SROs and appropriate LPS staff on effective strategies to work with students that align with program goals.
• Employ best practices so that all students are treated impartially and without bias by SROs and LPS staff in alignment with applicable City and LPS equity policies.
• Utilize best practices for training and oversight with the goal of reducing disproportionality.

“We have embraced a robust and full transparency process throughout the history of this partnership between Lincoln Public Schools and the Lincoln Police Department,” said LPS Associate Superintendent for Civic Engagement John Skretta. “Concerns have been voiced in the past that having SROs in schools could create or exacerbate a school to prison pipeline. You will see from this report, and all of the previous reports, that the number of referrals from calls for services at both the middle and high schools have dropped since the interlocal agreement began in 2018.”

Skretta added that LPS and Lincoln Police Department collaborate with students, parents, behavioral health professionals and the community to ensure success of the SRO program. Through this work, clear guidelines have been established and joint training with administrators and SROs takes place every year. This ensures there is a clear understanding of when an incident is only a violation of school rules, or when it is a law violation and the SROs need to be involved. 

Other key takeaways from the report include:

• In 2023-2024, SROs received on average approximately 52 hours of training that included a variety of topics related to mental health, ethics, diversity and crisis intervention, among others.
• In 2023-2024, 185 juvenile referrals were issued during calls for service at LPS secondary schools, down 54 percent compared to the four-year average of 402. A juvenile referral is when there is probable cause that a juvenile is responsible for a criminal act and they are referred to the county attorney. Only one student was lodged at the Youth Services Center in 2023-2024 after a call for service.
• Historically teachers and staff initiated the highest percentage of calls, but that changed in 2023-2024 as administrators initiated the highest percentage of calls with 30 percent. This is the intended outcome as school administrators serve as the most skilled individuals to determine which issues should be referred to law enforcement.
• In 2023-2024, administrators were notified during 85 percent of all calls for service resulting in a referral. There were 28 calls for service resulting in a referral where it is unknown if an administrator was notified. Because of the ongoing collaboration between administrators and SROs, we want to ensure that administrators are aware of all calls for service resulting in a referral.
• In the annual perception survey, students who indicated that they were aware of their SRO reported that they feel safer with the SRO on campus. Overall, 87% of students reported feeling at least somewhat safer with an SRO on campus. This response ranged from 79-90% across demographic groups.
• Overall, out-of-school suspension statistics in 2023-2024 were similar to previous years. The data continues to show evidence of disproportionality for students who identify as male, Black, Hispanic or two or more races, and those participating in Special Education services and the free/reduced lunch program. 

Staff made the following recommendations supported by feedback from stakeholders, the data collected and best practices:

• LPS and LPD should continue professional development to reinforce the separation of law enforcement and student discipline.
• LPD should also continue seeking to accurately record when administrators are involved in the referral to law enforcement. Both LPS and LPD will analyze those situations where an administrator is not notified to better understand why it did not occur.
• Both LPS and LPD will continue with implementation of restorative justice programs with LPS continuing with the implementation of the Prevention Accountability and Restorative (PAR) Behavior Framework.
• LPS will continue to work for higher response rates year over year on the perception survey to ensure that data accrued is authentically reflective of the diversity of students, families and staff.
• LPS and LPD will continue to review the calls for service, referrals and school discipline data in an effort to provide professional development opportunities that may decrease disparities.
• LPS and LPD will continue to build, deploy and enhance the capacity and expertise of the Threat Assessment Team. 

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