The Prevalence of School Resource Officers in North Carolina's Public Schools
Abstract
No one knows how many of North Carolina’s public schools have school resource officers
(SROs) assigned to them or the impact their presence has on students. For the last
decade, policymakers have expanded funding and support for increasing the presence
of SROs statewide, yet the state’s Department of Public Instruction does not collect
information about SRO assignment from school districts. To address this crucial data
need, this report assesses the prevalence of SROs in North Carolina and analyzes it
based on school characteristics.
To determine which schools had SROs assigned on a full-time, part-time, or rotating
basis, I contacted every school district in the state. With 95 of 115 districts responding,
I estimated the percentage of schools with SROs and the percentage of the state’s
students attending those schools. I also estimated the prevalence of SROs based on
schools’ racial demographics, rates of economic disadvantage and chronic absenteeism,
and school level (elementary, middle, high).
Approximately 79 percent of schools — serving 84 percent of North Carolina’s students
— have SROs assigned on at least a rotating basis. It can be said with certainty that
between 62 and 84 percent schools — serving between 66 and 87 percent of students
— have SROs. Almost all middle and high schools have SROs assigned, along with two-thirds
of elementary schools. SROs appear to be more prevalent at majority white schools
and schools with high rates of chronic absenteeism than at majority non-white schools
and schools with low chronic absenteeism. SRO prevalence is similar at schools with
high and low rates of economic disadvantage.
Determining the prevalence of SROs statewide is the first step in determining the
impact of their presence on students. Existing empirical evidence suggests the presence
of SROs does not improve middle school safety and increases the criminalization of
student behavior, contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. Stakeholders should
use this report as a starting point to evaluate whether this holds true for all of
North Carolina’s students, informing decisions about whether to add or remove SROs
from the state’s public schools.
Type
Master's projectDepartment
The Sanford School of Public PolicyPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22744Citation
Dukes, Katie (2021). The Prevalence of School Resource Officers in North Carolina's Public Schools. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22744.More Info
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