Key Points: 

• Federal funding freeze jeopardizes school resource officer pay 

• State superintendent vows to come up with funds in the interim 

• Department keeps focus on number of armed officers on campus

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne committed to backing pay for armed officers on school campuses amid a freeze on federal dollars from the U.S. Department of Education.

It’s a small check to pick up, but the latest move aligns with the department’s ongoing goal to increase the number of school resource officers on school campuses and retain them there. 

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education froze upward of $124 million in grant funding in the state – including a pause on $25 million directed to Student Support and Academic Enrichment, or Title IV. 

Title IV funds encompass student services, professional development, educational resources and equipment, and select personnel salaries. 

As part of the eligible funds, local education agencies can use Title IV-A for school safety, which, among other safety measures, encompasses payment for school resource officers. 

About eight school resource officer positions around the state are funded entirely by Title IV funds, totaling around $70,000 in demand from the state school safety budget to cover the costs. 

The state’s School Safety Grant Program is valued at approximately $80 million, with 818 schools across 14 counties awarded funds. 

According to the department, there were 190 armed officers on campus when Horne took office, compared to 572 now.  

“I pushed very hard for schools to adopt police officers and to expand the program,” Horne said.  

As it stands now, the department gives preference to schools looking to hire a police officer and use leftover funds for counselors, Horne said. Between 2023 and 2025, the number of counselors and social workers in Arizona schools increased from 565 to 630. 

This legislative session, the department and lawmakers worked to expand the scope of the school safety grantees as well, though again with a focus on officers. 

House Bill 2074 (school safety; proposals; assessments; plans) sponsored by Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, includes school safety officers, or off-duty officers, and retired law enforcement officers as eligible grantees. 

It also creates training requirements, requires participating schools to prepare emergency response plans and school safety assessments, allows for alternative uses of funds for safety tools and infrastructure and exempts school blueprints and floorplans from the public record. 

Although the law now expands the grant, the question remains whether state funding will be maintained in the next session. 

“The program has grown, and we’re in the third year of a three year cycle,” Horne said. “So hopefully we do it next year, and we’re expecting more demand for police officers than we’ve had. We’re going to ask the Legislature to increase the amount of school safety money.”

And again, though a comparatively small draw from the department’s budget, there is still the question of whether the federal government plans to free up the funding for the eight or so school resource officers paid with federal funds. 

“School safety is not negotiable,” Horne said. “There is enough state money to make sure all these positions are funded, and no campus that already has an officer on site will lose that position.”