Closely watched Kentucky bill on school police keeps getting cut from agenda. What gives?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the third time this legislative session, a closely watched bill on school police made it onto a committee agenda for a vote. And for the third time this session, it was not even discussed.

The waffling over if, and when, House Bill 63 gets its first vote comes as Kentucky's largest district, and home to the bill's main sponsors, nears a final vote on a security proposal that will not meet the bill's requirements.

The bill, sponsored by multiple Louisville Republicans, would require all Kentucky schools to have an armed police officer by August.

In contrast, Jefferson County's school board is expected to vote Thursday on a proposal that would assign armed officers to clusters of schools, but not to each individual campus.

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The legislation was quickly assigned to the House Education Committee earlier this month, making the committee's first agenda of the session only to be cut the day before the meeting.

A week later, the bill again made the committee's agenda. But this time, the entire meeting was canceled.

Once again, HB 63 landed on the committee's agenda for a vote Tuesday morning. But at the start of the meeting, committee Chairwoman Regina Huff, R-Williamsburg, said they would not be considering the measure that day, after all.

One of the bill's sponsors pulled it from the agenda, Huff said.

When asked about the situation, Rep. Kevin Bratcher, a Louisville Republican sponsoring the measure, said the bill "needs work."

He did not clarify what work was needed, but added that COVID-19 has strained the policy team in Frankfort who would work on changes to the bill.

Background: JCPS school security debate often focuses on police in schools, but are there other ways?

State law already requires each campus to be assigned an armed school resource officer, but schools are not required to hire those officers if funding or personnel isn't available. HB 63 would remove those loopholes.

While seen as targeted at Jefferson County Public Schools, which has not had school officers since 2019, the bill would impact hundreds of schools elsewhere in the state that have yet to hire police.

An August report from the state school security marshal found a majority of Kentucky schools do not have an SRO — 741, or 57% of public schools.

Pointing to shortages of police, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio has said it would be difficult to find enough officers to station one at every school.

With this in mind, he is proposing JCPS hire officers to monitor clusters of schools in the same area as part of a larger security plan. They would be stationed outside of buildings, but each school would have an officer "assigned" to it.

JCPS has argued its plan meets the current state law; Bratcher has previously disagreed, saying the law means each school has its own officer.

Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky bill to require school police again cut from committee agenda