Sponsors
The bill directs federal funds and technical assistance to expand school resource officers and related equipment—helping districts (especially rural and underserved ones) afford security—but risks further militarizing schools, diverting resources from mental-health and restorative programs, imposing long-term local costs, and disproportionately impacting marginalized students without strong oversight.
Schools and law enforcement in participating districts can hire school resource officers (SROs) using federal grants, increasing on-site safety staffing in schools.
Schools and agencies can obtain federal funds to purchase protective equipment and vehicles for SROs, reducing immediate local budget pressure for those capital purchases.
Rural and underserved areas (including tribal communities) will receive targeted technical assistance to improve access to these federal grants, potentially increasing equity in funding distribution.
Students and school communities may face increased weaponization of schools and related civil liberties and safety concerns because the bill funds firearms-related equipment and policing in schools.
Students, particularly those in low-income areas, may lose out on non-policing violence-prevention services (counseling, mental health, restorative practices) if grant funding is directed toward SRO hiring and equipment instead.
Tribal and marginalized communities could be disproportionately affected by expanded policing in schools if the program is not paired with strong oversight to prevent misuse, profiling, or biased enforcement.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands allowable uses of existing federal public-safety grants to fund hiring and equipping school resource officers and to provide DOJ technical assistance to improve rural/underserved grant access.
Introduced September 17, 2025 by Tony Gonzales · Last progress September 17, 2025
Expands allowable uses of existing federal public-safety grants to let recipients hire school resource officers, purchase firearms and protective equipment for those officers, and buy vehicles (including ATVs, golf carts, scooters, and bicycles) for officer use. Requires the Attorney General to provide technical assistance to help States, local governments, and Indian tribes in rural and geographically underserved areas apply for and access these grants, and to include progress on that assistance in the program's annual report. Does not appropriate new funds or set grant amounts; it changes what current grant money may be used for and adds program support and reporting requirements for improving rural and underserved access.