YOUTH ADVOCACY HUB
BACKGROUND
Legislators passed House Bill 1664 during last year's Washington state legislative session (2022) to help provide additional resources to support the physical, social, and emotional wellness of students. It provided additional funding for school districts to hire professionals like nurses, counselors, social workers, and school psychologists. It also created a new category of staff called Physical, Social, and Emotional Support Staff (PSES) that would encompass positions like these.
The legislation required that all funding districts receive from this bill must be used to hire staff that fit into this new staffing category. As part of this, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) was charged with developing rules for how districts can implement the new legislation and specifying which exact staff positions can be included in the PSES job category. In developing these rules, OSPI included school security personnel (a.k.a. School Resource Officers, or SROs) in the PSES staffing category. This means districts can choose to spend these new funds, which were intended to address student mental health, on SROs.
SUMMARY
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Senate Bill 5019 would remove the ability of districts to use this new funding from last year on school security personnel. The proposal would remove bill language that made OSPI feel school security personnel should be included as an allowable use of these new funds during the rule-making process.
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Removing this bill language would likely remove other staff positions (beyond SROs) that are currently included in the PSES staffing category. However, the full range of exact positions to be included in the PSES category is not known at this time. It will be up to OSPI to determine more specifically which staff are and are not included, should this bill become law. This change would not impact the ability of districts to use these funds to hire positions like counselors, nurses, social workers, or psychologists.
POINTS TO CONSIDER ABOUT THIS BILL
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This bill would only disallow districts from using this new funding (which was intended to help address the student mental health crisis) to hire SROs and other school security personnel. It would have no impact on existing sources of funding towards SROs or prevent districts from using other sources of funding to hire school security personnel.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Steps to Get Started
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Learn where the bill is in the legislative process.
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If there is an upcoming hearing, decide how you would like to get your voice heard and take action.
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If there is not an upcoming hearing, or if you want to supplement your advocacy, call or write your legislators.
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Spread the word and get other people on board.
Participating in a Hearing
Sign in Pro, Con, or Other
This is when individuals, advocates, and organizations make their position on a particular bill known for the record. This is particularly powerful in large numbers. Many organizations will send out Action Alerts asking people to sign in Pro or Con on a bill.
Submit Written Testimony
Submitting written testimony is a great way not only to make your position known, to legislators but also to explain why in more detail. This is a good option if you don't want to speak in front of others. People also like to offer more nuance to their position by writing.
Testify Virtually
Since COVID, many legislators are allowing remote/virtual testimony for bill hearings, as it greatly expands access to the legislative process across the state. For this, individuals usually have between 1-2 minutes to state their opinion on a bill in front of the legislative committee on Zoom.
Testify In Person
To testify on a bill in person, you must travel to Olympia and join the real-time committee hearing on the Capitol campus. You will also get between 1-2 minutes to state your opinion. This is often a powerful way to make an impression on legislators in the room.
Using the WA Legislature Website
