School resource officers (SROs) have become an integral part of an ongoing effort to provide school safety to foster student learning and success. To do so, SROs require unique skills and specialized training designed to better prepare them for school settings. To date, research has been limited in exploring the types of trainings that SROs receive and the perceptions of their utility. Using SROs in a school district in a Midwestern state, this study aims to explore the perceptions of the trainings received by SROs.
Responses from surveys were analyzed descriptively to understand trends by SROs. Descriptive statistics provide a method for examining the range and level of survey responses from SROs and allow for a broad understanding of findings.
Overall, descriptive analyses reveal that the SROs reported that their trainings help them engage more effectively with staff and students, increase their knowledge of school resources available to students, and improve their understanding of issues youth face.
Despite overall positive feedback, SROs provided several recommendations for areas of improvement, including the need for more hands-on training, restorative justice training, and further guidance about their roles and responsibilities.
Given the impact that SROs can have on students and the school environment more broadly, research should seek to understand the training that officers receive. However, to date, there has been limited research exploring the effectiveness and perceptions of training received by SROs. The current study builds on this research and responds to calls to explore SRO training by exploring whether SROs perceieve that the training they receive adequately prepares them for their role. Answers to these questions not only provide an introspective view of the training received by SROs but also give the space for school officers to discuss the limitations of their training and directions for improvement. The creation of guidelines for SRO trainings seldom considers the feedback of SROs. The findings here can be a part of a larger initiative to create trainings that are inclusive of the recommendations of school officers.
