Perceptions of School Leaders, School Division Leaders, and non-SRO Model Employees Regarding a New School Safety Model in One Urban Virginia School Division

Abstract

The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of school leaders, school division leaders, and non-SRO model employees regarding the transition from a school safety model with School Resource Officers (SROs) to a model with non-SRO (NSRO) employees in one urban school division in Virginia. The researcher sought to answer one research question: What are school leaders' and non-School Resource Officer employees' perceptions of the transition from a school safety model with School Resource Officers to a model with non-SRO employees? The researcher used interviews, an NSRO observation, and the content analysis of school division documents to learn about the school leaders', school division leaders', and NSRO employees' perceptions of the transition to the new school safety model. The study sample included two school leaders, six school division leaders, and three NSRO employees of the school division. The six findings from the study revealed: (a) challenges related to the process of the transition to the new school safety model, (b) challenges with communication and response time with emergency services, (c) the roles of NSROs are inconsistent, (d) similarities between SROs and NSROs, (e) school and school division leaders reported common contributing factors of the transition to the new school safety model, and (f) school leaders indicated concerns regarding a lack of SROs, whereas most school division leaders did not report being concerned about a lack of SROs. This study also proposed implications for school divisions and schools that may consider changing their school safety model.