A study of school board policy and rules and regulations dealing with police involvement in public high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia

The major purpose of this study was to determine the extent that school board policy dealing with police involvement in public high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia matched policy and rules suggested by the NASSP. An additional purpose was to identify pertinent criteria to guide school divisions in the construction of policy pertaining to the police-school relationship. The study had two phases. Phase I included a questionnaire that was mailed to all public school superintendents. The superintendents were asked: (1) if there were police assigned to their high schools, (2) if police were utilized in dealing with specific situations in their high schools, and (3) if their school division had policy, rules and regulations governing the actions of the principals when they interact with the police in their buildings. The superintendents were also asked to provide copies of their division’s policy and regulations. In Phase II of the study, principals and police officers from four high schools were interviewed to determine administrative practices when interacting with the police. The questionnaire results, returned copies of policy and regulations, and interviews were analyzed to determine the extent that each of the items matched suggested criteria presented in the NASSP Legal Memorandum, School Administrators and Law Enforcement Officials (Bartlett, 1994). This study found that twenty four percent of the high schools in the state had full time police officers. Even if police were not assigned to specific schools, law enforcement activities took place in over half of the divisions in the Commonwealth. Eighty percent of the superintendents felt that it is important to have school board policy governing the police-school relationship. There was a wide range of school board policy dealing with the police-school relationship. All data collected were utilized to identify criteria to be considered when developing school board policy and regulations that reflect the needs and practices of Commonwealth of Virginia high school principals.