HF 152 (LSB 1443YH (4) 90)

HOUSE FILE 152

BY  COLLINS, DETERMANN, HARRIS, DUNWELL, HORA, RINKER, WOOD, GEHLBACH, BODEN, WILZ, JOHNSON, LATHAM, GOLDING, HENDERSON, SORENSEN, YOUNG, NORDMAN, and BRADLEY

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to school resource officers by establishing a rural school security grant program and making appropriations.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  NEW SECTION.  256.26  Rural school security grant program —— fund.
   1.  The department shall create a rural school security grant program to provide grants to school districts for the hiring and equipping of a school resource officer. 
   2.  a.  A school district with a basic enrollment for the budget year under section 257.6, subsection 2, of one thousand pupils or less may apply for a grant under the program to hire and equip one school resource officer in the school district.
   b.  A school district may collaborate and partner with one or more school districts or law enforcement agencies to hire and equip the school resource officer position for which the grant application is filed. The school resource officer position may be the position from which the school receives supplementary weighting under section 257.11, subsection 5.
   c.  The applicant school district must specify in the application the amount and sources of other funding for the school resource officer position, including amounts received by the school district as the result of supplementary weighting for a school resource officer under section 257.11, subsection 5.
   d.  Grant funds may be used by the school district for school resource officer salaries, benefits, and equipment.
   3.  The department shall, in consultation with the department of public safety’s school safety bureau, develop a grant application and selection and evaluation criteria. Applicants that meet the selection and evaluation criteria shall be awarded grants on a first-come-first-served basis. 
   4.  A grant awarded to a school district in any single fiscal year shall not exceed an amount equal to the lesser of twenty thousand dollars or twenty percent of the amount of other school district funding sources specified in the school district’s application to hire and equip the school resource officer. Amounts paid by a collaborator or partner school district or law enforcement agency shall be part of the amount of other school district funding sources specified in the application.
   5.  A rural school security grant fund is established in the state treasury under the control of the department. There is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the rural school security grant fund for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2023, four million dollars. Moneys credited to the fund are appropriated to the department for purposes of distributing grants under this section. The department may accept gifts, grants, bequests, and other private contributions, as well as state or federal moneys, for deposit in the fund. Moneys available in the rural school security grant fund for a fiscal year shall be distributed as grants to eligible school district applicants pursuant to this section. Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys in the fund at the close of the fiscal year shall not revert but shall remain available for expenditure for the purposes designated for subsequent fiscal years.
   6.  For purposes of this section, “school resource officer” means the same as defined in section 257.11, subsection 5.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill directs the department of education to establish a rural school security grant program to provide grants to school districts with basic enrollments for the budget year of 1,000 or less for the hiring and equipping of a school resource officer. Under the bill, a school district may collaborate and partner with one or more school districts or law enforcement agencies to hire and equip the school resource officer position for which the grant application is filed. The applicant school district must specify in the application the amount and sources of other funding for the school resource officer position, including amounts received by the school district as the result of supplementary weighting under Code section 257.11, subsection 5. Grant funds may be used for school resource officer salaries, benefits, and equipment.
   The bill directs the department of education, in consultation with the department of public safety’s school safety bureau, to develop a grant application and selection and evaluation criteria. Applicants that meet the selection and evaluation criteria shall be awarded grants on a first-come-first-served basis. 
   A grant awarded to a school district in any single fiscal year shall not exceed an amount equal to the lesser of $20,000 or 20 percent of the amount of other school district funding sources specified in the school district’s application from other school district funding sources to hire and equip the school resource officer.
   The bill establishes a rural school security grant fund and appropriates $4 million to the fund for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2023. Moneys in the fund at the close of a fiscal year shall not revert but shall remain available for expenditure for the purposes designated for subsequent fiscal years.