Legislation

Two pieces of legislation sought to address the presence of SROs and the need for mental health personnel on school campuses – one positively, and one negatively.

We strongly opposed a bill which would have banned terms like “racial guilt” in the classroom, barred the use of school books that have a "viewpoint," and required school staff to address students by “the pronouns associated with their biological gender.”

We opposed legislation which would have created a "school security committee" charged with facilitating the presence of “armed security personnel” in every school and promoting techniques for student surveillance.

We opposed legislation which would have required that all campus police officers at a public institution of higher education in RI be armed.

We strongly supported a bill which will ensure that information on school-based arrests or SRO-related incidents on school campuses, including the number of SROs employed by a school, is made publicly available.

We strongly supported a bill which would have proposed an amendment to the Rhode Island constitution guaranteeing the right to an adequate education.

We urged enactment of a bill which would have provided specific technological privacy protections for students using school-loaned devices.

We supported a critical piece of legislation which would have largely eliminated the ability for a K-5 student to be given an out-of-school suspension and strengthened the current reporting requirements for school districts.