U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

 Fact Sheet www.cops.usdoj.gov

Memorandum of Understanding Fact Sheet

School Resource Officer (SRO) programs can play an 

important role in maintaining and increasing safety in 

schools and neighboring communities. In order to effectively 

implement such programs, law enforcement agencies and 

schools should develop a Memorandum of Understanding 

(MOU) to clearly document the roles, responsibilities, 

and expectations of the individuals and partners involved 

including SROs, school officials, law enforcement, education 

departments, students, and parents. At a minimum, a 

successful MOU documents the program’s purpose, partner 

roles and responsibilities, requirements for information 

sharing, and supervision of the SRO. 

Developing a Memorandum of Understanding

An MOU, also referred to as an interagency agreement 

or Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), is an instrument 

used to build mutual respect and trust between partners 

while delineating specific roles and responsibilities of the 

partnering agencies. Every jurisdiction with a school and 

law enforcement partnership should have an MOU that 

clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of the individual 

partners involved, including school districts, boards or 

departments of education, school administration officials, 

law enforcement agencies (including SROs), students, and 

parents. As a policy instrument, all parties should sign and 

abide by the MOU, and it should be considered a living 

document that operates within the context created by 

applicable federal and state laws—including, but not limited 

to, federal civil rights laws and privacy laws.

The MOU must be submitted to the COPS Office within 

90 days of the date shown on the award congratulatory letter. 

Implementation of the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) award 

without submission and acceptance of the required MOU 

may result in expenditures not being reimbursed by the 

COPS Office and/or award deobligation.

Developing Your School-Based Partnership

School and law enforcement partnerships are also built 

on a foundation of shared goals and objectives, which are 

approached in a constructive and positive manner and 

achieved through open communication. When schools, 

communities, and law enforcement agencies work together 

to creatively tackle problems, they may be able to achieve a 

number of positive outcomes, including 

 an increased ability of law enforcement agencies, schools, 

and community groups to gather and analyze useful and 

timely information about crime and fear of crime in 

schools in accordance with applicable privacy laws;

 an increased ability of law enforcement agencies, schools, 

and community groups to work together in developing 

innovative, systemic, long-term approaches to reducing 

and preventing different kinds of crime in and around 

their schools and preventing unnecessary law enforcement 

involvement in non-criminal student misbehavior. 

Measurable outcomes may be determined by implementing 

strategies focused on targeted crimes, thereby improving the 

quality of life for those affected (students, teachers, school 

personnel, and parents), promoting a safer environment that 

is conducive for learning, and decreasing the fear of crime 

and violence among students, school employees, and the 

surrounding community;

 an increased understanding of how to effectively interact 

with youth through coordinated training on topics such 

as basic childhood and adolescent development and ageappropriate responses, disability and special education 

issues, conflict resolution and de-escalation techniques, 

bias-free policing including implicit bias and cultural 

competence, restorative justice techniques, and working 

with specific student groups such as students with 

disabilities, limited English proficiency, and students that 

identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT); 
 an increased understanding of an SRO’s roles and 

responsibilities, including an understanding that school 

code of conduct violations and routine discipline of students 

remains the responsibility of school administrators and that 

law enforcement actions (such as arrest, citations, ticketing, 

or court referrals) are only to be used as a last resort for 

incidents that involve criminal behavior or when it becomes 

necessary to protect the safety of students, faculty, and staff 

from the threat of immediate harm;

 an increased ability through coordinated training for 

schools and law enforcement agencies to properly train 

and respond to school safety threats;

 an increased ability to plan for and respond appropriately 

to emergencies.

Note that the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and 

Human Services, Homeland Security, and Justice recently 

released guidance for schools on emergency planning. 

See Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency 

Operations Plans (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of 

Education, 2013), https://rems.ed.gov/docs/REMS_K-12_

Guide_508.pdf.

MOU guidance

The following information must be included within 

an MOU. The COPS Office strongly encourages law 

enforcement agencies to work collaboratively with school 

partners to formulate additional information that will help 

successfully implement the overall school safety plans.

Under the 2017 COPS Hiring Program, SROs must spend 

a minimum of 75 percent of their time during the calendar 

year or 100 percent of their time during the school year—

depending on the law enforcement agency’s SRO deployment 

strategy developed with the school partnership—in and 

around primary or secondary schools working on youthrelated activities. The time commitment of the SROs must 

be above and beyond the amount of time that the agency 

devoted to the schools before receiving the award. There 

must be an increase in the level of community policing 

activities performed in and around primary or secondary 

schools in the agency’s jurisdiction as a result of the award. 

A. Purpose of the MOU

The statement of purpose should describe the agencies 

that are entering into the partnership, the purpose of 

the partnership, and the effective date of the agreement. 

This statement may already exist within your ongoing 

partnership, or it may need to be developed jointly to 

assist in defining the primary purpose of your agreement. 

The effective date of the agreement must cover the 

term of the award or contain language regarding the 

annual renewal of the agreement through the term of 

the award. 

B. Description of partner roles and responsibilities

This description must include the roles and 

responsibilities of the school, the school district, and 

the law enforcement agency, and each partner should 

be specifically listed within the document. It must 

clearly indicate that SROs will not be responsible 

for requests to resolve routine discipline problems 

involving students. The administration of student 

discipline, including student code of conduct violations 

and student misbehavior, is the responsibility of school 

administrators unless the violation or misbehavior 

involves criminal conduct. 

The placement of law enforcement officers in schools 

carries a risk of contributing to a “school-to-prison 

pipeline” process where students are arrested or cited 

for minor, nonviolent behavioral violations and then 

diverted to the juvenile court system. This pipeline 

wastes community resources and can lead to academic 

failure and greater recidivism rates for these students. 

The awardee agrees that any officers deployed while 

implementing School-based Policing under the COPS 

Hiring Program award cannot be involved in the 

administrative discipline of the students.

The MOU must include the roles and responsibilities 

of the school partner. These roles may include providing 

a secure work space for the SRO to conduct interviews 

and maintain confidential records; establishing standing 

meetings; and working with school administrators in 

identifying problems and evaluating progress under the 

MOU, including data collection and evaluation. The 

school administrator should ensure that staff cooperates 

with police investigations and any subsequent actions 

related to crime or criminal activity on campus.

The law enforcement partner is responsible for the 

selection of officer(s) assigned to the school, and these 

officer(s) should adhere to the principles of community 

policing. This section of the MOU must define the roles 

and responsibilities of the SRO and the assigned hours 

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of SRO duty, including arrival and departure times and 

specifying if after-hour duties may be performed and if 

time spent in court, attending interagency meetings, and 

investigating school-related crimes are within the scope 

of SRO duties.

The MOU should include examples of the activities that 

the SRO will engage in, such as

 handling requests for calls for service in and 

around schools;

 conducting comprehensive safety and security 

assessments;

 developing emergency management and incident 

response systems based on the National Incident 

Management System (NIMS) and the four phases 

of emergency management: mitigation/prevention, 

preparedness, response, and recovery;

 developing and implementing safety plans or strategies;

 integrating appropriate security equipment/

technology solutions, including incorporating 

crime prevention through environmental design 

(CPTED) as appropriate to enhance school safety;

 responding to unauthorized persons on school 

property;

 serving as liaisons between the school and other 

police agencies, investigative units, or juvenile justice 

authorities when necessary and consistent with 

applicable civil rights laws and privacy laws;

 serving as a member of a multidisciplinary school 

team to refer students to professional services within 

both the school (guidance counselors or social 

workers) and the community (youth and family 

service organizations);

 building relationships with juvenile justice counselors 

to help connect youth with needed services;

 developing and expanding crime prevention efforts 

for students;

 developing and expanding community justice 

initiatives for students.

C. Information sharing

This section must address the type of and the extent 

to which information will be shared between the 

law enforcement agency and school or school district 

partners. For example, it should define the type of 

information that the school is permitted or willing to 

share with law enforcement, as well as information 

flow from law enforcement to school partner(s). When 

entering into an MOU, agencies should consider all 

federal or state laws that govern the collection, use, and 

dissemination of student records.

Federal privacy laws, including the Family Educational 

Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), the Health 

Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 

(HIPAA), and civil rights and other laws must be 

considered when developing plans for information 

sharing that involves personally identifiable information 

from student education records. For more information 

on FERPA, see the U.S. Department of Education’s 

FERPA home page at https://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/

guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html; for more information on 

HIPAA, see the U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Service’s Health information privacy site at https://www.

hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html; and for an overview 

of FERPA issues relevant to emergency planning and 

SRO programs, please see the ”Closer Look” section 

of the Guide for Developing High-Quality School 

Emergency Operations Plans at https://rems.ed.gov/docs/

REMS_K-12_Guide_508.pdf.

D. Supervision responsibility and chain of command 

for the SRO

This section must clearly establish a definitive chain of 

command for the SRO, including the individual(s) with 

the responsibility for the supervision of the SRO. With rare 

exceptions, this responsibility lies with the law enforcement 

executive or his or her law enforcement designee. 

E. Signatures

The MOU must be signed and dated by both the highest 

ranking law enforcement executive (i.e., police chief or 

sheriff) and the school official(s) who will have general 

educational oversight and decision-making authority 

(i.e., board of education chairperson, superintendent, 

or school principal). The MOU should be developed 

with participation from school administrators and 

officers assigned to the school(s) so that staff members 

who are impacted by the agreement clearly understand 

Memorandum of Understanding 3
their roles and responsibilities. Successful MOUs are 

often developed by teams that include students, 

parents, and other community members committed 

to keeping schools safe, in addition to school and 

law enforcement members. The MOU should be 

publicly available to members of the school community. 

Supplemental Information

In addition to the required information set forth in the 

MOU guidance, training requirements and performance 

monitoring should be addressed in the MOU. The COPS 

Office recommends including a section that describes 

training requirements prior to placing SROs in educational 

settings, as well as specific in-service training requirements 

throughout their deployment in the schools. The COPS 

Office also recommends a section that establishes a 

process to closely monitor the SRO program, including 

comprehensive disaggregated data collection on school-based 

arrests, citations, searches, and referrals to court or juvenile 

justice programs consistent with applicable federal, state, and 

local privacy laws.

References

Atkinson, Anne J. 2002. “Fostering School-Law Enforcement 

Partnerships,” in No. 5 of Safe and Secure: Guides to Creating 

Safer Schools. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/book5.pdf.

Canady, M., B. James, and J. Nease. “To Protect & Educate: 

The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence 

in Schools”. Hoover, AL: National Association of School 

Resource Officers. https://nasro.org/cms/wp-content/

uploads/2013/11/NASRO-To-Protect-and-Educatenosecurity.pdf

Additional COPS Office resources

“Police in Schools.” Narrated by Mo Canady and Vonda 

Matthews. The Beat, February, 2013. https://cops.usdoj.gov/

html/podcasts/the_beat/02-2013/TheBeat-022013_Mo_

Canady.mp3.

COPS Office. 2013. School Safety CD-ROM. Washington, 

DC: U.S. Department of Justice. https://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-CD010.

Crowley, Kathleen. 2012. Executive Summary: Secure 

Our Schools Program Assessment. Washington, DC: 

U.S. Department of Justice. https://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0696.

Newman, Graeme R. 2005. Bomb Threats in Schools. 

Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented 

Policing Services. https://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0015.

Raymond, Barbara. 2010. Assigning Police Officers 

to Schools. Washington, DC: Office of Community 

Oriented Policing Services. https://ric-zai-inc.com/ric.

php?page=detail&id=COPS-P182.

Rosiak, John. 2013. “A Day in the Life of a School Resource 

Officer,” Community Policing Dispatch 6 (4). https://cops.

usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/04-2013/a_day_in_the_life.asp.

Sampson, Rana. 2002. Bullying in Schools. Washington, DC: 

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. https://riczai-inc.com/ric.php?page=detail&id=COPS-W0018.

Memorandum of Understanding 4

Published 2017