I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2739 
To divert Federal funding away from supporting the presence of police in 
schools and toward evidence-based and trauma-informed services that 
address the needs of marginalized students and improve academic out-
comes, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 8, 2025 
Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Ms. OMAR, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Ms. 
BONAMICI, Mr. CASAR, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. POCAN, 
Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. THANEDAR, and Ms. TLAIB) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, 
and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To divert Federal funding away from supporting the presence 
of police in schools and toward evidence-based and trau-
ma-informed 
services 
that 
address 
the 
needs 
of 
marginalized students and improve academic outcomes, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Counseling Not Crim-
inalization in Schools Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Over the last 50 years, our Nation’s schools 
have become sites for increased criminalization and 
surveillance of young people, particularly Black, Na-
tive American, and Latino students, immigrant stu-
dents, students with disabilities, LGBTQI+ stu-
dents, students experiencing homelessness, students 
involved in the foster care system, and other histori-
cally marginalized students. 
(2) Despite significant decreases in the rate of 
serious crimes and violence on school campuses over 
the past 20 years, improving upon already low rates, 
55 percent of high school students, 38 percent of 
middle school students, and 18 percent of elemen-
tary school students attended a school with a police 
officer during the 2017–2018 school year. 
(3) Since 1999, the Federal Government has in-
vested more than $1,000,000,000 to subsidize the 
placement of police in schools, resulting in more 
than 50,000 law enforcement officers patrolling the 
halls of elementary and secondary public schools 
across the Nation. 
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(4) A growing body of research has not found 
any evidence that police stationed on school cam-
puses make schools safer, and the presence of police 
has been shown to increase the likelihood that chil-
dren will be arrested. 
(5) Research has shown that schools with a des-
ignated law enforcement officer on duty arrested 
students at 5 times the rate of comparable schools 
without such an officer. 
(6) When police are present in schools, students 
of color face an increased risk of being assaulted by 
police. Student-recorded videos of police violence in 
schools regularly circulate through news channels, 
articles, and social media, exposing violence per-
petrated by police within schoolhouse gates. Between 
2011 and 2021, news reports detailed at least 285 
police assaults of students. 
(7) Black, Native American, and Latino stu-
dents are more likely than their White peers to at-
tend schools with police officers on campus and are 
more likely to be referred to law enforcement or ar-
rested while in school. 
(8) Black students represent 31 percent of all 
school-related arrests, despite making up only 15 
percent of all public school students. Native Amer-
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ican and Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian stu-
dents are more than twice as likely to be arrested as 
White students. 
(9) Students with disabilities are more likely 
than their peers without disabilities to be referred to 
law enforcement or arrested. Students of color with 
disabilities are more likely to be referred to law en-
forcement than either their White peers with disabil-
ities, or their peers of color without disabilities. 
(10) Students with disabilities are also dis-
proportionately restrained and secluded in schools. 
Of the 74,813 students who were physically or me-
chanically restrained during the 2017–2018 school 
year, 78 percent received special education services. 
Of the 27,499 students who were secluded during 
the 2017–2018 school year, 77 percent received spe-
cial education services. According to a 2020 Govern-
ment Accountability Office report, 70 percent of 
school districts report zero incidents of restraint and 
seclusion, but only 30 of the Nation’s 17,000 school 
districts are required to verify the number of inci-
dents of restraint and seclusion, likely resulting in a 
significant undercount of these harmful practices. 
(11) According to the Department of Edu-
cation, while Black girls comprise only 16 percent of 
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girls in elementary and secondary schools, they make 
up 42 percent of girls receiving the most severe 
forms of school discipline and severe punishment, 
such as corporal punishment, and represent 34 per-
cent of girls arrested on campus. In the 2017–2018 
school year, Black girls were 4 times more likely 
than White girls to be suspended or expelled. Black 
girls were also 3 times more likely to be referred to 
law enforcement and over 3 times more likely to be 
arrested in school. 
(12) Research shows that these racial dispari-
ties in discipline rates are not a result of differences 
in student behavior, but instead reflect the ways in 
which students of color face more punitive discipline 
than their White peers for similar behavior. 
(13) Students who are LGBTQI+ often have 
intersecting marginalized identities and experience 
exclusionary discipline at disproportionate rates that 
make it more likely they will interact with the juve-
nile justice system than their non-LGBTQI+ peers. 
A survey of juvenile justice facilities found 40 per-
cent of girls and 20 percent of all detained youth 
identified as LGBTQI+, and the overwhelming ma-
jority (85 percent) of LGBTQI+ detained youth 
were youth of color. 
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(14) Students who are suspended or expelled 
are nearly 3 times more likely to be in contact with 
the juvenile justice system the following year. 
(15) According to the Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation, more than 30,000 children under the age of 
10 were arrested since 2013. On school campuses, 
more than 290,000 students were referred to law en-
forcement. The United States spends $240 daily, on 
average, per youth detained in juvenile facilities. 
(16) While schools should be sanctuaries for all 
students, reports have shown instances where police 
in schools collect tips and disciplinary information 
from teachers and school administrators and share 
it with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
agents to build deportation cases against students 
and their families. 
(17) School hardening, including the presence 
of law enforcement officers on campus, causes stu-
dents to experience higher levels of fear, perpetuates 
the school to prison pipeline, and undermines the 
ability of schools and educators to build learning en-
vironments based on mutual trust, respect, and safe-
ty. 
(18) Ninety percent of students are in public 
schools where the number of counselors, social work-
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ers, nurses, and psychologists do not meet rec-
ommended 
professional 
standards. 
Professional 
standards recommend at least 1 counselor and 1 so-
cial worker for every 250 students and at least 1 
nurse and 1 psychologist for every 750 students and 
every 700 students, respectively. 
(19) 1,700,000 students attend schools with po-
lice but not 1 counselor. 
(20) 3,000,000 students attend schools with po-
lice but not 1 school nurse. 
(21) 6,000,000 students attend schools with po-
lice but not 1 school psychologist. 
(22) 10,000,000 students attend schools with 
police but not 1 social worker. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 
It is the purpose of this Act to— 
(1) address the needs of marginalized students, 
ensure schools are welcoming for students, and im-
prove academic outcomes by eliminating Federal 
funding for maintaining the presence of covered law 
enforcement officers in schools and establishing a 
continuum of care and positive schoolwide systems 
of services that are evidence-based, inclusive, racially 
and gender responsive, and trauma informed; and 
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