Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act
Bill: S.2125 | Sponsor: Sen. Murphy, Christopher (D-CT)
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act
This bill prohibits the use of federal funds for law enforcement officers in schools. It also establishes a grant program to replace law enforcement officers in schools with personnel and services that support mental health and trauma-informed services.
Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of federal funds to hire, maintain, or train law enforcement officers in elementary or secondary schools. Further, it prohibits the use of public safety and community policing grants for law enforcement officers in schools.
Additionally, the bill directs the Department of Education to award grants to local educational agencies to (1) replace law enforcement officers in elementary and secondary schools with personnel and services that support mental health and trauma-informed services, and (2) reform school safety and disciplinary policies to reflect evidence-based practices that do not rely on the criminal justice system.
A recipient must use grants funds to hire or train specified staff. The bill prohibits the use of grant funds for (1) establishing or enforcing zero-tolerance school discipline policies, (2) purchasing or installing surveillance equipment (e.g., metal detectors), or (3) arming teachers or other school personnel.

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 
                   outcomes, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Counseling Not Criminalization 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, Native American, and Latino 
        students, immigrant students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ 
        students, students experiencing homelessness, students involved 
        in the foster care system, and other historically 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, 67 percent of high school 
        students, 45 percent of middle school students, and 19 percent 
        of elementary school students attend a school with a police 
        officer.
            (3) Since 1999, the Federal Government has invested more 
        than $1,000,000,000 to subsidize the placement of police in 
        schools, resulting in roughly 46,000 school resource officers 
        patrolling the halls of elementary and secondary public schools 
        across the Nation.
            (4) A growing body of research has not found any evidence 
        that school resource officers make schools safer, and school 
        resource officers have been shown to increase the likelihood 
        that children will be arrested, often by the school resource 
        officer while on campus.
            (5) Research has shown that schools with a designated 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 perpetrated by police within schoolhouse 
        gates.
            (7) Black, Native American, and Latino students are more 
        likely than their white peers to attend schools with police 
        officers on campus and are more likely to be referred to law 
        enforcement or arrested 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, and are 3 times more likely to be 
        suspended or expelled than white students. Native American and 
        Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian students 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 enforcement than either their white peers 
        with disabilities, or their peers of color without 
        disabilities. These students are also disproportionately 
        restrained and secluded in schools. Of the 87,000 students who 
        were restrained during the 2015-2016 school year, 71 percent 
        received special education services and 27 percent of students 
        restrained were Black.
            (10) According to the Department of Education, while Black 
        girls comprise only 16 percent of 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 
        percent of girls arrested on campus.
            (11) Research shows that these racial disparities 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.
            (12) Students who are LGBTQ often have intersecting 
        marginalized identities and experience exclusionary discipline 
        at disproportionate rates that make it more likely they will 
        interact with the juvenile justice system than their non-LGBTQ 
        peers.
            (13) Students who are suspended or expelled are nearly 
        threefold more likely to be in contact with the juvenile 
        justice system the following year.
            (14) According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 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 enforcement. The United States spends $240 
        daily, on average, per youth detained in juvenile facilities.
            (15) While schools should be sanctuaries for all students, 
        reports have shown instances where school resource officers 
        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.
            (16) School hardening, including the presence of school 
        resource officers on campus, causes students to experience 
        higher levels of fear, perpetuate the school to prison 
        pipeline, and undermine the ability of schools and educators to 
        build learning environments undergirded by mutual trust, 
        respect, and safety.
            (17) Ninety percent of students are in public schools where 
        the number of counselors, social workers, nurses, and 
        psychologists do not meet recommended professional standards. 
        Professional standards recommend at least 1 counselor and 1 
        social worker for every 250 students and at least 1 nurse and 1 
        psychologist for every 750 students and every 700 students, 
        respectively.
            (18) 1,700,000 students attend schools with police but not 
        1 counselor.
            (19) 3,000,000 students attend schools with police but not 
        1 school nurse.
            (20) 6,000,000 students attend schools with police but no 
        school psychologists.
            (21) 10,000,000 students attend schools with police but no 
        social workers.

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 improve 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
            (2) support local educational agencies that choose to 
        terminate their contracts with local law enforcement agencies 
        or, where applicable, dissolve or disband district-based police 
        departments, and invest resources in personnel and services 
        that create truly safe and inclusive schools for all students 
        based on community engagement and deliberative consultation.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) ESEA terms.--The terms ``elementary school'', 
        ``evidence-based'', ``local educational agency'', ``parent'', 
        ``professional development'', ``school leader'', ``secondary 
        school'', ``Secretary'', and ``specialized instructional 
        support personnel'' have the meaning given those terms in 
        section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
        1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
            (2) Covered program.--The term ``covered program'' means--
                    (A) all the operations of an elementary school, a 
                secondary school, or a local educational agency; or
                    (B) a program that serves children who receive 
                services for which financial assistance is provided in 
                accordance with the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et 
                seq.).
            (3) Positive behavioral interventions and supports.--The 
        term ``positive behavioral interventions and supports'' means--
                    (A) a schoolwide, systematic approach that embeds 
                evidence-based practices and data-driven decisionmaking 
                to improve school climate and culture in order to 
                achieve improved academic and social outcomes and 
                increase learning for all students (including students 
                with the most complex and intensive behavioral needs); 
                and
                    (B) encompasses a range of systemic and 
                individualized positive strategies to teach and 
                reinforce school-expected behaviors, while discouraging 
                and diminishing undesirable behaviors.
            (4) Covered law enforcement officer.--The term ``covered 
        law enforcement officer''--
                    (A) means any person who--
                            (i) is a State, Tribal, or local law 
                        enforcement officer (as defined in section 1204 
                        of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
                        Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10284)); and
                            (ii) is assigned by the employing law 
                        enforcement agency to a covered program, who is 
                        contracting with a covered program, or who is 
                        employed by a covered program; and
                    (B) includes an individual referred to as a 
                ``school resource officer'' if that individual meets 
                the definition in subparagraph (A).
            (5) Trauma-informed services.--The term ``trauma-informed 
        services'' means a service delivery approach that--
                    (A) recognizes and responds to the impacts of 
                trauma with evidence-based supports and intervention;
                    (B) emphasizes physical, psychological, and 
                emotional safety for both providers of services and 
                survivors of trauma; and
                    (C) creates opportunities for survivors of trauma 
                to rebuild a sense of healing and empowerment.

SEC. 5. PROHIBITION OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR POLICE IN SCHOOLS.

    (a) Federal Funds Prohibition.--Notwithstanding the Omnibus Crime 
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.), 
including subpart 1 of part E of title I of that Act (34 U.S.C. 10151 
et seq.) (relating to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance 
Grant Program) and part Q of title I of that Act (34 U.S.C. 13081 et 
seq.) (relating to the ``Cops on the Beat'' grant program), or any 
other provision of law, no Federal funds may be appropriated or used 
for hiring, maintaining, or training covered law enforcement officers 
in any capacity.
    (b) COPS Grant Program.--Section 1701 of title I of the Omnibus 
Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) by striking paragraph (12);
                    (B) by redesignating paragraphs (13) through (23) 
                as paragraphs (12) through (22), respectively; and
                    (C) in paragraph (21), as so redesignated, by 
                striking ``through (21)'' and inserting ``through 
                (20)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(n) Prohibition on Use of Funds for Covered Law Enforcement 
Officers.--A recipient of a grant under this part may not use the grant 
funds for covered law enforcement officers (as defined in section 4 of 
the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act).''.

SEC. 6. SUPPORTING LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES IN TRANSITIONING AWAY 
              FROM POLICE IN SCHOOLS.

    (a) Grant Program Established.--The Secretary of Education shall 
award grants, on a competitive and rolling basis, to local educational 
agencies to enable those local educational agencies--
            (1) to replace covered law enforcement officers in 
        elementary and secondary schools with personnel and services 
        that support mental health and trauma-informed services; and
            (2) to reform school safety and disciplinary policies so 
        they reflect evidence-based practices that do not rely on the 
        criminal justice system and provide the necessary staff 
        training and support to implement such policies.
    (b) Application.--A local educational agency desiring a grant under 
this section shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, 
in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may 
require, including an assurance that--
            (1) the local educational agency will terminate any 
        existing contract with local law enforcement or, where 
        applicable, dissolve school district-based police departments, 
        at least 30 days prior to the entity receiving funds under this 
        section; and
            (2) the local educational agency will not establish any new 
        contract with law enforcement or create its own school police 
        department for the duration of the grant.
    (c) Priority.--In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary 
shall give priority to--
            (1) local educational agencies that terminated their 
        contract with all law enforcement or disbanded their school 
        district police department prior to submitting an application 
        and provide assurances that the local educational agency will 
        not create or restart a contract with State or local law 
        enforcement, create or reinstate a school district police 
        department, or create or restart a program of other armed 
        school personnel during the duration of this grant;
            (2) local educational agencies with a larger share of 
        students who are economically disadvantaged, in the event that 
        funds are insufficient to award grants to all eligible 
        applicants; and
            (3) local educational agencies that identify the uses of 
        funds in subsection (d) based on meaningful community 
        engagement and deliberative consultation.
    (d) Uses of Funds.--
            (1) Required use.--A local educational agency receiving 
        funds under this section shall use such grant funds to hire or 
        train school counselors, school psychologists, nurses, or 
        social workers, community health workers and trauma-informed 
        personnel, dedicated staff specifically trained in deescalation 
        and violence interruption practices, staff trained in anti-bias 
        practices, doctoral level specialists in behavior planning and 
        intervention, or other specialists or individuals with 
        expertise in school climate and behavior.
            (2) Permitted uses.--In addition to the required use 
        described in paragraph (1), a local educational agency 
        receiving funds under this section may also use grant funds to 
        carry out 1 or more of the following:
                    (A) Implementing schoolwide positive behavioral 
                interventions and supports, restorative justice 
                programs and interventions, mediators, social and 
                emotional learning programs, or other evidence-based 
                trauma-informed services.
                    (B) Providing professional development to teachers, 
                teacher assistants, school leaders, counselors, 
                specialized instructional support personnel, and mental 
                health professionals that--
                            (i) fosters safe, inclusive, and stable 
                        learning environments that support the social, 
                        emotional, mental, and academic well-being of 
                        students and prevent and mitigate the effects 
                        of trauma, including through social and 
                        emotional learning;
                            (ii) improves school capacity to identify, 
                        refer, and provide services to students in need 
                        of trauma support services;
                            (iii) reflects the best practices for 
                        trauma-informed identification, referral, and 
                        support developed by the Interagency Task Force 
                        on Trauma-Informed Care;
                            (iv) reduces the number of students with 
                        disabilities experiencing school discipline for 
                        their disability-related behavior through 
                        specific training on the identification, 
                        development, and implementation of Behavior 
                        Intervention Plans (BIPs); and
                            (v) reduces the number of Black, Latino, 
                        Native American, and LGBTQ students who are 
                        disciplined for minor, age-appropriate 
                        behaviors that should be addressed through 
                        evidence-based, trauma-informed services and 
                        support.
    (e) Prohibition.--No portion of any grant funds awarded under this 
section may be used for--
            (1) the development, establishment, implementation, or 
        enforcement of zero-tolerance school discipline policies, 
        including the commission, contracting of, or agreements with 
        law enforcement that support the presence of police in schools, 
        including formal or informal partnerships or data and 
        information sharing agreements with the Department of Justice 
        or Secretary of Homeland Security, including U.S. Immigration 
        and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Customs and Border Protection;
            (2) the purchase, maintenance, or installation of 
        surveillance equipment, including metal detectors, facial 
        recognition technology, or software programs that monitor or 
        mine the social media use or technology use of students; or
            (3) arming teachers, principals, school leaders, or other 
        school personnel.
    (f) Grant Amounts.--The amount of grant funds received under this 
section by a local educational agency shall be based on the number of 
students enrolled in the local educational agency.
    (g) Reporting.--Each local educational agency receiving a grant 
under this section shall prepare and submit a report to the Secretary 
containing information about--
            (1) how the grant funds were used;
            (2) the number of students who were arrested by or referred 
        to law enforcement officers in the previous year compared to 
        the number arrested or referred during the term of the grant;
            (3) the reasons for arrests; and
            (4) demographic data of students arrested or referred to 
        law enforcement officers, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, 
        age, gender, sex and sexual orientation, status as a child with 
        a disability, and socioeconomic status.
    (h) Supplement Not Supplant.--A local educational agency shall use 
Federal funds received under this section only to supplement the funds 
that would, in the absence of such Federal funds, be made available 
from State and local sources for the activities described in subsection 
(d), and not to supplant such funds
    (i) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $5,000,000,000.
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