Senate passes bill reinstating ability for school police to issue citations

On April 29, the Texas Senate passed SB 1924 by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), which reinstates the ability for school police officers to issue citations to students.

Under current law, schools may file citations against students for certain behavior, such as disorderly conduct, but school police officers themselves may not. SB 1924 would restore that ability, with some limitations. The provision was removed in 2013 after complaints that officers abused their ability to cite students, but with an increasing number of severe incidents in Texas schools since the pandemic, the Senate voted to reinstate it. 

The bill adds new provisions that would prevent both the police officer and school from issuing redundant citations, require data collection on demographics of students receiving these citations, and prevent students from begin arrested in plain sight of other students. 

Schools often employ a variety of lesser consequences for disciplinary issues to avoid the more severe option of arresting a child, but in some cases, it is merited and SB 1924 allows school police officers to exercise that option.

The bill passed 23-8 and now awaits a hearing in the House.