Chicago Public Schools is on a path to transform school safety from the ground up by undertaking a community and student-led process to develop school safety plans that provide an alternative to the school resource officer program. In its first year, the process will shift close to $2 million from SROs to an unprecedented reinvestment in holistic approaches that focus on restorative justice and mental and behavioral health, with potential additional funding for schools that qualify under the equity funding index. “The Whole School Safety Planning Process drove engaging conversations around school safety across schools in an unprecedented way,” said Chief Safety and Security Officer Jadine Chou. “By shifting the conversation towards more holistic approaches to safety, we believe that the new plans will enable schools to use strategies that are more proactive and supportive in keeping our students safe.”

This process directed school-specific safety committees to create plans leading to drive a significant change in safety programs, with 31 schools effectively voting for plans that reduce or eliminate reliance on SROs, reducing SROs by almost 40 percent from the last school year, and more than half over the last two school years. Two school votes are still pending.  “We are making progress,” said Jasmine Roach, student leader with VOYCE, Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, one of five community groups that serve on the committee. “While it’s been a long time coming, I am glad to see that the voices of students are taken seriously and how we are coming together with parents, LSCs and other students to change school safety. We need to continue speaking out as students, and I am looking forward to continuing this work.”