HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

153rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HOUSE AMENDMENT NO. 2

TO

HOUSE BILL NO. 79

AMEND House Bill No. 79 on line 77 by inserting “ a. ” after “(2)” and before “To” therein.

FURTHER AMEND House Bill No. 79 after line 78 and before line 79 by inserting the following:

“ b. The Department of Education shall request from the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST), any data related to law-enforcement officer use of physical restraint, mechanical restraint, or seclusion on a student in a public school collected by POST.

c.1. POST shall provide the requested data under paragraph (c)(2)b. of this section to the Department of Education.

2. For the mechanical restraint data, POST shall provide the Department of Education the total number of mechanical restraints that occurred disaggregated by whether the law-enforcement officer was required to use mechanical restraint in that situation, and if so, why that restraint was required. ”.

FURTHER AMEND House Bill No. 79 on line 81 after “results.” by inserting the following:

“ The Department of Education shall incorporate the data received from POST under paragraph (c)(2) of this section into the annual report. ”.

FURTHER AMEND House Bill No. 79 on line 117 after “herein.” by inserting the following:

“ This paragraph does not prohibit a school district or charter school from using a law-enforcement officer who is not trained as an SRO to fill in for an SRO who is temporarily absent. ”.

FURTHER AMEND House Bill No. 79 on line 119 by deleting “2025.” and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

“2026.”.

SYNOPSIS

This Amendment to HB 79 does the following:

- Incorporates the amendments made in HA 1 into this Amendment for ease and efficiency. HA 1 added language to ensure that the law conforms to the current practice regarding school resource officer temporary absences. It also changed the effective date from August 1, 2025, to August 1, 2026, to provide the Department of Education with additional time to prepare to implement HB 79.

- Adds a paragraph a. so paragraphs (c)(2)b. and (c)(2)c. can be added.

- Adds paragraph (c)(2)b. which requires the Department of Education to get data that the Police Officer Standards and Training Commision collects relating to use of restraint and seclusion.

- Adds paragraph (c)(2)c. which requires the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission to provide that data to the Department of Education. Paragraph (c)(2)c.2. requires the inclusion of additional information related to mechanical restraint.

- This Amendment requires the Department of Education to incorporate the data it receives from the Police Officer Standards and Training Commission into the annual report required under § 4112F of Title 14.