The Fairfax County School Board has approved a revised Memorandum of Understanding between Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and the Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) for the School Resource Officer (SRO) program.
Superintendent Scott Brabrand and FCPD Police Chief Edwin Roessler produced a revised draft agreement that was reviewed during three community meetings in July by the SRO Community Review Committee, which included individuals representing FCPS and community-based organizations.
A total of 51 FCPD officers serve as SROs in FCPS middle schools, high schools and secondary schools.
• The revised MOU includes the following changes to the previous agreement:
• Establishes a clear division between the role of the SRO in criminal matters and FCPS administrative staff on student discipline matters.
• Clarifies that SROs are not involved in determining student discipline under the FCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities regulation.
• Establishes that SROs shall not be involved with the enforcement of school rules or disciplinary infractions that are not violations of law.
• Removes “stop and frisk” from the MOU.
• Lastly, it adds SRO training focused on implicit bias, disability awareness, crisis intervention training, restorative justice techniques and cultural competency for all officers.
