| Summary: | <p>Although the placement of school resource officers (SROs) in schools is widespread, little is known about its effectiveness in preventing school crime or the extent to which placement may harm schools and students (e.g., by facilitating the formal processing of minor offenses). The Study of Police in Schools sought to strengthen the evidence base on the effects of SROs on schools and students. Specifically, this study addressed two research questions: (1) What are the effects of SROs on school disciplinary offenses and disciplinary actions? and (2) Do the effects of SROs vary by implementation, school, and student characteristics?</p> <p>The study focused on public secondary schools that increased SRO staffing through the 2013 and 2014 Department of Justice's Community Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program (CHP) and on matched comparison schools that neither received SROs funded by CHP grants nor increased SRO staffing at the same time as treatment schools. Using longitudinal analyses of monthly school-level administrative data, the study compared the treatment and comparison schools on disciplinary incidents/offenses and actions. In addition, the study analyzed data from web surveys of school administrators and SROs at the sample schools, and from interviews with law enforcement officials at the agencies that placed the SROs in the schools. To assess the extent to which the presence of SROs affects the measurement of school crime, research staff also collected and analyzed qualitative information from interviews with school administrators in select treatment schools.</p> <p>To conduct the study, the following data sources were collected or obtained: <ol><li>Linking and SRO program information data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)</li> <li>California Department of Education administrative data files (5 files)</li> <li>SRO web survey data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)</li> <li>School administrator web survey data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)</li> <li>Law enforcement agency interview data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)</li> <li>Moderator data file (1 file for CA)</li> <li>School administrator interview data file (1 file for CA)</li></ol></p>
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