119-hr2739

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2739 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 2739

 To divert Federal funding away from supporting the presence of police 
in schools and toward evidence-based and trauma-informed services that 
 address the needs of marginalized students and improve academic 
 outcomes, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 April 8, 2025

 Ms. Pressley (for herself, Ms. Omar, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Ms. 
 Bonamici, Mr. Casar, Ms. Norton, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Pocan, Mrs. 
 Ramirez, Mr. Thanedar, and Ms. Tlaib) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in 
 addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
 of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
 concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To divert Federal funding away from supporting the presence of police 
in schools and toward evidence-based and trauma-informed services that 
 address the needs of marginalized students and improve academic 
 outcomes, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Counseling Not Criminalization in 
Schools Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) Over the last 50 years, our Nation's schools have 
 become sites for increased criminalization and surveillance of 
 young people, particularly Black, Native American, and Latino 
 students, immigrant students, students with disabilities, 
 LGBTQI+ students, students experiencing homelessness, students 
 involved in the foster care system, and other historically 
 marginalized students.

    (2) Despite significant decreases in the rate of serious 
 crimes and violence on school campuses over the past 20 years, 
 improving upon already low rates, 55 percent of high school 
 students, 38 percent of middle school students, and 18 percent 
 of elementary school students attended a school with a police 
 officer during the 2017-2018 school year.

    (3) Since 1999, the Federal Government has invested more 
 than $1,000,000,000 to subsidize the placement of police in 
 schools, resulting in more than 50,000 law enforcement officers 
 patrolling the halls of elementary and secondary public schools 
 across the Nation.

    (4) A growing body of research has not found any evidence 
 that police stationed on school campuses make schools safer, 
 and the presence of police has been shown to increase the 
 likelihood that children will be arrested.

    (5) Research has shown that schools with a designated law 
 enforcement officer on duty arrested students at 5 times the 
 rate of comparable schools without such an officer.

    (6) When police are present in schools, students of color 
 face an increased risk of being assaulted by police. Student-
 recorded videos of police violence in schools regularly 
 circulate through news channels, articles, and social media, 
 exposing violence perpetrated by police within schoolhouse 
 gates. Between 2011 and 2021, news reports detailed at least 
 285 police assaults of students.

    (7) Black, Native American, and Latino students are more 
 likely than their White peers to attend schools with police 
 officers on campus and are more likely to be referred to law 
 enforcement or arrested while in school.

    (8) Black students represent 31 percent of all school-
 related arrests, despite making up only 15 percent of all 
 public school students. Native American and Pacific Islander 
 and Native Hawaiian students are more than twice as likely to 
 be arrested as White students.

    (9) Students with disabilities are more likely than their 
 peers without disabilities to be referred to law enforcement or 
 arrested. Students of color with disabilities are more likely 
 to be referred to law enforcement than either their White peers 
 with disabilities, or their peers of color without 
 disabilities.

    (10) Students with disabilities are also disproportionately 
 restrained and secluded in schools. Of the 74,813 students who 
 were physically or mechanically restrained during the 2017-2018 
 school year, 78 percent received special education services. Of 
 the 27,499 students who were secluded during the 2017-2018 
 school year, 77 percent received special education services. 
 According to a 2020 Government Accountability Office report, 70 
 percent of school districts report zero incidents of restraint 
 and seclusion, but only 30 of the Nation's 17,000 school 
 districts are required to verify the number of incidents of 
 restraint and seclusion, likely resulting in a significant 
 undercount of these harmful practices.

    (11) According to the Department of Education, while Black 
 girls comprise only 16 percent of girls in elementary and 
 secondary schools, they make up 42 percent of girls receiving 
 the most severe forms of school discipline and severe 
 punishment, such as corporal punishment, and represent 34 
 percent of girls arrested on campus. In the 2017-2018 school 
 year, Black girls were 4 times more likely than White girls to 
 be suspended or expelled. Black girls were also 3 times more 
 likely to be referred to law enforcement and over 3 times more 
 likely to be arrested in school.

    (12) Research shows that these racial disparities in 
 discipline rates are not a result of differences in student 
 behavior, but instead reflect the ways in which students of 
 color face more punitive discipline than their White peers for 
 similar behavior.

    (13) Students who are LGBTQI+ often have intersecting 
 marginalized identities and experience exclusionary discipline 
 at disproportionate rates that make it more likely they will 
 interact with the juvenile justice system than their non-
 LGBTQI+ peers. A survey of juvenile justice facilities found 40 
 percent of girls and 20 percent of all detained youth 
 identified as LGBTQI+, and the overwhelming majority (85 
 percent) of LGBTQI+ detained youth were youth of color.

    (14) Students who are suspended or expelled are nearly 3 
 times more likely to be in contact with the juvenile justice 
 system the following year.

    (15) According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more 
 than 30,000 children under the age of 10 were arrested since 
 2013. On school campuses, more than 290,000 students were 
 referred to law enforcement. The United States spends $240 
 daily, on average, per youth detained in juvenile facilities.

    (16) While schools should be sanctuaries for all students, 
 reports have shown instances where police in schools collect 
 tips and disciplinary information from teachers and school 
 administrators and share it with U.S. Immigration and Customs 
 Enforcement agents to build deportation cases against students 
 and their families.

    (17) School hardening, including the presence of law 
 enforcement officers on campus, causes students to experience 
 higher levels of fear, perpetuates the school to prison 
 pipeline, and undermines the ability of schools and educators 
 to build learning environments based on mutual trust, respect, 
 and safety.

    (18) Ninety percent of students are in public schools where 
 the number of counselors, social workers, nurses, and 
 psychologists do not meet recommended professional standards. 
 Professional standards recommend at least 1 counselor and 1 
 social worker for every 250 students and at least 1 nurse and 1 
 psychologist for every 750 students and every 700 students, 
 respectively.

    (19) 1,700,000 students attend schools with police but not 
 1 counselor.

    (20) 3,000,000 students attend schools with police but not 
 1 school nurse.

    (21) 6,000,000 students attend schools with police but not 
 1 school psychologist.

    (22) 10,000,000 students attend schools with police but not 
 1 social worker.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

 It is the purpose of this Act to--

    (1) address the needs of marginalized students, ensure 
 schools are welcoming for students, and improve academic 
 outcomes by eliminating Federal funding for maintaining the 
 presence of covered law enforcement officers in schools and 
 establishing a continuum of care and positive schoolwide 
 systems of services that are evidence-based, inclusive, 
 racially and gender responsive, and trauma informed; and

    (2) support local educational agencies that choose to 
 terminate their contracts with local law enforcement agencies 
 or, where applicable, dissolve or disband district-based police 
 departments, and invest resources in personnel and services 
 that create safe and inclusive schools for all students based 
 on community engagement and deliberative consultation.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

 In this Act:

    (1) ESEA terms.--The terms ``elementary school'', 
 ``evidence-based'', ``local educational agency'', ``parent'', 
 ``professional development'', ``school leader'', ``secondary 
 school'', ``Secretary'', and ``specialized instructional 
 support personnel'' have the meaning given those terms in 
 

section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 
 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).

    (2) Covered program.--The term ``covered program'' means--
        (A) all the operations of an elementary school, a 
 secondary school, or a local educational agency; or
        (B) a program that serves children who receive 
 services for which financial assistance is provided in 
 accordance with the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et 
 seq.).

    (3) Credible messenger.--The term ``credible messenger'' 
 means any individual who serves as a mentor, is from the same 
 communities in which the students and families they serve live, 
 and whose lived experiences serve as a credential in their work 
 to provide guidance, empowerment, support, and encouragement to 
 students and their families with whom the credible messenger 
 has shared or similar experiences. Shared experiences include 
 being a person of color, being directly impacted or having 
 involvement in the legal system, having involvement in the 
 child welfare system, being directly impacted by exclusionary 
 school discipline and policing in schools, having experienced 
 housing instability, having a disability, or identifying as 
 LGBTQI+.

    (4) Positive behavioral interventions and supports.--The 
 term ``positive behavioral interventions and supports'' means--
        (A) a schoolwide, systematic approach that embeds 
 evidence-based practices and data-driven decision 
 making to improve school climate and culture in order 
 to achieve improved academic and social outcomes and 
 increase learning for all students (including students 
 with the most complex and intensive behavioral needs); 
 and
        (B) encompasses a range of systemic and 
 individualized positive strategies to teach and 
 reinforce school-expected behaviors, while discouraging 
 and diminishing undesirable behaviors.

    (5) Covered law enforcement officer.--The term ``covered 
 law enforcement officer''--
        (A) means any person who--
            (i) is a State, Tribal, or local law 
 enforcement officer (as defined in 

section 1204 
 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
 Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10284)); and
            (ii) is assigned by the employing law 
 enforcement agency to a covered program, who is 
 contracting with a covered program, or who is 
 employed by a covered program; and
        (B) includes an individual referred to as a 
 ``school resource officer'' if that individual meets 
 the definition in subparagraph
        (A) .

    (6) Trauma-informed services.--The term ``trauma-informed 
 services'' means a service delivery approach that--
        (A) recognizes and responds to the impacts of 
 trauma with evidence-based supports and intervention;
        (B) emphasizes physical, psychological, and 
 emotional safety for both providers of services and 
 survivors of trauma; and
            (C) creates opportunities for survivors of trauma 
 to rebuild a sense of healing and empowerment.

SEC. 5. PROHIBITION OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR POLICE IN SCHOOLS.

    (a) Federal Funds Prohibition.--Notwithstanding the Omnibus Crime 
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.), 
including subpart 1 of part E of title I of that Act (34 U.S.C. 10151 
et seq.) (relating to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance 
Grant Program) and part Q of title I of that Act (34 U.S.C. 13081 et 
seq.) (relating to the ``Cops on the Beat'' grant program), or any 
other provision of law, no Federal funds may be appropriated or used 
for hiring, maintaining, or training covered law enforcement officers 
in any capacity.

    (b) COPS Grant Program.--

Section 1701 of title I of the Omnibus 
Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381) is 
amended--

    (1) in subsection

    (b) --
        (A) by striking paragraph

    (12) ;
        (B) by redesignating paragraphs

    (13) through

    (23) as paragraphs

    (12) through

    (22) , respectively; and
            (C) in paragraph

    (21) , as so redesignated, by 
 striking ``through

    (21) '' and inserting ``through

    (20) ''; and

    (2) by adding at the end the following:
 ``

    (n) Prohibition on Use of Funds for Covered Law Enforcement 
Officers.--A recipient of a grant under this part may not use the grant 
funds for covered law enforcement officers (as defined in 

section 4 of 
the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act).''.

SEC. 6. SUPPORTING LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES IN TRANSITIONING AWAY 
 FROM POLICE IN SCHOOLS.

    (a) Grant Program Established.--The Secretary of Education shall 
award grants, on a competitive and rolling basis, to local educational 
agencies to enable those local educational agencies--

    (1) to replace covered law enforcement officers in 
 elementary and secondary schools with personnel and services 
 that support mental health and trauma-informed services; and

    (2) to reform school safety and disciplinary policies so 
 they reflect evidence-based practices that do not rely on the 
 criminal justice system and provide the necessary staff 
 training and support to implement such policies.

    (b) Application.--A local educational agency desiring a grant under 
this section shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, 
in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may 
require, including an assurance that--

    (1) the local educational agency will not have covered law 
 enforcement officers stationed on school campuses, including by 
 terminating any existing contract with local law enforcement 
 or, where applicable, dissolving school district-based police 
 departments, at least 30 days prior to the entity receiving 
 funds under this section; and

    (2) the local educational agency will not establish any new 
 contract with law enforcement or create its own school police 
 department for the duration of the grant.
            (c) Priority.--In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary 
shall give priority to--

    (1) local educational agencies that terminated their 
 contract with local law enforcement or dissolved their school 
 district-based police department prior to submitting an 
 application and provide assurances that the local educational 
 agency will not create or restart a contract with State or 
 local law enforcement, create or reinstate a school district 
 police department, or create or restart a program of other law 
 enforcement or armed school personnel during the duration of 
 the grant;

    (2) local educational agencies with a larger share of 
 students who are economically disadvantaged, in the event that 
 funds are insufficient to award grants to all eligible 
 applicants; and

    (3) local educational agencies that--
        (A) identify the uses of funds in subsection
            (d) based on meaningful community engagement; and
        (B) establish ongoing stakeholder oversight, 
 guidance, and coordination of the proposed activities 
 or policies with a broad group of stakeholders, 
 including any groups of students, as well as their 
 families, who have been disproportionately arrested, 
 suspended, or expelled, to ensure proposed activities 
 and policies mitigate disparities in the use of 
 exclusionary discipline and promote a positive school 
 culture.
            (d) Uses of Funds.--

    (1) Required use.--A local educational agency receiving 
 funds under this section shall use such grant funds to hire, 
 maintain, or train school counselors, school psychologists, 
 nurses, social workers, credible messengers, community health 
 workers and trauma-informed personnel, dedicated staff 
 specifically trained in de-escalation and violence interruption 
 practices, staff trained in anti-bias practices, doctoral level 
 specialists in behavior planning and intervention, or other 
 specialists or individuals with expertise in school climate and 
 behavior.

    (2) Permitted uses.--In addition to the required use 
 described in paragraph

    (1) , a local educational agency 
 receiving funds under this section may also use grant funds to 
 carry out 1 or more of the following:
        (A) Implementing schoolwide positive behavioral 
 interventions and supports, restorative justice 
 programs and interventions, mediators, social and 
 emotional learning programs, or other evidence-based 
 trauma-informed services.
        (B) Providing ongoing professional development to 
 teachers, teacher assistants, school leaders, 
 counselors, specialized instructional support 
 personnel, credible messengers, and mental health 
 professionals that--
            (i) fosters safe, inclusive, and stable 
 learning environments that support the social, 
 emotional, mental, and academic well-being of 
 students and prevent and mitigate the effects 
 of trauma, including through social and 
 emotional learning;
            (ii) improves school capacity to identify, 
 refer, and provide services to students in need 
 of trauma support services;
            (iii) reflects the best practices for 
 trauma-informed identification, referral, and 
 support developed by the Interagency Task Force 
 on Trauma-Informed Care;
            (iv) reduces the number of students with 
 disabilities experiencing school discipline for 
 their disability-related behavior through 
 specific training on the identification, 
 development, and implementation of Behavior 
 Intervention Plans

    (BIPs) ; and
            (v) reduces the number of Black, Latino, 
 Native American, and LGBTQI+ students who are 
 subjected to punitive discipline practices 
 rather than trauma-informed services and 
 supports.

    (e) Prohibition.--No portion of any grant funds awarded under this 
section may be used for--

    (1) the development, establishment, implementation, or 
 enforcement of punitive school discipline policies, including 
 the commission, contracting of, or agreements with, law 
 enforcement that support the presence of police in schools, 
 including formal or informal partnerships or data and 
 information sharing agreements with the Department of Justice 
 or Secretary of Homeland Security, including U. S. Immigration 
 and Customs Enforcement or U. S. Customs and Border Protection;

    (2) the purchase, maintenance, or installation of 
 surveillance equipment or programs, including metal detectors, 
 surveillance cameras, facial recognition technology, or 
 software programs that monitor or mine the social media use or 
 technology use of students; or

    (3) arming teachers, principals, school leaders, or other 
 school personnel.

    (f) Grant Amounts.--The amount of grant funds received under this 
section by a local educational agency shall be based on the number of 
students enrolled in the local educational agency.

    (g) Reporting.--

    (1) In general.--Each local educational agency receiving a 
 grant under this section shall prepare and submit an annual 
 report to the Secretary containing the information described in 
 paragraph

    (2) . Such report shall be made publicly available.

    (2) Contents.--Subject to paragraph

    (3) , the report 
 described in paragraph

    (1) shall include information about--
        (A) how the grant funds were used;
        (B) the number and percentage of students who were 
 arrested by or referred to law enforcement officers in 
 the previous year compared to the number and percentage 
 arrested or referred during the term of the grant;
            (C) in the aggregate, the reasons for those 
 arrests;
            (D) demographic data of students arrested or 
 referred to law enforcement officers, disaggregated and 
 cross-tabulated by race, ethnicity, age, gender, status 
 as a child with a disability, and whether the student 
 is eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the 
 Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 
 1751 et seq.);
        (E) the number of metal detectors and surveillance 
 cameras used by each school served by the local 
 educational agency, as well as policies governing the 
 use of these devices;
        (F) whether facial recognition technology is used 
 by the local educational agency, and if so, the 
 policies governing the use of such technology; and
        (G) whether software programs that monitor or mine 
 the social media use or technology use of students or 
 the families of students are used by, or at the 
 direction of, the local educational agency, and if so, 
 the contract with the provider of those software 
 programs as well as the policies governing the use of 
 such programs.

    (3) Personally identifiable information.--Collection or 
 disaggregation of information shall not be required under 
 subparagraphs
        (B) through
            (D) of paragraph

    (2) to the extent 
 that such collection or disaggregation would reveal personally 
 identifiable information about an individual student or 
 otherwise violate privacy laws.

    (h) Supplement Not Supplant.--A local educational agency shall use 
Federal funds received under this section only to supplement the funds 
that would, in the absence of such Federal funds, be made available 
from State and local sources for the activities described in subsection
            (d) , and not to supplant such funds
            (i) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $5,000,000,000.
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