Giving Compass' Take:

• This Education Dive post explores ways that schools are using school resource or security officers equipped with social-emotional learning (SEL) skills to address behavioral problems.

• With gun violence in schools dominating headlines in 2018, could resource officers help prevent future tragedies? Should districts seek out more resources for training in this area?

• Here's more on using assessments to measure SEL impact on students.

Dr. Michael Gaskell, principal mentor through the NJEA Leaders to Leaders program, shares with eSchool News his insights regarding how to best use school resource officers (SROs) or school security officers (SSOs) as part of a disciplinary method to reduce bullying and divert offenders from suspension and direct involvement with law enforcement agencies.

Gaskell calls the method the “Schoolhouse Adjustment,” adapted from the Stationhouse Adjustment method employed by some law enforcement agencies, and it utilizes a constructive intervention designed to help build more positive relationships between students and SROs. A student who has committed an act of misconduct or bullying is referred to school administration, which then refers the student for a meeting with the school security officer during a non-core instructional time period to focus on the legal and moral implications of the student’s actions, after which the student is tracked for recurring incidences.

Since using this method at a school where he served as principal, Gaskell said the suspension rate reduced from 6.4% of students to 1.6%, and incidences of bullying have decreased by one-third.

Read the full article about school resource officers and SEL by Amelia Harper at Education Dive.