By Anna Huntsman/Broadcast version by Mary Kuhlman
Reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration

A new Ohio law is making millions available for schools to implement new safety measures, such as training new school resource officers.

In addition to authorizing $14 million in grant funds for schools, House Bill 318 requires new school resource officers (SROs) – law enforcement officers who serve full-time in school buildings – to participate in at least 40 hours of training through an Ohio peace officer training commission-approved organization. They must also undergo juvenile psychology training to better respond to adolescent mental health and drug use, and “to not only be law enforcement, but also to be on the cutting edge of issues students might have and ward them off before they become major problems,” said Ohio state Rep. John Patterson, D-Jefferson, who co-sponsored the bill.

The bill does not mandate that schools hire an SRO; rather, it defines duties and qualifications for new SROs. Some of the SRO expectations listed in the bill include being a “positive role model for youth,” helping to maintain a “drug-free environment” among students, and assisting with an “emergency management plan.”

While the bill is the first Ohio law to define what it means to be a school resource officer, not all SROs do their jobs the same way.

Officer Jason Fogleman serves as the SRO for Streetsboro City Schools in Portage County. Like many SROs, he is a uniformed police officer equipped with a gun, trained to respond to threats in the district, but he said that is only part of his job description.

“A lot of people think an SRO is just there for security. That’s a very minor part of the job that we do. It’s almost secondary,” Fogleman said. “School resource officers provide that link between the child’s education, their family life and the real world they’re going to be entering.”

Fogleman said that while the law could help smaller schools afford qualified SROs, he worries about government interference in a job that is so broadly defined.

“My job and my role is so broad with our school district and I have such leeway to do so many different things that I’m afraid if we start mandating certain things,” he said, “is that going to take away some of the stuff that I can do?”

The bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Sarah LaTourette, R-Chesterland, said the law requires schools to adopt a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with their SRO, allowing school districts to monitor them and their security officers the best way it works for them.

“It’s not the state coming in and saying you have to do A, B, C and D,” she said. “It’s saying that you have to have this contract with the school district you’re going to be in defining what your role is going to be.”

Gov. John Kasich signed H.B. 318 on Aug. 3, and it will take effect Nov. 2. Only eight other states have similar legislation.

The bill was partially inspired by the shooting at Chardon High School in Geauga County that killed three students and injured three more in February 2012. At the time, the school district did not have an SRO, but Frank Hall, an assistant football coach at the time, chased the shooter out of the building. His actions led to the creation of the Coach Hall Foundation.

Tim Armelli, a teacher at Chardon High School and the foundation’s president, said he approached Patterson, who represents Geauga County in the statehouse, about sponsoring legislation that would not only help fund SRO training, but first, define what the SRO’s responsibilities are. “Every school has the capability of getting an SRO in their building right away,” he said. “That would be a real quick way of helping, at least getting towards...keeping our kids protected.”

Patterson then asked LaTourette, his Republican counterpart in Geauga County, to co-sponsor the bill.

“We were very dedicated the entire time to making sure that regardless of what we added to the bill, that we kept a bill that both chambers, both parties, could be extremely proud of at the end of the day,” LaTourette said.

Before the law takes effect in November, the Ohio Attorney General’s office is developing the application process for schools interested in receiving some of the grant money.

“The money is very flexible, as long as it’s used for something that will protect kids,” Armelli said.

He hopes other states will pass similar legislation. “Our next step now is ... let’s show them what Ohio has done as a blueprint and get [other states] on board, too,” he said.

Armelli is especially excited to join Chardon’s students at the start of the new school year now that H.B. 318 passed. “I’m walking around with a little better step than I have in the last couple years, knowing that the bill passed,” he said. “I can look at these kids with a little different light. We’re doing things that are helping these kids.”

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This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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Illinois high school seniors have new hurdles to overcome to get to college. High school students are waiting several extra weeks to get their hands on a newly designed Free Application for Student Aid. You might know it better as FAFSA.

The delay in the current process puts students behind when applying for financial aid.

Tabitha Jackson, senior seminar instructor for CICS Longwood High School, works with seniors at the charter school in Chicago. She said FAFSA has always been an Achilles heel, but the delay -- combined with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to repeal affirmative action -- has further exacerbated the process.

"It's so frustrating and it's so hurtful to let a student know, 'Because of who I am, I may not have some additional support or some additional support benefits of being able to go to this school,'" she said. "My question is to my students: 'If affirmative action stops at this level, what's next?'"

Jackson added a lot of students don't want debt, and financial aid helps determine which college they can afford. The 2024-25 FAFSA form is expected to be available by the end of 2023.

The cumbersome conditions coincide with a downward trend for high school seniors who are participating in career and college aid counseling.

Doug Keller, partnership lead with San Francisco-based YouthSurvey, said its Class of 2022 Survey underscores troubling findings from respondents.

"We found that there's significant declines among particular student groups and their participating in counseling about how to pay for college -- specifically, among Hispanic or Latinx students, multi-racial and multi-ethnic students and boys," he explained.

Keller said the largest gap is among American Indian, Alaskan and other Indigenous students, with a 14% gap between those who want to go to college and those who expect to attend.


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A program giving high school students a taste of college and college credits along the way is celebrating its 33rd year of operation in Washington state.

The Running Start program offers 11th and 12th graders an opportunity to take college courses at the state's 34 community and technical colleges and three of its universities.

Julie Garver, director of policy and academic affairs for the Washington State Council of Presidents, which represents universities, said the program eases the transition to college-level learning.

"By being able to explore those things within high school, which is a safer environment or within those contexts, then students are able not only to get the confidence but to get those skills," Garver outlined. "They are not surprised and learning that transition while they're also taking college courses when they're at one of our campuses."

More than 27,000 high school students were enrolled in Running Start at community and technical colleges in the past academic year.

Jamie Traugott, director of dual credit and strategic enrollment initiatives for the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, said students in the program report feeling better prepared for the next step in their academic careers.

"The confidence of being able to complete a college-level class, but then really to be like, 'OK, I did this. What else can I get involved with?'" Traugott noted. "Or, 'Maybe, I thought I would go to a community technical college, but I never considered that I could also transfer to a four-year institution.'"

Traugott added the program has been helpful for the students who are able to access it but there is still more work to do to close equity gaps in enrollment.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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Degrees and credentials after high school will become increasingly important in the job market, a new report found.

Analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce showed 72% of jobs will require postsecondary education or training by 2031. Oregon ranks 11th for most jobs requiring additional education.

Nicole Smith, chief economist at the center and a co-author of the report, said there could be a skills shortage in the market if the U.S. does not prepare.

"Some of the concern we have is that we're not producing enough people with the credentials, education, the skills, the training that we need for those jobs that will appear in the future," Smith explained.

Between 2021 and 2031, the report found an average of 238,000 jobs will become available annually in Oregon. It said 168,000 of those openings will be for workers with postsecondary training of some sort.

Smith emphasized the window is closing for workers who only have a high school degree and opportunities need to be set up to ensure they can get further education.

"Those that don't have the key to the future -- and that key is a postsecondary vocational certificate, certification, some type of credential beyond high school -- if you don't have that key, you run the risk of being left behind," Smith stressed.

Smith added greater education will not only be important for people who just have high school degrees.

"Even if you're standing in a particular type of job, if you want to move forward, you want to advance, you want to get to be the manager in that profession, you want to get to be the team leader, a lot more education and training is required in order for you to advance to that level," Smith pointed out.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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