Arkansas school board gives preliminary green light to school safety rules

(The Center Square) – New school safety rules created as part of the Arkansas LEARNS Act will soon be available for public comment, pending the governor’s approval.

Lawmakers included school safety in the bill as one of their six priorities.

Arkansas State Board of Education members approved the rules to be released for public comment Thursday. Once Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders approves, the public comment period will last 30 days.

If “substantive” changes must be made to the rules due to public feedback, the rules will return to the governor’s office again before returning to the board of education for another public comment period.

The new school safety rules incorporate requirements of various aspects already included in Arkansas law, such as tornado drills, school resource officers, emergency plans, comprehensive school safety assessments, and requirements to report and investigate student criminal acts, among other things.

“At the end of the day, safety is our number one priority,” said Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva. “There is nothing more important that we can do as a school, a school district, a state board, a policy, than making sure we’re putting in place the proper procedures and safeguards to keep our students safe.”

Oliva said a lot of the work that went into drafting the new rules codifies what was passed in legislation and that a large part of it tackles the care system around mental health.

“When we talk about building out that system of care around mental health, it’s ‘how do we make sure every child has access to quality mental health education and how do we make sure every child has access to the quality mental health services that are needed for them to be set up for success in the classroom when they’re under our purview and out in the community?” Olivia said. “And part of this, which is something I think is really important to get this move and to get right is mental health training and awareness for all faculty and people that come in contact with students so they can recognize signs and symptoms, know what to look for, and then more importantly know who to call and what to do about it.”

Once the rules receive final approval from the BOE, they go to the Arkansas Legislative Council.