SPONSOR: Elliott
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass with HCS" by the Standing Committee on General Laws by a vote of 11 to 0 with 2 members voting present.
The following is a summary of the House Committee Substitute for HB 2504.
Currently, school districts can designate teachers or administrators to be school protection officers.
This bill adds other school personnel to the list of employees a school district can designate as a school protection officer and allows designated school personnel the authority to carry a weapon on school grounds if the individual has obtained a concealed carry endorsement or permit.
The bill also allows a school district to require designated employees to provide a letter from a licensed mental health professional certifying that they are fit for duty to carry out the responsibilities of being a school protection officer.
This bill is similar to HB 805 (2025); HCS HB 1440 (2024); and HB 70 (2023).
The following is a summary of the public testimony from the committee hearing. The testimony was based on the introduced version of the bill.
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that this bill allows schools to add other school personnel to the list of people they can designate as school protection officers, allowing such officers to concealed carry with the proper certification. The people who are currently designated as school protection officers or are able to carry will likely have a room full of students and may not be able to address an active shooter situation. These schools should be able to designate others who have more flexibility to reduce response time. Schools in the smaller districts don’t have the money to hire a school resource officer, so they would like to use their resources to allow people who already work for the school to carry and respond immediately. This is a voluntary position, and no one would be required to carry or go through the training. This bill does not change the structure of how the existing program already works and expands opportunities for those who are eligible to participate in the program. There is annual training that is required to keep a firearms certification. There are people who work in the school districts who know the buildings and the facilities better than the teachers so there is no benefit to allowing only certified teachers to carry handguns.
Testifying in person for the bill were Representative Elliott; Nicholas Spencer, Strategos International; Tonya Woods, Thayer R- II School District; Skyler Viebrock; and Arnie C. Dienoff.
OPPONENTS: There was no opposition voiced to the committee.
Written testimony has been submitted for this bill. The full written testimony and witnesses testifying online can be found under Testimony on the bill page on the House website.
Statutes affected: