SB 263: Law Enforcement Powers of School Security; include a specified area surrounding school property; expand jurisdictional authority

Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 20-8-5), school security personnel who are certified and authorized by a local board of education have the same law enforcement powers, including the power of arrest, as regular police or sheriff's deputies, but only on school property. This bill expands that authority so those officers can also exercise arrest powers on public or private property located within five miles of school property. The bill also updates the law's wording, replacing references to 'public school' systems and separate county or municipal boards of education with a single reference to 'local' school systems and boards, which is described as a conforming change. It keeps the existing rule that boards of education are not required to give their security staff law enforcement powers at all; they can still hire unarmed security personnel. The bill repeals any conflicting laws and does not list a special effective date beyond the standard process.

• Expands the geographic reach of school security officers' law enforcement powers from school property only to also include public or private property within five miles of a school.
• Keeps the requirement that officers must be certified and authorized by their local board of education to hold these powers.
• Replaces language distinguishing county and independent municipal school boards with a single term, 'local' board of education, throughout the section.
• Preserves the existing option for local boards of education to hire school security staff who do not have law enforcement powers, such as arrest authority.
• Repeals any other Georgia laws that conflict with these changes.

School security personnel and the local boards of education that employ and certify them, students and staff at public schools, and residents and property owners within five miles of a school who could now be subject to arrest by school security officers acting under these expanded powers.

If enacted, school security officers could stop, detain, or arrest people well beyond school grounds, in nearby neighborhoods, businesses, or private property, rather than only on campus. This changes where students, staff, and the general public may encounter school-employed officers exercising police-like authority.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-8-5(a) to extend certified school security personnel's law enforcement powers, including arrest power, to public or private property within five miles of school property.
• Section 1 also replaces 'public' school system with 'local' school system and consolidates references to county and municipal boards of education into 'local' board of education.
• Section 1 revises subsection (c) so the rule allowing boards to employ security personnel without law enforcement powers now applies to any 'local' board of education rather than separately to county and municipal boards.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws, a standard provision that does not add new substantive rules.

1. 2025-02-27Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2025-02-26Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Derek Mallow (D, SD-2)Primary sponsor
• Freddie Powell Sims (D, SD-12)
• RaShaun Kemp (D, SD-38)
• Chuck Payne (R, SD-54)
• Elena Parent (D, SD-44)

• school safety
• school security officers
• law enforcement jurisdiction
• education policy