(NewsNation) — More than 1 in 10 schools with a regular police presence removed officers from facilities since 2020, according to new federal data.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), nearly 45% of public K-12 schools were staffed with school resource officers at least once a week during the 2021-22 school year.
More than 50 school districts across the country eliminated school officer programs between May 2020 and June 2022.
The NCES report comes on the heels of a damning Justice Department report that found “cascading” failures in the police response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The shooting killed 19 children and two staff members, and the police response was heavily criticized in the days, weeks and months that followed. The shooter was inside the school for more than 70 minutes before he was shot and killed by police.
According to the National Education Association (NEA), only 1% of schools in 1975 employed school resources officers. That number rose to 36% by 2004 and to 58% by 2018, including 72% of high schools.