Most school divisions in Virginia employ school resource or safety officers, according to a 2025 Department of Criminal Justice Services survey. And some, like Williamsburg-James City County Schools, place SSOs in pre-K settings.
The school division, a spokesperson said, is aiming to hire additional SSOs for a pair of “dedicated pre-k facilities” that are currently being built.
The Commonwealth requires specific training for each type of these officers. And while their use briefly declined following George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis and the subsequent social justice uprising, said Chelsea Dunn Torrey, Legal Aid Justice Center’s youth justice program director, the trend’s reversed…