School Resource Officers and School Climate: SRO's Perceptions of their Roles

Presenters

• Regina Rahimi, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow

First Presenter's Highest Degree Earned

Ed.D.

Year First Presenter's Degree Was Awarded

2002

First Presenter's Field of Study

Curriculum Studies

Institution Where First Presenter Received Highest Degree

Georgia Southern

First Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern

First Presenter's Brief Bio and Description of Credentials for This Presentation

Dr. Regina Rahimi is a full professor in the Department of Middle and Secondary Education. She has been a faculty member on the Armstrong Campus for 19 years. She has engaged in numerous research projects during her tenure and has numerous publications and presentations resulting from those studies.

Second Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern

Second Presenter’s Email Address

adadkins@georgiasouthern.edu

Third Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Third Presenter’s Email Address

jmcrayer@georgiasouthern .edu

Fourth Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern

Fourth Presenter’s Email Address

alockwood@georgiasouthern.edu

Location

Vernon

Document Type

Individual Presentation

Primary Strand

School Safety

Relevance to Primary Strand

Our presentation will share research examining school resource officers' perceptions of their roles in supporting positive school climate has direct implications for "understanding school safely planning by prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

School Safety

Brief Program Description

Our presentation will share research examining school resource officers' perceptions of their roles in supporting positive school climate. This presentation will serve to illuminate the ways in which SROs contribute to school safety and overall school climate.

Summary

The presentation aims to share research focused on understanding school resource officers’ perceptions of their roles, their training for these roles, the perceived challenges to their work, and ways in which they effectively serve to impact school safety and climate. It is becoming increasingly important to examine the roles and experiences of school resource officers (SROs), as there has been a significant increase in the number of SROs over the last decade (Cooper et al., 2024). While The National Association of School Resource Officers cites a “triad model” of responsibilities of school resource officers (www.nasro.org), the roles of school resource officers vary across the country (Counts, et al. 2018), and they contribute not only to school safety but also play a large role in supporting school climate overall (Higgins, 2022). However, the research has found that the school resource officers’ duties are often unclear to both the school community and the school resource officers themselves (Debnam et al., 2022). Our work, also looking at the roles and challenges, will serve to illuminate the contributions SROs provide in school safety and school climate. It should be noted that this presentation is interdisciplinary, offering a unique opportunity to research SROs’ perspectives through the fields of educator preparation, school leadership and administration, and criminal justice. By allowing the investigation to be viewed through this multi-disciplinary lens, we hope to offer a unique collection of perspectives and interpretations of findings to contribute to scholarship in multiple fields of study related to school safety. The presentation will also encourage discussion around collaboration between SROs and the educational community.

Evidence

This presentation will draw on published research on the roles of SROs and their impact on school safety and climate, as well as interview data.

Learning Objective 1

Recognize the roles SROs play in school safety and climate.

Learning Objective 2

Recognize vocational factors that enhance and impede the work of SROs in the schools.

Learning Objective 3

Develop strategies for strengthening communication between SROs and the educational community.

Start Date

6-2-2026 1:00 PM

End Date

6-2-2026 2:00 PM

Recommended Citation

Rahimi, Regina, "School Resource Officers and School Climate: SRO's Perceptions of their Roles" (2026). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 53.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2026/2026/53

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.