Author ORCID Identifier
Date Available
5-5-2023
Year of Publication
2023
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
College
Education
Department/School/Program
Education Sciences
First Advisor
Dr. R. Joseph Waddington
Abstract
Legislatures across the country have been developing laws and policies to place police officers, also known as School Resource Officers (“SROs”), in schools. A recent piece of legislation in Kentucky, entitled the School Safety and Resiliency Act, requires all school campuses in Kentucky contain at least one SRO. Researchers have found relationships between the presence of SROs and the use of exclusionary discipline, and this research expands on that foundation by looking statewide at school- and district-level variables.
Using a multiple regression model, this research examined the presence of SROs in schools and the ratio of number of SROs to 100 students in districts and those variables’ impact on the use of exclusionary discipline. The results indicated a positive relationship between the number of SROs per 100 students and exclusionary discipline, excluding in-school suspension, significant at the 0.051 level. Additionally, the model found associations between exclusionary discipline and community-level variables. This research suggests both schools and future research should consider proportions of populations and community variables when assessing equitable uses of exclusionary discipline.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2023.143
Recommended Citation
Morales, Mia, "The Thin Line in the Bluegrass Schools: A Quantitative Study on How School Resource Officers Impact a School and District's Use of Exclusionary Discipline in Kentucky" (2023). Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences. 127.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edsc_etds/127
