Monday morning, Miami-Dade County’s 389 public schools will open their doors to welcome about 350,000 students for the first day of the new school year.
And at each school, a sworn police officer will be there to greet them.
School district officials spent the summer hiring officers and working with 34 municipalities to iron out agreements to staff officers in schools, required under a new state law to staff a safe school officer at every school. Some agreements were signed as recently as the end of last week.
“I hope with this announcement today we can put parents’ minds at ease,” said schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Friday before signing a $20 million agreement with the county to staff officers at schools in unincorporated Miami-Dade. “Shifting now the focus from safety and security concerns to school supplies, crisp uniforms, crayons and the teachings of respect, responsibility and good behavior on the first day.”
Most middle and high schools already had a school resource officer, but the county’s 260 elementary and kindergarten through eighth grade schools will now have an officer there from drop-off to pick-up, Carvalho promised.
As of Sunday, six municipalities with about 15 schools in total have not signed agreements with the school district to staff their own officers in schools, although some have tentative agreements on the docket to approve. They are South Miami, Cutler Bay, Miami Springs, Miami Shores, Florida City and Homestead.
