H.B. 44 School Security Personnel Standards

What this bill does

The bill would let some school staff who are not full-time police officers be designated as special function officers to respond to emergencies and act until law enforcement arrives, with added training. It would also expand School Guardian eligibility to specifically include principals and change the Educator Protector program to cover all school employees, while making recommended visitor management standards voluntary.

Plain-English summary written by AI from the sponsor’s presentation in committee and on the floor. Check the official text below.

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Every vote

• 9 yes, 0 no, 2 absentHouse Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee: vote to change the bill · Feb 5, 2026Who voted how
• 9 yes, 0 no, 2 absentHouse Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee: vote to approve it · Feb 5, 2026Who voted how
• yes, undefined nocircled · Feb 17, 2026
• 71 yes, 0 no, 4 absentFinal House vote · Feb 26, 2026Who voted how
• 3 yes, 0 no, 3 absentSenate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee: Amendment Recommendation · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how
• 4 yes, 0 no, 2 absentSenate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee: Amendment Recommendation · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how
• 4 yes, 0 no, 2 absentSenate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee: vote to approve it · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how
• 24 yes, 1 no, 4 absentFinal Senate vote · Mar 6, 2026Who voted how
• 67 yes, 0 no, 8 absentHouse vote to accept the other chamber's changes · Mar 6, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Jan 21, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (4 turns)

  1. Reading Clerk10:24

     House Bill 44 School Security Personnel Standards by Representative Wilcox.

  2. Speaker (presiding)10:31

     Representative Wilcox is not here. Representative Defay. Alright, go ahead.

  3. Rep. Ariel Defay10:40

     Representative Defay Motion To circle. Motion is

  4. Speaker (presiding)10:42

     in order. We'll go ahead and place the motion. Motion before us is the House Circle HB 44. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Will that motion passes. The bill's now circled Madam Reading Clerk

• Feb 5, 2026 House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (12 turns)

  1. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox1:56:49

     Okay. I guess, uh, you've been trying and trying, trying and, um, maybe fifth time's a charm. Well, let's just say, um, everyone's brilliant ideas that came along didn't come at the same time, including five minutes before we took the stage here today. But, um, Jeff is very nimble. He's a great attorney, and, uh, he has adapted quickly. Uh, we had to adapt a fifth substitute this time, and this is a good example. I can people see this. So, um, it, it's a slightly different section of the code, which is why we couldn't just amend with a very small paragraph that we added. But, uh, he was able to do that. And so that's why there's now a fifth sub that is the only, uh, change there. But I, I will go through, um, what you see now in the fifth substitute. And really I think I'll just, I'll just speak to the changes from what you saw and what we approved, uh, in in November. In fact, uh, Zach, you better be here still. Uh, Zach Van Emrich, our St County Security Chief from Salt Lake County. Are you here, Zach? If he's not, that's hilarious. 'cause we did this for him. He's not here. That's my favorite. He's online. He's online. He had somewhere to go. Fascinating. Okay. Well, I'm gonna tell you About it. I think if he's online, are you gonna have him speak to the bill? I was gonna have him sit right here so he could explain why we just did that, but, uh, that's hilarious. Okay. We're not seeing him online, so it's Okay. I'll do my best. It's fine. That's fine. If you wanna be online, Jack, make sure we know who you are. Okay. Add in the fifth sub. Um, you remember the concept of of special function officers that we talked about in the, the original HB 44. It just allows for some additional, um, flexibility for, um, officers, uh, to be designated, um, who are not necessarily full-time law enforcement officers. And, and allows, then, allows 'em to respond to situations that they observe, um, whether they're, um, off their assigned, you know, on or off their assigned duty location. Um, perform collateral duties for public safety and, and act pending arrival. So we don't want a special function officer to not act in the emergency, um, especially when they're functioning as a guardian. So they'd have additional training in addition to guardians, but we don't want them to, to delay that just because full law enforcement's not there. Um, so we put some definitions around that. We expanded eligibility for the School Guardian program so that it includes, uh, specifically principals. We've always had exceptions by the way. So all the questions about who was eligible for the School Guardian program, they've always had exceptions that that could be appealed through the State Security Chief. We've just defined it here. It could be a principal, it could be, uh, some other, there were some that, uh, you know, felt like we needed to clarify that it specifically could be that person. So we've added that. Um, we have, uh, addressed, um, the terminology change in the Educator Protector program. Um, if you guys remember that, that was from, uh, representative, uh, Peck's predecessor, uh, former representative had worked on that program. And that had just been a teacher that had been eligible that is now school employee throughout for that program. As you know, the Guardian program in particular, it's, we actually kind of prefer it's not a teacher. So the teacher stays with the children in event of an emergency that requires their attention. Um, we allow, uh, excuse me, information sharing, um, for, you know, teachers and school employees, uh, so that educators, school guardians and protective program, uh, participants, uh, train and work together in those, in the cases where they're all, um, identified there, they can contact each other. Um, we clarified some of the contracts for the armed school guardians. Um, we have addressed the fiscal, uh, note concerns from the original bill, uh, in large part by adjusting our me, our visitor management protocols and some of the tighter deadlines there, um, changing some of the compliance language. Um, and we removed the mandatory deadline of July 1st, 2027 for that, um, rather to be, um, checked on and enforced as part of the regular, uh, visits from, um, the State Security chief and their team in each county Security chief. Um, a few other minor, minor changes, but, uh, I think, you know, coordination and, and making sure that we had the right statutes in place for our special function officers and appropriate flexibility for our local education agencies are the primary changes from 44. And there are several, but literally this is everything that has come up since November, right through now, and that's why you see the, a number of changes there. Happy to answer any questions if there are any.

  2. Committee vice chair (presiding)2:02:13

     Okay. Any, uh, to the committee for any questions? Um, see none. Anyone in the audience here that would like to speak and Jack must not be online, or at least he's not wanting to speak, so. Okay. Um, and back to the committee for any action or discussion. We have Representative Whyte.

  3. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte2:02:52

     Thank you Mr. Vice Chair. Motion to adopt the fifth sub of HB 44.

  4. Committee vice chair (presiding)2:02:58

     That's in order. Uh, would you like to speak to that? I'll waive. Okay. Representative Wilcox?

  5. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox2:03:07

     Yeah, please adopt the fifth sub

  6. Committee vice chair (presiding)2:03:09

     Adopt it. Okay. Uh, we'll, uh, we have a force to adopt HB 44 fifth sub. We'll do a voice vote on that. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none passes unanimously. Then for any further action. Representative Whyte,

  7. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte2:03:31

     Thank you Mr. Vice Chair. Motion to favorably recommend HB 44 school security personnel standards as substituted.

  8. Committee vice chair (presiding)2:03:41

     That's in order. Would you like to speak to that?

  9. Rep. Stephen L. Whyte2:03:45

     Uh, school safety is such a critical importance today, and the good sponsors worked on this for many years. This just builds upon the work of the past, provide some good clarification and, and efforts and work to help students and everybody in the schools to be safe. So appreciate your good work and leadership.

  10. Committee vice chair (presiding)2:04:05

      Okay. Um, back to the sponsor.

  11. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox2:04:10

      Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Mr. Chair. I, um, we're getting closer. These are mostly minor tweaks, but I think they're important and they would, all the changes that we've been asked to look at reflect the work that's happening behind the scenes. So I don't, I'm not actually worried about there being a fifth sub or another amendment as we work through this, because what it, what it really reflects is that the work's happening. People are implementing the changes that we've asked them to look at. Look at. Um, there are some things, you know, I kind of worry in the background. If we wait on visitor management and we remove the deadline, are they still gonna pull it through? Just remember with all of these, we are intending to pass minimum standards, have a, a visitor management program in place. We expect that to happen. Whether we tell you you have to do by a certain date or not, or whether it's just the security team coming through and checking in on your progress and see what it looks like, and then us helping you, helping you through that. That's important. Like, we need to know who's coming in and outta the schools. It can't be, uh, what we've done in the past where it's, uh, just free for all and we think that person looks familiar and we're not sure if they're supposed to be here. Oh wait. Or if they don't have custody. And it's a, a security problem now. So, um, I appreciate the, the motion and we just remind everybody this is gonna be ongoing. We're gonna make adjustments like this as we go, and, uh, that's, uh, not unlike the other issues that we see as the threats adjust, then we'll need to do that too. So. Okay. Thank you.

  12. Committee vice chair (presiding)2:05:41

      Um, okay. Back to the make of the motion. I guess we go back to the make of the motion. Yeah. LA assuming you wave. Yeah. Okay. So we have a, before HB 44 fifth sub, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor of passing this favorably to the floor. Say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none. That passes unanimously. Thank you.

• Feb 17, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (5 turns)

  1. Madam Reading Clerk45:57

     Madam Reading Clerk. It's substitute house bill 44 School Security personnel standards by Representative Wilcox. This bill was heard in law enforcement and criminal justice with the vote of 9 0 2.

  2. Unknown speaker46:10speaker not certain

     Representative Wilcox. Motion to circle, Mr. Speaker

  3. Speaker (presiding)46:14

     Motion is in order. Would you like to speak to it?

  4. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox46:17

     Yeah, we're waiting on an update. I want to make sure that we're super clear about what we're doing this time before we do it.

  5. Speaker (presiding)46:23

     Representative Wilcox motion, go ahead and place the motion. The motion before us the House. Circle fifth substitute P 44. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed rollout? Motion passes. The bill's been circled. Madam Reading Clerk

• Feb 26, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
• Feb 26, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
• Mar 3, 2026 Senate Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (36 turns)

  1. Sen. Ann Millner (presiding)54:22

     to, uh, the next on the agenda is HB 44 6, substitute Representative Wilcox, um, school Security Personnel standards.

  2. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox54:39speaker not certain

     Thank you. Madam Chair. Can we have our intern, Catherine, hand these out to you? The summaries? Yes. Thank you. Yes, you may.

  3. Sen. Ann Millner54:48

     Okay. Um, I'm happy to, Excuse me, but I have to go present a bill in Another, in my committee. Uhhuh. Actually, I just, Senator Owens and I just ran over here from that committee to visit you. I'm not leaving to go, so it's all good. Good luck.

  4. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)55:04

     I hear they're tough today. They're Calling me too, so thank you. Okay, Thank you. Um, so I am Senator Kwan. I'm gonna go ahead and chair the committee. Yeah. Uh, until Senator Millner comes back. So, go ahead. Uh, Representative Wilcox.

  5. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox55:23

     Good to see you, Senator. Thank you. Um, very quickly, uh, the sub, uh, that you have in front of you, um, provides new flexibility for local education agencies in like a dozen different areas. Like that's primarily what the bill is this year. Um, we move stipend distribution from DPS to USBE. We allow LEAs to supplement if they'd like. Um, we allow, uh, the use of special function officers, which are similar to what we use in our court system as bailiffs and, and other roles, and who are frankly, uh, less expensive option for, for LEAs. But they're more well trained. Oftentimes they're retired law enforcement, um, than, uh, more well trained than a private security guard or, um, your traditional guardian model. Um, we're providing additional emergency alert devices to, to staff. Um, again, we really want those to be everywhere. We want that to be on every competent adult, uh, in the building. Uh, just make sure I say that on the record every time I get a chance. We do not want this to be the minimum standard. Don't only give 'em to the teachers, please. Um, but we're trying to make that clear with this one by expanding that. Um, we're giving some delayed implementation dates for those, uh, to 2027. Um, we're allowing our LEAs to create policy for, uh, guardian breaks and reasonable exemptions, and then any school employee to participate in the educated protective program. Basically, if someone's going to be carrying at a school, we want them to be trained and, uh, not just, uh, not just carrying without the proper training. Um, we are opening up some flexibility to principals and directors, um, to serve as guardians without an alternative request. 400 or the 700 requests we had this year were all from principals or directors. So clearly there's a, a need for that. Um, we are placing, uh, anyone involved in a cri critical incident on administrative leave, just like we do with law enforcement, uh, in conjunction with the exact same practices we do there. Um, we're adding additional training flexibility, um, and then setting a standard, uh, recommended standard for visitor management protocols, um, to make sure that that is, um, where that is, uh, set as a standard we need to, to adopt. We do have, uh, some amendments on the system that we need to take a look at. If we could please address those. And I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any.

  6. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)57:41

     Thank you. Uh, is there any clarifying questions of Senator Owens?

  7. Sen. Derrin R. Owens57:48

     Uh, Madam Chair? Uh, I would move that we move the, uh, we need to adopt the substitute, right? Do you wanna do that now? Yes. So I would move that we delete title and Body Senate House bill 44 6 Oh, I'm sorry. It's amendment. It's not amendment. It's an amendment. Thank You Amendment. Okay. I would move that we adopt the amendment to house bill 44 6 substitute.

  8. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)58:15

     Thank you. Uh, so it's been moved to adopt Amendment two and Representative Wilcox's, name is name. Is there any, uh, discussion to that mm-hmm. Amendment two? Yes. Yes. Any discussion to that? Uh, representative? Uh, would you like to speak to that motion?

  9. Sen. Derrin R. Owens58:35speaker not certain

     Yeah, please do that. That should clarify some of the concerns I'll waive To the Thank you.

  10. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)58:42

      Um, I will place that to a vote then. All of those who are in favor of passing, um, or adopting Amendment two in Representative Wilcox's name please indicate by saying aye a. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say nay? Nope. I rule that passes, uh, unanimously three to zero. Um, Representative Wilcox, is there any other, do you have any other, uh, presentation?

  11. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox59:09

      No, that concludes my presentation. Thank you.

  12. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)59:10

      Oh, that's right. We did. I'm new here. It's nice to see you all. Uh, let's see. Any other discussion or questions? Seeing none, I'll go to the public. Is there anybody here that would like to speak to the bill? No. No. Anybody online? No one, uh, online either.

  13. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)59:28

      So I'm gonna come back to the committee for any motions. And there is one other that Jeff is working on that we just realized is not there should be live on your system any second?

  14. Unknown speaker59:43speaker not certain

      Yes. I'm just reading through and noticing that we're still missing that. Yeah.

  15. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)59:56

      So, um, representative there is another amendment. Is that what I'm hearing?

  16. Unknown speaker1:00:01speaker not certain

      Yes. Here we've agreed to should be here. Yep. On the screen. And I don't think we have it yet. Oh, I do see it. Is this house amendment three? That sounds like it. Thank you.

  17. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:00:15

      Senator Johnson? Yeah,

  18. Sen. John D. Johnson1:00:17

      I, I move, uh, amendment three. Hold on just a second House. Amendment three. Thank You. I am not seeing the house amendment Seeing It. Okay, I'm, I've got it. I've got it. Yep, I got it now. So, thank

  19. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:00:36

      you. Uh, the motion is to adopt Amendment three and Representative Wilcox's name any discussion to that Representative Wilcox, would you like to speak to that motion?

  20. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox1:00:49

      Yeah, just, uh, this makes, uh, clear that the standards that we're asking for in the visitor management protocols are voluntary standards. We're, we're attempting to set that standard in this bill. And that's it.

  21. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:01:03

      Senator Johnson, would you like to sum on your motion waive? Thank you. I will put that to a vote then. All those in favor of, uh, passing, uh, or sorry, adopting Amendment three, uh, in Representative Wilcox's name, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I rule that passes unanimously 4, 2 0.

  22. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:01:28

      And back to the committee for any further discussion.

  23. Sen. John D. Johnson1:01:34

      I, I move that we pass out, uh, six, substitute HB 44 with a favorable recommendation as amended. Thank you. With amendment two and three.

  24. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:01:46

      Thank you. Uh, so the, the motion is to pass out favorably house bill 44 6 sub as amended school security personnel, personnel standards. Is there any discussion to that?

  25. Unknown speaker1:02:05speaker not certain

      I, I actually have, um, the fiscal note is a concern to me and, and only because I know it looks like there's not a fiscal note at all, but there is a, uh, 266,000, uh, dollar, um, cost, uh, to LEAs. And this, I believe is for the panic alert devices. Did any of the Nope.

  26. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:02:31

      Would you speak to that, please? I, yeah,

  27. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox1:02:33

      Happy to. We actually funded that already. That's why it's a zero fiscal note. We've added that, um, through the school security task force. We funded it in the fall, so that's already been authorized, taken care of. They're, we're not adding any anything else that costs any money. That's why there's a zero fiscal note. That's also why it has that delineated down there. Um, but that's already been covered.

  28. Unknown speaker1:02:53speaker not certain

      And so, um, may I just clarify there then, just to make sure I'm understanding what you're saying, that it has been, uh, paid for already? It will not come out of the LEA budgets. We appropriated it last year. Okay. And then we Yes. Yeah. Took care of that.

  29. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:03:10

      Thank you. Uh, Senator Stevenson?

  30. Sen. Jerry W Stevenson1:03:12

      Yes. Last year we appropriated a lot of money for, uh, school security, and it was passed out amongst the LEAs. It was, uh, some of us been held, and so we've been working on that money. We literally, uh, felt that it would go for two or three years. So

  31. Unknown speaker1:03:29speaker not certain

      Thank you very much for that clarification. Yeah. Yeah. We added that to what we did the year before for that purpose. Yep. Great. That is very helpful, thank you.

  32. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:03:39

      Any other discussion to the motion? I will wait. Would you like to sum representative? Wait.

  33. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:03:49

      Thank you, Uh, maker of the motion. Senator Johnson, would you like to sum? Hold on a second.

  34. Sen. John D. Johnson1:03:55

      I, I just want to thank, uh, Representative Wilcox. I know he's worked really hard on all of these bills and I understand, you know, there's a lot of consternation, there's a lot of money involved with this, but I think the safety of our kids is really important. And so I appreciate the sponsor for his work on this.

  35. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:04:15

      Thank you. All those in favor of passing out favorably house bill 44 6 sub as amended school security personnel standards, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? I rule that passes unanimously four to zero.

  36. Sen. Karen Kwan (presiding)1:04:34

      Thank you, representative. Thank you.

• Mar 6, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (9 turns)

  1. Presiding officer1:49:56

     Substitute of house bill 44. Thank you. We have a motion to substitute looking for discussion. Seen none. I'll place the motion to all those in favor. The motion to substitute say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule That motion passes. The bill is substituted. Senator Milner.

  2. Sen. Ann Millner1:50:13

     Couple of things I wanna say is both of these bills went all the way through the committee structure, both on the house side and on the senate side, and they all passed out. One of them, uh, as you can see if it's a seventh substitute, had to be refined. But the parties were involved and engaged till we got the language correct. Uh, and the cyber went through pretty clearly. People believe we need minimum, uh, cyber standards established. And what that bill, what that does in there is to ask our cyber security, uh, commission to work with our public ed, uh, people as well as U-E-E-T-N, uh, to establish minimum standards and allows a phase, um, uh, really implementation of that. So it makes it doable, but we need to start with minimum schools, uh, cybersecurity standards across the system. With that, I'm open to questions.

  3. Presiding officer1:51:15

     Thank you. Senator Millner, I'm not seeing questions. I may go to you for a motion.

  4. Unknown speaker1:51:20speaker not certain

     Uh oh. Call the question.

  5. Presiding officer1:51:22

     Thank you. The question is under suspension of the rule. Shall seventh substitute house bill 44 pass Roll call vote.

  6. Senate clerk (roll call)1:51:28

     Senator Spery Lewin b Brammer bus Comore es Camia Fillmore Grr Harper Aye. Hankins Aye. Ipson Aye. Johnson Kwan Quan McKay Aye. Mikel Aye. Milner Aye. Musselman Owens pitcher Plum Aye. Rebi sandal Aye. Stevenson Stratton Aye. Aye. Bickers Aye. Weiler Wilson. Aye. Winterton President Adams Aye.

  7. Presiding officer1:52:19

     Seventh substitute house bill 44, having received 24 yay votes. Zero one nay vote four being absent passes this body and will be signed by the pre, uh, will be returned to the house for the signature of the speaker for, excuse me for further consideration.

  8. Presiding officer1:52:39

     Let's go ahead now. Fifth substitute house bill 4 57 fifth Substitute house bill 4 57 County governance modifications. Senator Winterton. Senator Winterton.

  9. Sen. Ronald M. Winterton1:52:53

     Thank you Mr. President. This is on the fifth sub

• Mar 6, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (5 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)3:59

     Seventh substitute house bill 44 School security personnel standards by Representative Wilcox. Representative Wilcox.

  2. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox4:09

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. Motion to concur with the Senate amendments.

  3. Speaker (presiding)4:12

     Thank you representative. That motion is in order. Would you like to speak to that motion?

  4. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox4:16

     I would thank you. Um, representatives, this is uh, literally HB 42 which we passed on cybersecurity standards and HB 44. Um, that's it. That's the same bills we've done. Thank You. Thank you Representative

  5. Speaker (presiding)4:30

     Discussion to the motion to concur with the Senate amendments on seventh substitute P 44. See none. We'll go ahead and place that motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Will that motion passes? Uh, voting will now be open on Senate substitute H 44 Seeing all present, having voted voting is now closed, then substitute HB 44 passed this by of 67. Yes votes zero, no votes and will be sent to the Senate for the signature of the president. Madam Reading Clerk