Senator Anna M. Kaplan Passes School Safety Legislation Helping Schools To Hire More Experienced Professionals as Security Staff

(Albany, NY) -- The New York State Senate passed legislation today (S4521) sponsored by Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-Great Neck) that increases the post-retirement earnings cap for police officers who work in schools. This will permit school districts to recruit and hire the more experienced school security professionals that they seek, but whom are often unattainable due to salary restrictions and bureaucratic red tape not faced by private sector employers.

Senator Anna M. Kaplan said "As lawmakers, we have a solemn duty to ensure that we take every step necessary to ensure the safety of the children in our communities. By cutting through the red tape that prevents schools from hiring the most experienced security professionals available, we are giving schools the option to do what's best for their particular safety needs."

The legislation, S4521, would carve out an automatic exception for police officers seeking post-retirement employment with a school district, as a school resource officer, school safety officer, school security officer, or other substantially similar positions. The cap for those individuals would be increased to $65,000, allowing those individuals to earn that salary while maintaining their pension benefits, without any fact-finding process demonstrating an issue with recruitment.

New York State School Boards Association said "The economy and the needs of our schools have changed dramatically in the last decade. Increasing the salary retired police officers are permitted to earn, without pension penalty, from $30,000 to $65,000 would provide school districts a larger pool of potential employees to draw from when addressing their community's safety needs."

David Flatley, Superintendent of Carle Place School District, who worked with Senator Kaplan in crafting this legislation, said "I am certain that educators across the State of New York thank Senator Kaplan for her leadership on this bill, because it takes a critical step forward in ensuring the safety of our students, faculty, and staff members. On a personal note, I appreciate Senator Kaplan's attention to the details we discussed when she first reached out to my office several months ago."