By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- Central Florida school district leaders say they expect local police agencies, facing smaller budgets under Amendment 3, to ask districts to pay more of what school resource officers cost.
- Schools are exempt from Amendment 3’s property tax cuts, but the sheriff’s offices and police departments that supply the officers are not.
- Orange County Superintendent Maria Vazquez said she expects a “drastic increase” in per-officer costs and that SROs in every school are now “in jeopardy.”
- Seminole County School Board Chair Robin Dehlinger said the district would need to find $8 million if law enforcement asked it to cover the full cost of its SROs.
- State law, in place since 2018, still requires every public school campus to have an SRO or an armed guard, and a Parkland victim’s father said the mandate remains in effect.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida public school districts fear they could lose on-campus police officers after voters approved Amendment 3, the Orlando Sentinel reported, as the sheriff’s offices and police departments that provide them face shrinking budgets.
Schools are exempt from the amendment’s property tax cuts, but the law enforcement agencies that staff their campuses are not. Florida has required every public school campus to have either a school resource officer or an armed security guard since 2018, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people. Most Central Florida districts prefer sworn officers, and school leaders now expect agencies to try to reduce their share of the cost.
Orange County Public Schools pays $75,000 per officer to local municipalities and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, about two-thirds of the total cost, and spends roughly $17 million more on SROs than the state provides. Superintendent Maria Vazquez said she expects a drastic increase in what the district is asked to pay. “We have SROs in every one of our schools. With Amendment 3, that is in jeopardy,” she said.
Seminole County Public Schools pays about half the cost of each of its SROs, which it contracts from the sheriff’s office and six municipalities. Board Chair Robin Dehlinger said the district would have to find $8 million if agencies asked it to cover the full cost. The district cut hundreds of academic and administrative positions in the past year to avoid a $26.4 million deficit. Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma warned county commissioners in September that he might have to cut 300 officers if Amendment 3 passed. Dehlinger said replacing officers with armed guardians would cost schools safety expertise and community ties.
Cost-sharing was already contentious. In 2024-25, Orange County schools objected when police departments in Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Winter Park and Windermere asked for a combined $2 million more, and the district ultimately agreed to pay more; that deal expires at the end of the school year. Ocoee, Apopka and Winter Garden also sent lawmakers a memo before the election suggesting the Legislature require districts to pay the full cost of an on-campus officer.
Some districts already use school guardians at select campuses, including Lake County, while Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties employ in-house police forces and are not affected by municipal budget cuts. Tony Montalto, president of Stand With Parkland, whose daughter was among those killed in the 2018 shooting, said he prefers sworn officers but that guardians can be an affordable alternative. He said the state should increase school safety funding and that districts can seek federal money to cover gaps, adding that the law requiring an armed person on campus remains in effect.