Tom Horne for Superintendent of Public Instruction

Tom Horne

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says schools applying for safety grants must prioritize armed police officers over school counselors.

Arizona’s School Safety Grant Program has been around since 2019, allowing schools to get state funds for counselors, social workers or school resource officers.

Now, Horne said the state will deny requests for new counselors from schools that don’t already have armed officers.

“If they had a police officer or they were asking for one, they could ask for a social worker in addition," he said. "But we’re not going to send to the state board for approval any applications for a social worker with no policeman there. If there’s an invasion by a maniac, there isn’t much that a social worker can do.”

He added that he believes having counselors is important, but it's not his first priority.

"I think it's utterly irrational to leave a school unprotected when we've had so many massacres in schools," he said. 

Horne explained the program has three sections of funding: The first $30 million in funding is for renewing existing positions.

"And if they've done it properly, we're going to approve the renewals, even if it's only a social worker because we're not going to ask schools to layoff social workers that they already have," Horne said.

There's another $50 million available from the state, and an additional $10 million from the federal government. That money will prioritize school resource officers.

Schools are able to request funds for both (counselors and officers).

"If we get more requests than we can fund, then we'll have to figure out how we can triage it, but there's no problem with them asking for both," Horne said.

He said his office is getting more reports of threats and of students bringing guns to school, but did not provide specific data.

On Monday, the Arizona School Counselors Association responded to Horne's announcement on Twitter. It said:

"The AzSCA believes every student deserves a school counselor. Recent changes to the Arizona School Safety Grant by Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne put student access to school counselors in jeopardy."