The Senate Education Committee voted to send an amended version of Senate Bill 269 to the full Senate after adopting changes that removed an enrollment threshold and refined training and law‑enforcement partnership requirements.

The measure would allow school districts to apply for a proprietary security business license to operate a layered security program if they maintain a full‑time division devoted to security and emergency management and have a written agreement with local law enforcement for joint and continuous training. The committee added language clarifying district security personnel may not act in the adviser or teacher roles assigned to school resource officers and that charter‑authorizer superintendents would apply on behalf of public charter schools.

Katie Grinstead summarized the bill and the subcommittee amendment. Senator Elliott (Greenville), who chaired the subcommittee, described the proposal as aimed at districts that already contract with private firms for school protection and said Greenville County had 37 schools without a dedicated school resource officer. He said the proposal was intended to allow districts to ‘‘bring this in house’’ and provide higher training standards than some contracted providers, adding SLED and the Greenville County sheriff’s office support the approach.

Senators debated whether the original bill’s threshold requiring districts to enroll at least 15,000 students was necessary; after discussion and a motion, the committee struck the numeric threshold and adopted the amendment. Committee members said the requirements in subsection (3) — the security division, training agreement and related criteria — would remain decisive for eligibility.

The committee then adopted committee amendments and voted to give the bill a favorable report as amended.

Committee members said the bill is intended to supplement, not supplant, school resource officers, and to ensure higher training and clearer limits on the role of district‑hired security personnel.