HB 2142 Arizona House · 57th Legislature - Second Regular Session

ADE; school safety; center; programs

HB 2142 establishes a school safety program within Arizona’s Department of Education to fund safety personnel and resources for schools. It directly affects Arizona public school districts and charter schools, which can apply for up to three years of funding to cover costs for school resource officers, counselors, social workers, safety technology, training, or infrastructure improvements. School applications must include detailed safety assessments, building plans, and specific plans for implementing programs (like law-related education or counseling services), with requirements differing based on whether the funding supports personnel or alternative safety measures. The program is administered by the Department of Education’s School Safety Center, which reviews proposals using crime and academic data and verifies school submissions.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status failed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Mar 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 7, 2026 Last action Jun 12, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

House Engrossed Version (03/03/2026) → Senate Engrossed Version (06/12/2026) · 6 edits · Mar 3, 2026

MODERATE

The bill was amended to significantly expand fingerprinting requirements for school employees, including those working in charter schools and providing tutoring services, and to integrate these requirements into the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. The Senate version also revised the composition of the School Safety Center Council to include representatives from fire chiefs and rural school districts while removing others, and updated funding language to allow the use of unexpended monies from previous fiscal years.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded to include new categories of school personnel (such as tutors and charter school staff) under mandatory fingerprinting and clearance card requirements, and it broadened the definition of allowable expenses for ESA accounts to include specific services for students with disabilities.

REQUIREMENT

Added mandatory fingerprinting and fingerprint clearance card requirements for individuals providing tutoring services and for employees of charter schools who are required to be fingerprinted for the first time.

Modified the Empowerment Scholarship Account program to require that schools and tutors using ESA funds must have valid fingerprint clearance cards for any staff with unsupervised contact with students.

ELIGIBILITY

Changed the School Safety Center Council membership to include a representative for fire chiefs and a rural school superintendent, while removing members representing statewide law enforcement associations and certain peace officer groups.

Expanded allowable ESA expenses to include educational therapies, paraprofessionals, and specific vocational services for students meeting specific disability criteria.

FISCAL

Updated school safety funding rules to explicitly allow the use of unexpended and unencumbered monies from previous fiscal years for program administration.

DEFINITION

Added a new definition for 'qualified school' in the context of fingerprinting to clarify which schools must adhere to the new clearance card requirements.

Floor votes · House Mar 3, 2026

How they voted

34–21

Passed · 5 other

Total votes 60

Mar 3, 2026

D Democratic27

2 Yea 21 Nay 4

77% Nay

R Republican33

32 Yea 1

96% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Jun 12, 2026

Upper · Passed

DPA

upper

Mar 18, 2026

Upper · Passed

upper

Mar 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

PASSED

lower

Mar 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

DPA

lower

Jan 13, 2026

Lower · Passed

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors