LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A law passed earlier this year in Frankfort requires each public school in Kentucky to have at least one school resource officer. Only about half of campuses across the commonwealth have one, and it should come as no surprise that the districts who reported they couldn't meet the requirement had problems with finding the money and the people.

House Bill 63 was signed into law in April. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Bratcher, requires local school boards to ensure schools in their districts have at least one armed resource officer working on their campuses and inside buildings by Aug. 1. 

If school districts cannot hire enough school resource officers they must develop plans to do so with Kentucky's school security marshal, Ben Wilcox.

Bratcher said reporting to the state's school security marshal will give policymakers clear insight into issues preventing school districts from hiring more officers.

And it's been tough on districts to get off the ground. Bullitt County Public Schools, for example, said it spent the summer trying to comply but still needs to hire about double the SROs it has now to be fully covered.

"It's going to be a process and it's not something that we can hire overnight," said Sarah Smith, director of school safety for BCPS. "It's frustrating on our end, because, I mean, we do understand the need for SROs."

In a meeting Wednesday morning of the Budget Review Subcommittee on Education, Wilcox said schools across the commonwealth are starting to make progress.

"We are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel that we are starting to make some hires," he said.

Wilcox said 560 campuses out of 1,087 total have an SRO. He adds 57 districts total are fully staffed.

Rep. Kim Banta, R-Fort Mitchell, was critical Wednesday of the schools that couldn't comply.

"I'm struggling with the idea some districts have made the sacrifice and figured out how to pay for and others have thrown up their hands saying, 'I can't pay for it, so sad. We need money,'" she said.

Smith said it isn't that easy.

"We are doing everything that we possibly can to work with our community, work with our agencies to find the best solution for us to provide SROs," she said. "But we also have to be reasonable."

Lawmakers could still help fund school resource officers via new legislation, but they're not back in session until January.

Wilcox estimates it could cost about $25 million to fill the hundreds of remaining SRO positions statewide. But, still, that requires the people to staff those positions. He said his office is looking into ways to clear up a backlog to help get people trained.

"We kind of knew this is coming," he said. "We've got to make arrangements to make it happen."

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