“I'm not surprised, but it still concerns me really deeply,” Dennis Parker, the director of the ACLU’s racial-justice programs, said of the officer-to-counselor ratios. “It reflects an approach to school discipline and school safety that is ultimately counterproductive."

The ACLU has called attention to federal data showing that public schools disproportionately discipline students of color—especially black males—and disabled students. Students subjected to harsh discipline are more likely to end up in the criminal-justice system.

Cory Notestine, a counselor, works in Colorado Springs School District 11 and was named school counselor of the year by the American School Counselor Association for 2015-16. “I do find it alarming that we would have more resource officers in [some] schools than we would have school counselors,” he said.

Mike Petrilli of the conservative Fordham Institute, who has generally been skeptical of efforts to limit tough discipline, said, “We’ve got to be really careful about drawing conclusions from these data. [But] I certainly think that these data raise an important question, that they demand further investigation.”

School counselors’ roles vary depending on where they work, but often focus on helping students deal with academic, behavior, and social issues. High-school counselors play a key role in helping students get into college.

School security can range from uniformed personnel employed by the district to maintain school safety to armed police officers who can make arrests. Houston says it is the only school district in the country with its own accredited police department. Los Angeles Unified School District also has its own police force. Other districts, like Hawaii, have no police presence in its schools, employing all its own safety personnel.

* * *

New York City and Hawaii have high numbers of both security staff and counselors, while Houston and Los Angeles have low numbers of both. New York City added 250 counselors in the last two years and is planning to add more, according to the Department of Education.

“Our goal is to provide a safe, respectful and supportive environment for students to thrive academically and socially. We are working across city agencies, including NYPD and FDNY, to ensure the safety and security of students and staff,” Toya Holness, a DOE spokesperson, said of New York’s security-to-counselors ratio.

The recent public debate in New York City has veered between safety concerns and criticism of harsh discipline, with three reports in the past two weeks of students bringing guns to school and a related battle ensuing over whether city charter schools suspend students too freely. Charter schools are public schools but their enrollment numbers, where possible, were not included in my analysis because they are independently run, including when it comes to hiring their own staff. In some instances, such as when they are in the same building, charters and traditional public schools can share security.