Gov. Jared Polis signs 2 new school safety bills into law

Gov. Jared Polis signed two new bills into law Thursday aiming to make public schools in Colorado safer. This, amid controversy this year over safety in the state's public schools, especially following two shootings at Denver's East High School.

"We know that while, of course, our school districts, our local police departments, our sheriff's departments take school safety very seriously, we know that the state needs to step up and help," Polis said before signing the bills. 

One bill creates a new state office of school safety to better coordinate state resources with public schools for safety needs.

"This is a bill where we're actually doing something," said Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer (R-Mead), one of the bill's sponsors. "We're actually looking at, 'how can we improve the safety of every student in every classroom?'"

The second bill establishes some training requirements for the very first time for school resource officers.

"The better prepared our school resources officers are, the safer our students will be," Polis said. 

The new SRO training will start next summer, where officers from across the state will meet with the attorney general's office to discuss best practices in schools and how to appropriately respond to Safe2Tell tips.

One of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Chris Kolker (D-Littleton), tells CBS News Colorado this training requirement is just the first step in an effort to better train SROs more effectively — an effort he plans to continue for the next session.

"I think the big work is still ahead of us," Kolker said in an interview last week. "This bill isn't the end all, be all."