College credits from high school to join the Police

It is a pathway the law has just opened so a high school student who wants to be a police officer does not start from zero on graduating. The idea is that they take, while still in high school, courses leading to an associate degree, to get ahead on the college credits they will be required to have to enter the Police after the Academy.

High school students who plan to enter the Police Academy. The law sets no grade level, GPA, age or other requirement for the student: it defines whom the programmes are aimed at and orders the Secretary of Education to develop them.

• Being a high school student who plans to enter the Police Academy. That is the only condition the law describes for the students these programmes are aimed at.Verified against the official source
• That the programme exist. The law orders it created but sets no date and names no schools, and provides that the Secretary shall adopt the regulations necessary to establish it.Verified against the official source

• The law publishes no document list or form: it is a mandate to the Secretary of Education to create the programme, not a counter procedure. Concrete enrolment requirements will come from the regulation the law itself orders adopted.

1. 1

   Step 1: What the law orders, exactly

   Subsection 71 places on the Secretary of Education the duty to “develop and implement, in coordination with the Police of Puerto Rico, programmes or curricula aimed at high school students who plan to enter the Police Academy, so that, before graduating, they may begin taking courses leading to an associate degree, for the purpose of advancing the college credits required to enter the Police after graduating from the Academy”. Note the sequence the law draws: courses in high school, then the Academy, and the college credits to enter the Police after the Academy.

2. 2

   Step 2: Who is going to build it

   The law names the possible partners, and that tells you where to ask once the programme starts: the Secretary may establish collaborative agreements with the Police of Puerto Rico, the Department of Justice of Puerto Rico, the University of Puerto Rico and other public or private agencies or organizations, for-profit or not, and require from them the cooperation and advice needed to implement the programme.

3. 3

   Step 3: The courses must be accredited

   It is the safeguard that makes the credits count, and it is worth knowing: the Department, together with its collaborators, must ensure the programmes or curricula developed under this subsection comply with the standards and procedures of the Middle States Association and/or any other accrediting entity recognized in the United States of America. If a course does not meet that, the credits you get ahead on may not count for you.

4. 4

   Step 4: The regulation is still missing, and that matters

   The law closes the subsection by saying “the Secretary shall adopt the regulations necessary to establish the programme”. It sets no deadline to adopt them, names no schools and publishes no course list. We prefer to tell you before you call: today there may be nothing of this at your school yet.

5. 5

   Step 5: What this law does not tell you: how many credits the Police asks for

   The law speaks of “the college credits required to enter the Police after graduating from the Academy”, but does not say how many they are or where they are set. That requirement lives in the Police’s own statute and regulation, which we did not read, so we are not going to give you a figure. If you are planning ahead, that question goes to the Police of Puerto Rico, not to the Department of Education.

6. 6

   Step 6: A neighbouring piece of the same law

   The next subsection, 72, orders the Secretary to develop and implement, in collaboration with the Department of Justice, the Police of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service (PRITS), annual educational campaigns in schools on the safe use of the Internet, electronic media and cybercrime. It goes separately because it is a different duty and a different audience, but it comes from the same reform.

At your high school and its corresponding Regional Educational Office: the duty to develop and implement the programme is the Secretary of Education’s, in coordination with the Police of Puerto Rico. The law creates no counter, names no participating schools and publishes no address, phone or portal. For the Academy’s admission requirements and the credits the Police demands, the forum is the Police of Puerto Rico.

• Believing the programme is already available at every school: the law orders it created, sets no date and names no schools.
• Thinking these courses replace the Academy: the law describes them as courses leading to an associate degree to advance credits, with the Academy still on the path.
• Looking in this law for how many credits the Police requires: it does not say; that requirement is in the Police’s own rules.
• Taking any course assuming it will count: the law requires the programmes to comply with Middle States Association standards or another accrediting entity recognized in the United States.
• Asking only at the Department of Education: the law orders it developed in coordination with the Police, and allows agreements with Justice, UPR and other entities.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico

  Educación

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov