23 Oct Randall County, Canyon ISD Make High School Jailer Academy Official

Canyon ISD seniors can now train toward a Texas jailer license before they graduate under a formal agreement signed Wednesday by the Randall County Sheriff’s Office, Canyon ISD and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE), per the Amarillo Tribune.

The deal turns what began as a waiver-based pilot into an established program, and Canyon ISD and the sheriff’s office describe it as a model other Texas sheriff’s offices can use. TCOLE granted Randall County a waiver in 2024 so high schoolers could join its jailers academy, and the sheriff’s office says three academies with Canyon ISD students have followed. Nine students graduated and seven were hired, Sheriff Chris Forbis told the paper.

The path starts with a student academy, a 12-week course held on a weekly evening that introduces the jobs within the sheriff’s office. Applicants are interviewed and must be approved first. Those who finish are recruited for the jailers academy, a four-week course during the final semester of senior year with Canyon ISD adjusting senior schedules to fit it. Students from any of the district’s three high schools can apply by going through their counselor.

Amarillo College partners on the jailers academy, which also trains recruits from other counties. The sheriff’s office said a typical class includes 20 to 30 future Randall County employees and 10 to 15 recruits from other agencies. Graduates are certified to work in any Texas jail.

State rules still set limits. A jailer has to be 18 with a diploma, and Forbis said applicants also must be U.S. citizens with no criminal record. The jailer route also gets young people a foothold toward becoming a peace officer, which requires being 21, TCOLE Executive Director Greg Stevens said. Stevens, who graduated from Canyon ISD, said the arrangement is one of the first of its kind in the Panhandle and is meant to ease the recruitment and retention problems he called the biggest facing law enforcement statewide.

Stevens added that jailers and dispatchers in some parts of Texas earn around $50,000 a year with benefits including a pension, health insurance and paid leave. He didn’t say what Randall County pays. Nationally, the Police Executive Research Forum found sworn staffing in 2024 was still 5.2% lower than in 2020, and roughly 70% of agencies said hiring is harder than five years ago.

Randall County has no dispatcher track yet, though TCOLE has cleared the county to build one, Forbis said. The sheriff’s office is also working on a similar deal with Amarillo ISD. Next door, Potter County’s sheriff’s office reached its own deal with TCOLE and Highland Park ISD on Sept. 11, with classes starting in spring 2027.