JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Duval County School Board on Monday took up a vote and decided to expand Project Safe Student, which will give more information to police about those breaking the rules on campus.

The Jacksonville sheriff said the expansion of the program will make the city streets safer by keeping a closer eye on bad behavior in area schools.

The school board acknowledged that too many students end up in jail after committing serious crimes and that many of the young people who go to jail have had a lot of prior problems in the classroom.

Overall, Project Safe Students is expected to give police more access to a lot more students.

"It's going to be beneficial for the students, for the district, for the parents and for the community," said school board member Tommy Hazouri.

That's why the board voted to expand Project Safe Student. In the past, police could get involved only with students involved in very serious offenses, such as bringing a firearm to school, arson or any other major school disturbance.

Now, the bad behavior doesn't need to be as severe to gain the attention of police.

"(We will) be able to identify these children and have our school resource officers, who are already in our school settings, work with them so they can turn the unacceptable behavior around," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Assistant Chief David Coffman.

Project Safe Student will now look at students caught doing things like using tobacco or bullying. However, the program will affect only the five biggest rule-breakers at each school.

The intervention could include the students getting involved with police to help them and talk with them about things like the police athletic league and other programs in which children can get involved to make sure they behave better in class and don't have behavioral problems down the road.

"It is not criminal in nature. So, there's nothing criminal about it. There is no criminal record associated with the student being identified as making poor decisions. Simply put, we just want to reach out and help these students," Coffman said.

The NAACP had opposed a similar program in the past, saying that program used racial profiling. However, the organization's leaders said they've changed their minds about Project Safe Students.

"We know now that it's not necessarily going to track a student. That's what we were trying to prevent -- that it would profile or track a student throughout their careers. But, some of these violations can easily be corrected through intervention," said NAACP spokesman Ferdinand R. Juluke.

The sheriff's office and the school district said they would work together and use a scoring system to determine which students are having the most problems in school.