Meeting of the Board of Regents | June 2003
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THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 |
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TO: |
The Honorable the Members of the Board of Regents |
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FROM: |
James A. Kadamus |
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COMMITTEE: |
Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education |
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TITLE OF ITEM: |
Implementation of the Unsafe School Choice Provisions of No Child Left Behind Act |
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DATE OF SUBMISSION: |
June 10, 2003 |
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PROPOSED HANDLING: |
Discussion |
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RATIONALE FOR ITEM: |
Compliance with Federal Legislation |
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STRATEGIC GOAL: |
Goals 1 and 2 |
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AUTHORIZATION(S): |
SUMMARY:
The Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO), Section 9532 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, requires each state receiving funds under the ESEA to establish and implement a statewide policy allowing students attending a persistently dangerous public school, or students who become victims of a violent criminal offense while in or on the grounds of a public school that they attend, to attend a safe public school. As a condition of receiving ESEA funds, each state must certify in writing to the Secretary that the state is in compliance with these requirements.
To date, the New York State Education Department has completed a number of steps in the certification process related to the USCO under Title IX of NCLB. A few remaining steps must be completed in the certification process prior to July 1, 2003. These include:
- Identification of the objective criteria for labeling schools as persistently dangerous.
- Identification of schools meeting the criteria by July 1, 2003, with choice starting at the beginning of the 2003-04 school year.
- Certification in writing to the Secretary of USDOE that it is in compliance with the USCO.
The Department has selected its criteria as a result of conducting a number of meetings with educational constituencies, reviewing data from the Uniform Violent Incident Reporting System and benchmarking criteria with those of other states.
The attached describes the background for establishing the criteria to be used to identify persistently dangerous schools and how these criteria will be applied to New York State schools. This information will be provided to USDOE to complete New York's certification process.
Separately, the Committee will receive a proposed amendment to Commis-sioner's Regulations for adoption as an emergency measure in order to align the regulations with the provisions of NCLB.
Attachment
Defining Persistently Dangerous Schools in New York State
Background
Title IX of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires each state receiving funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to establish and implement a statewide policy for students who are victims of a violent criminal offense and for students attending a persistently dangerous public school. Students must be given the option to attend a safe public school with a local education agency (LEA). A state must certify in writing on an annual basis to the Secretary of Education that it is in compliance with all of the provisions of the Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO).
During the past year, the Department has been providing quarterly status reports to the United States Department of Education (USDOE) on its certification process. It has:
- Consulted with a representative sample of LEAs on policy parameters.
- Established its policy through section 120.5 of Commissioner's Regulations.
- Identified its objective criteria related to violent criminal offenses.
- Established a data collection system linked to the Uniform Violent Incident Reporting (UVIR) System under the SAVE legislation.
Remaining actions require the Department to:
- Finalize criteria for identifying persistently dangerous schools.
- Identify schools that meet the criteria.
- Offer choice as of the 2003-04 school year.
- Certify compliance to USDOE.
Uniform Violent Incident Reporting (UVIR) System
The 2000 Project SAVE legislation mandated the creation of a uniform violent incident reporting system beginning with the 2001-02 school year. Schools are required to provide a summary of violent and disruptive incidents on the Basic Educational Data System (BEDS) School Data Form in addition to keeping such information on file in the school. The BEDS data from the 2001-02 school year identifies 10 categories of violent and disruptive incidents. The categories include: homicide; weapons possession; weapons use; personal injury or intimidation; sexual offenses; use, possession, or sale of drugs or alcohol; bomb threat, false alarm, arson or riot; theft; burglary; and criminal mischief. This data collection system will be used to identify schools as persistently dangerous.
Data Analysis
In reviewing the UVIR data from the 2001-02 school year, a number of data characteristics emerged. The key observations included:
- Variability of Data - Schools have little experience in standardizing their classification and reporting of data based on a one-year experience. Definitions of incidents were subject to different interpretations. Consequently, incidents could be reported differently among buildings within districts, as well as among all districts. In addition, the category of Personal Injury or Intimidation, which accounted for the largest number of reported incidents, combined several subcategories including intimidation, bullying, menacing, reckless endangerment, kidnapping, and assault, making it of questionable value in determining whether a school is persistently dangerous.
- Availability of Data - The UVIR System was initiated with the 2001-02 school year. At this point only one year of data has been collected. The eventual identification of a persistently dangerous school needs to be based on two years of data.
- New York City Data - New York City is the only jurisdiction in the State where school safety comes under the control of the Police Department. The New York City Police Department collects data rather than the school system. Data on weapons use and firearms use are not collected as separate categories. We are working with the New York City Department of Education and the New York Police Department to collect incident data to ensure accurate reporting. Other issues relating to New York City have been identified:
- New York City is an aggressive user of metal detectors, resulting in the confiscation of box cutters and other such implements that do not make it into schools. This raises the question of whether the confiscated weapons should be counted in identifying a school that is persistently dangerous.
- Summer school programs are very often attended by students who are not enrolled in the regular high school and are staffed by a faculty not assigned to the school during the regular school year. Night and weekend programs are often run independently of the regular school. This raises the issue of how incidents that may occur outside of regular school hours would be used in identifying a school that is persistently dangerous.
- Differing Approaches to Discipline � The philosophy underlying a school�s approach to discipline can affect the number of incidents reported. For example, many schools have adopted zero tolerance policies identifying all incidents as serious, requiring all incidents to be reported to the criminal justice system and all incidents to result in a suspension. This approach makes it difficult to determine whether a large number of incidents reflects that a school is persistently dangerous or that it is just following through on its policy.
Selection of Criteria
Based upon the analysis of data collected through the UVIR system and through consultation with constituent groups and a representative sample of LEAs, we have concluded that the most objective data categories available for use in identifying persistently dangerous schools relate to weapons possession and weapons use. This conclusion is based upon the following reasons:
- Most of the current data available through the UVIR will not allow for an objective identification of persistently dangerous schools.
- The categories of weapons possession and weapons use involve definitions that result in the most objective reporting available.
- Schools have had prior experience with reporting this data under the Gun Free Schools Act of 1994.
- Two years of statewide school data are available through BEDS. This is consistent with the Department�s policy to use two years of data as identified in section 120.5 of Commissioner�s Regulations.
- Many of the states that have already established criteria have focused on weapons use or possession, particularly firearms. These include Illinois, Massachusetts, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Alaska.
New York State's Criteria
The following criteria are proposed for use in defining a New York State public elementary or secondary school as persistently dangerous based on the best information we have now:
A public elementary or secondary school will be designated
as "persistently dangerous" if the school has in each of two consecutive years:
- one or more firearm violations
or
- a ratio of weapons incidents to school
enrollment of three (3) percent
or greater.
A second option that we may consider based on additional information and data we receive would be for the school to have one or more firearm violations in each of three consecutive years and the ratio of weapons incidents to school enrollment to be two percent or greater. We will send the Regents final confirmation of the criteria that will be used to define "persistently dangerous" by the end of June.
When the Department finalizes these criteria, it will notify each school that it has been identified for potential designation as a persistently dangerous school. Local education agencies will have the opportunity to present evidence to the Commissioner that the school should not be designated as persistently dangerous as the conditions in the school do not threaten the safety of students and that it has taken appropriate actions to improve safety in the school. This evidence will be considered and the school will be notified whether it will be designated as persistently dangerous so that school choice can be offered at the beginning of the 2003-04 school year and annually thereafter.
At a later date, the Department may consider amending the criteria to include other data categories from the UVIR System that could appropriately define persistently dangerous schools.