Five Schools Named As Persistently Dangerous Under NCLB

 

The State Education Department has identified five schools as persistently dangerous, as required under NCLB.

The five schools are:

Philip Livingston Magnet School, Albany

George Fowler High School, Syracuse

Grant Middle School, Syracuse

James A. Shea Middle School, Syracuse

Brooklyn School for Career Development (PS 753), Brooklyn, New York

In Buffalo, the Web Middle School and the Traditional High School would also have been named. However, the city school district has decided to close the schools.

Schools are designated 'persistently dangerous' if they have two successive years of violent incidents that meet or exceed criteria established by the Department. The standard is a ratio of violent incidents to enrollment in a school and is determined by the number of incidents involving the use or threatened use of weapons, homicide, serious sexual offenses, robbery, assaults resulting in serious physical injury, arson and kidnapping.

 Schools districts with schools designated as "persistently dangerous"must offer school choice for students in those schools.

The designation of the Brooklyn School for Career Development as persistently dangerous is based on the criteria described above that includes two successive years of violent incidents.  The State Education Department recognizes the City’s efforts to create safer schools through the early identification and improvement of 11 Impact Schools, which have already been announced. The Department and New York City will also work together during the next school year to resolve any differences in collecting and reporting information.              

Under NCLB, each school district is required to submit an Incident Reduction Plan to show the specific steps that the district will take to reduce the number of violent incidents and improve safety at the school.