AMENDMENT TO THE REGULATIONS OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION

Pursuant to sections 101, 207, 305 and 2802 of the Education Law and Chapter 181 of the Laws of 2000

1. Section 100.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education is amended, effective April 27, 2001, by adding a new subdivision (gg) to read as follows:

(gg) Uniform violent incident reporting system. School districts, boards of cooperative educational services and county vocational education and extension boards shall submit to the commissioner annual reports of violent or disruptive incidents that occurred in the prior school year, commencing with the 2001-2002 school year, in accordance with Education Law section 2802 and this subdivision.

(1) Definitions: For the purposes of this subdivision:

(i)"School function" means a school-sponsored extracurricular event or activity.

(ii)"School property" shall mean in or within any building, structure, athletic playing field, playground, parking lot or land contained within the real property boundary line of a public elementary or secondary school; or in or on a school bus, as defined in section one hundred forty-two of the Vehicle and Traffic Law; or at a school function.

(iii)"Violent or disruptive incident" shall mean one of the following categories of incidents that occurs on school property of the school district, board of cooperative educational services or county vocational education and extension board:

(a) Weapons possession. Possession of one or more of the following dangerous instruments, except possession in a classroom or laboratory as part of an instructional program or in a school-related activity under the supervision of a teacher or other school personnel as authorized by school officials:

(1) a firearm, including but not limited to a rifle, shotgun, pistol, handgun, silencer, electronic dart gun, stun gun, machine gun, airgun or spring gun;

(2) a switchblade knife, gravity knife, pilum ballistic knife, cane sword, dagger, stiletto, dirk, razor, box cutter, metal knuckle knife, utility knife or other dangerous knife;

(3) a billy club, blackjack, bludgeon, chukka stick, or metal knuckles;

(4) a sandbag or sandclub;

(5) a sling shot or slungshot;

(6) a Martial arts instrument, including but not limited to a kung fu star, ninja star, nin chuck, or shirken;

(7) an explosive, including but not limited to a firecracker or other fireworks;

(8) a deadly or dangerous chemical, including but not limited to a strong acid or base, Mace, or pepper spray;

(9) an imitation gun;

(10) loaded or blank cartridges or other ammunition; or

(11) any other deadly or dangerous instrument.

(b) Weapons use. Unlawful use of a weapon, as defined in clause (a) of this subparagraph, on school property.

(d) Personal injury and intimidation. Any of the following acts:

(1) Assault. The intentional causing of physical injury to another person, with or without a dangerous weapon;

(2) Criminal harassment. Intentionally striking, shoving or kicking another person or subjecting another person to unwanted physical contact, or threatening to do the foregoing; following a person in or about a public place; or otherwise engaging in a course of conduct which alarms or seriously annoys another person; where such behavior, under the district's code of conduct, is of sufficient seriousness to warrant the suspension or removal of a student or the referral of a student to the juvenile justice system, or disciplinary action against or dismissal of a school employee, or notification of law enforcement of the commission of a crime;

(3) Intimidation or bullying. Threatening, stalking or seeking to coerce or compel a person to do something; engaging in verbal or physical conduct that threatens another with harm, including intimidation through the use of epithets or slurs involving race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, religious practices, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability that substantially disrupts the educational process.

(4) Menacing. Intentionally placing or attempting to place another person in fear of imminent physical injury; or

(5) Reckless endangerment. Subjecting individuals to danger by recklessly engaging in conduct which creates a substantial risk of physical injury.

(6) Kidnapping. To abduct a person, which is defined in section 135.00 of the Penal Law as to restrain a person with intent to prevent his liberation by either (a) secreting or holding him in a place where he is not likely to be found, or (b) using or threatening to use deadly physical force.

(e) Sexual offenses. Rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, or other inappropriate contact of a sexual nature.

(f) Use, possession or sale of drugs or alcohol. Illegally using or possessing a controlled substance or marijuana or alcohol on school property, including having such substance on a person or in a locker or vehicle or other personal space; or selling or distributing a controlled substance or marijuana on school property; or finding a controlled substance, marijuana or alcohol on school property that is not in the possession of any person; provided that nothing herein shall be construed to apply to the lawful administration of a prescription drug on school property.

(g) Theft. Wrongfully taking, depriving or withholding property from another, including but not limited to robbery or theft with force.

(h) Behavior risking injury. Any of the following acts that create a risk of injury to students and/or school employees:

(1) Bomb threat. A telephoned, written or electronic message that a bomb, explosive or chemical weapon has been or will be placed on school property.

(2) False alarm. Falsely activating a fire alarm or other disaster alarm.

(3) Arson. Deliberately starting a fire with intent to destroy property.

(4) Riot. Simultaneously with four or more persons engages in tumultuous and violent conduct and thereby intentionally or recklessly causes or creates a grave risk of physical injury or causes public alarm.

(i) Burglary. Entering school property with intent to commit a crime.

(j) Criminal mischief. Intentional or reckless damaging of the property of the school or of another person, including but not limited to vandalism and the defacing of property with graffiti.

(2) Submission of report. Each school district, board of cooperative educational services and county vocational education and extension board shall annually submit its report on violent or disruptive incidents, in the manner prescribed by the Commissioner, on or before September 30th, commencing with September 30, 2002.

(3) Content of report. Each annual violent or disruptive incident report shall be in a form prescribed by the Commissioner and shall contain the following information concerning each violent or disruptive incident that

occurred in the prior school year:

(i) the number and types of offenders, identified as student, teacher, school safety officer, other school staff, student intruder, visitor, unknown or other;

(ii) if any offender is a student, the age and grade of the student;

(iii) the location at which the incident occurred, including:

(a) the school building in which the incident occurred or whose real property boundary line includes the athletic playing field, playground, parking lot or land on which the incident occurred, and whether the incident occurred in a classroom, laboratory, hall, staircase, gymnasium, locker room or pool, cafeteria; bathroom, auditorium, playground or athletic field or otherwise on school grounds; or

(b) where applicable, that the incident occurred on a school bus; or

(iv) the types of incident, identified by category listed in clauses (a) to (l) of subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (1) of this subdivision;

(v) whether the incident occurred during or outside of regular school hours;

(vi) where the incident involves a weapon, whether the weapon was a firearm, knife or other weapon;

(vii) whether the incident was bias-related, drug-related, or gang or group-related;

(viii) the actions taken by the school in response to the incident, including when the incident was reported to police or other law enforcement officials and whether disciplinary action was taken against the offenders;

(ix) any student discipline or referral action taken against a student/offender, including but not limited to an out-of-school suspension, a teacher removal, an involuntary transfer to an alternative placement, an in-school

suspension, a referral for community service, a referral for counseling, or a referral to the juvenile justice system or the criminal justice system, and the duration of such action; and

(x) the number and nature of the victims, identified as a student, teacher, school safety officer, other school staff or other and the victim's age and grade where the victim is a student.

(4) Preparation of report. Each annual violent or disruptive incident report shall contain such information on the offenders, actions taken by the school in response and student discipline or referral actions taken as is available on the date the annual report is submitted.

(5) Local procedures. The governing body of each school district, board of cooperative educational services and county vocational education and extension board shall establish local procedures for the reporting of violent or disruptive incidents by each building and/or program under its jurisdiction. Such procedures shall assure that copies of each violent or disruptive incident report at the building or program level are retained for period prescribed by the Commissioner in the applicable records retention schedule, and are available for inspection by the Department upon request; provided that a district or board that adopts an electronic reporting system may fulfill such requirement by retaining an electronic record of the information reported at the building or program level.

(6) Confidentiality. Pursuant to subdivision 6 of section 2802 of the Education Law, all personally identifiable information included in a violent or disruptive incident report shall be confidential, and shall not be disclosed to any person for use by any person for purposes other than the purposes of section 2802 of the Education Law, except as otherwise authorized by law.

2. Paragraph (2) of subdivision (bb) of section 100.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education is amended, effective April 27, 2001, as follows:

(2) School district reporting requirements. Each year,

beginning with the 1996-97 school year, each board of education and, in New York City, the City Board of Education and each community board of education, shall prepare a school district report card and shall make it available by appending it to copies of the proposed budget made publicly available as required by law, making it available for distribution at the annual meeting, transmitting it to local newspapers of general circulation and making it available to parents. Such school district report card shall include:

(i) . . .

(ii) . . .

(iii) . . .

(iv) . . .

(v) Violent or disruptive incident report. Commencing with the 2002-2003 school year, the school district report card shall include a summary of the district's annual violent or disruptive incident report in a format containing such information as the Commissioner shall prescribe.

3. Subdivision (cc) of section 100.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education is amended, effective April 27, 2001, as follows:

(cc) Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) report cards. BOCES reporting requirements. Each year, beginning with the 1997-98 school year, each BOCES shall prepare a BOCES report card and shall make it available by appending it to copies of the proposed administrative budget made publicly available as required by law, making it available for distribution at the annual meeting, transmitting it to local newspapers of general circulation and making it available to parents. Such BOCES report card shall include:

(1) . . .

(2) . . .

(3) . . .

(4) Violent or disruptive incident report. Commencing with the 2002-2003 school year, the BOCES report card shall include a summary of the BOCES' annual violent or disruptive incident report in a format containing such information as the Commissioner shall prescribe.