September 4, 2001

To: District Superintendents
       Superintendents of Public Schools

From: James R. Butterworth

Subject: Safe Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) Legislation

With the beginning of the school year, I wanted to provide an update concerning the status of our ongoing efforts to implement the Project SAVE legislation. For each of the areas of SAVE noted below, you will find information concerning the status of regulations, any changes to legislation, development of forms or other material and related Department activities. As you move forward with district efforts to address issues associated with school safety, it is important that all members of the school community develop an understanding of the significant contribution that a healthy and safe school climate can make in improving student achievement.

At their July meeting, the Board of Regents approved the addition of subdivision (hh) of Section 100.2 of the Regulations of the Commissioner concerning the Reporting of Child Abuse in an Educational Setting. This regulation, along with Article 23-B of the Education Law as set forth in Chapter 180 of the Laws of 2000, establish the context for the reporting of child abuse in an educational setting. The Department anticipates amendments to the law in the near future to include New York City and an amendment to clarify that the provision applies to charter schools.

The purpose of this memo is to provide materials, resources and guidance that will assist with the implementation of this new requirement that became effective effect July 1, 2001. It is important to understand from the outset that the procedures and duties contained in Article 23-B do not duplicate the reporting procedures and obligations required by Section 413 of the Social Services Law, often referred to as "mandated reporting." The critical distinction between these statutes is that the Social Services Law calls for reporting of suspected abuse or neglect of a child by someone in parental relation to the child, while the new Education Law calls for reporting of allegations of abuse of a child by a school employee or volunteer.

In order to develop an initial understanding of this new requirement, it is important to begin with a review of the language in Article 23-B. It includes definitions of key terms such as child abuse, educational setting, employee and volunteer. It requires that when a teacher, school nurse, school counselor, school psychologist, school social worker, school administrator or school board member receives an allegation that child abuse in an educational setting has occurred, that person must promptly complete a written report form and personally deliver this form to the building administrator in charge of the school in which the alleged abuse occurred.

In turn, it is the building administrator’s duty to determine if there is reasonable suspicion to believe that an act of child abuse has occurred. Reasonable suspicion is a local determination. Where reasonable suspicion exists, the building administrator must provide a written statement of parental rights to the parent of the child who is the alleged victim of abuse, provide a copy of the written report form to the superintendent and forward the written report form to appropriate law enforcement authorities. Where it is determined that reasonable suspicion does not exist, the report form can be expunged from any record kept by the school after a period of five years from the date of the report, or earlier if determined by the school district.

The involvement of law enforcement authorities may trigger other responsibilities set forth in Article 23-B for the superintendent, the district attorney and the Commissioner of Education. In addition, the law also contains provisions that deal with penalties for willful failure to comply, protection from civil liability for those who reasonably and in good faith carry out their duties and confidentiality of records. Finally, the law specifically prohibits "silent resignation," which is an agreement to withhold the reporting of an allegation in return for the resignation or voluntary suspension of an employee.

Again, it is essential that you and your building administrators know and understand the provisions of the law. The brief overview of duties and procedures provided above does not provide all of the detail that is necessary for proper implementation. If you do not already have a copy of Article 23-B, you can download it from the following web site:

www.emsc.nysed.gov/sss/

Section 1132 of this law requires the Commissioner to prepare a form that can be used by individuals who are required to report an allegation and cites the expected content of the form. Required reporters include: teachers, school guidance counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, administrators, school social workers, school board members, or other school personnel required to hold teaching or administrator license or certification. Attached to this memo is a camera-ready copy of the Report Form to be used by all schools in New York State. Page 1 of the form would be used to provide specific details concerning the allegation, while Page 2 of the form includes information concerning definitions contained in the law. Once a required reporter has completed this form, it must be personally delivered to the building administrator of the school in which the child abuse allegedly occurred. The building administrator and the superintendent are the only persons in the school district authorized by the law to receive these written report forms.

When it has been determined that reasonable suspicion exists concerning a reported allegation of child abuse in an educational setting, the building administrator must promptly notify the parents and forward a copy of the report to the superintendent and to appropriate law enforcement authorities. Attached to this memo is "Article 23-B Reporting Requirements" which contains information that you can use to prepare a written statement of parental rights. You would be well-advised to establish a process to document receipt by the parent(s) of this written statement.

Districtwide School Safety Plans have been arriving in the Department since early April. At this time, over 550 plans have been received from school districts and BOCES. In August, through the efforts of the Coordinated School Health Network, teams were established to read and check these plans in terms of compliance with the regulations [CR 155.17(e)(1)]. The leaders of these review teams were trained in Albany in July at a session conducted by staff from the Department and from the New York State Center for School Safety (NYSCSS), as well as by the consultants who were involved in development of the School Safety Plan Guidance Document.

After the review is completed, districts will receive a notification letter, along with a copy of the Compliance Review Checklist sheet, that indicates either that the plan is in compliance, or that the plan is in partial compliance. Those in partial compliance will be expected to submit additional documentation. Districts that have not submitted a plan will receive a letter that advises them to send their plan in promptly. When reviews are completed, it is hoped that examples of quality plans will be identified and available as a resource for others.

The Codes of Conduct have been submitted to the Department at approximately the same rate as the Districtwide School Safety Plans. These will be kept on file in anticipation of a compliance review to begin in October 2001. The most significant development on this front has been a recent amendment to Section 3214 of the Education Law concerning due process associated with a teacher’s removal of a student from the classroom. It provides that if the 24-hour period for parent notification, or the 48-hour period for the informal conference, does not end on a school day, then the allowed time period shall be extended to the next school day. The actual language is in Section 11 of Assembly Bill A-08898 which can be found at http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A08898. This bill (now Chapter 147 of the Laws of New York State), which also contains the language concerning conditional appointment and emergency conditional appointment related to the fingerprinting requirement, became effective July 1, 2001.

Two training requirements specifically apply to school districts. The Professional Development Plan (PDP) regulations [100.2(dd)] were amended to include school violence prevention and intervention training as required content for these plans. The language of the regulation calls for each plan to include a two-hour training similar to that which is required for new applications for Part 80 certification. In essence, this training could be viewed as a "survey course" that provides a range of information covering six required components. All professional staff covered by the PDP should have the opportunity to take the course during 2001-2002. This is a "one-time" requirement for current staff. In order to develop skills associated with prevention and intervention of school violence, districts should also consider including a broader range of opportunities for training in their PDPs based upon local data and needs.

The second aspect for training is the superintendent’s conference day requirement. This is an annual expectation. It requires districts to provide appropriate violence prevention and intervention training within the context of such conference days. The content and duration for this training is up to local discretion. It is possible for the two-hour PDP requirement to be included within the context of the superintendent’s conference day. The NYSCSS has developed training materials for the two-hour training entitled "Setting the Stage for Safer Schools." You can contact them at (845) 255-8989 if you are interested in purchasing the package.

The NYSCSS’s website www.mhric.org/scss will be the most comprehensive source of information on SAVE. It will be linked to SED and other school violence prevention websites. The Center’s website began publishing key questions and related answers this past spring regarding Project SAVE implementation. If you would like to suggest additional questions for the Center’s website, please forward them by e-mail to scss@mhric.org.

At their June meeting the Board of Regents adopted subdivision (gg) of Section 100.2 of the regulations of the Commissioner concerning the Uniform Violent Incident Reporting System. The regulation defines the types of violent or disruptive incidents about which information must be collected on an incident-by-incident basis. In addition, it spells out the expected content for each individual incident report. Schools must begin to keep this information during the 2001-2002 school year starting July 1, and will be expected to submit their first annual report on violent and disruptive incidents on or before September 30, 2002. This report will include copies of individual incident reports, as well as a summary report.

The Department has the responsibility for developing a system to be used to collect data on individual incidents, including the form in which summary data will be provided by school districts. Schools will soon receive a copy of a data collection form that includes all of the data elements set forth in the regulation. A template for this form will be able to be downloaded from the Department’s website for use by school districts. Districts may choose either to use this form, or to collect the data elements contained in this form by way of their existing data collection programs. The data elements will be derived from Section 100.2(gg)(3) of the Commissioner’s Regulations cited in an attachment to this memo. More information on this requirement will be provided by way of a separate memo in September.

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