FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, May 22, 2006
For More Information, Contact:
Jonathan Burman, Tom Dunn, Alan Ray (518) 474-1201
Internet: http://www.nysed.gov
SCHOOL DISTRICT REPORTING OF VIOLENT INCIDENTS
The State Education Department is taking a series of actions to improve school districts’ reporting of violent and disruptive incidents required under the SAVE legislation, State Education Commissioner Richard Mills announced today.
The actions include site visits and auditing of school records, mandated uniform training for school districts on reporting, and new requirements for written documentation and certification that school district reports are accurate, and more guidance to schools on accurate record-keeping.
The actions are prompted by a new audit of school district data for 2003-2004 recently conducted by the State Comptroller and by increasing concerns among the Regents and State Education Department officials that data reporting by schools is irregular and inadequate.
“The Comptroller’s audit confirms our increased concerns about underreporting in schools,” State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said. “Creating a safe environment is critical and fundamental for learning. More must – and will – be done to get full compliance. The Board of Regents and the State Education Department are taking aggressive actions to ensure accurate reporting and compliance.”
The audit covers the data reported by school districts for 2003-2004.
Actions include:
Will make site visits to selected school districts statewide to ensure compliance, including the schools in the 15 districts cited in the audit. Preference will be given to those where the risk of noncompliance may be greatest. About 100 districts are being chosen for the first several months of review.
The Department will also propose that the State fund the hiring of additional auditors and other experts in ensuring school accountability. These additional, targeted staff will allow the State Education Department to provide comprehensive monitoring, auditing, and assistance. The visits will also enable the Department to answer questions face-to-face and encourage accurate reporting and compliance by all districts.
Will conduct additional training sessions for school districts and mandate attendance to the extent we are authorized to do so. Officials from many but not all districts attended voluntary statewide training that was offered in early 2005. A new grant from the U.S. Department of Education will allow the training program to be expanded. It will be uniform and held throughout the state. Each school district will be required to participate in training and participation will be monitored.
Has reviewed and revised the definitions to make them more relevant to a school setting. In addition, the Department reviewed and revised the guidance to school districts and has provided more extensive information, with examples, as to how to apply the definitions. To ensure that districts understand them, the Department is also undertaking a new and comprehensive review of how they are understood and applied by school districts and will expand the guidance as needed.
The Department reviewed and revised the definitions and guidance to school districts because the 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 data indicated that most school districts found it difficult to apply pure Penal Law definitions in a school setting. After discussions with the legislature, executive and the Division of Criminal Justice Services and prior to the collection of the 2003-2004 data (the period covered by the Comptroller's audit), the Penal Law definitions were modified to make them applicable to a school setting and more comprehensible and user friendly for school administrations. From January 2005 through April 2005, the Department offered training to school districts on applying the revised definitions.
In February 2006, in response to comments received from the auditors, further revisions were made in the Question and Answer guidance document to provide more extensive information regarding when incidents are reportable. Now, having collected 2004-2005 data, the Department is undertaking a further review of the guidance and, after consulting with school officials, will make revisions as needed this spring.
This list above highlights some of the improvements. A more extensive list of Comptroller’s recommendations and State Education Department actions appears below:
Recommendation 1 - Make site visits to selected school districts on a regular basis to ensure that the districts are recording and classifying incidents in accordance with requirements. In selecting districts to visit, give preference to those where the risk of noncompliance is greatest.
The Department will visit schools and review the accuracy of the reporting of violent and disruptive incidents.
Recommendation 2 - Review Albany and Henninger High Schools’ incident records for the 2003-04 school year and determine whether the schools’ Violence Index for that year was 25 or higher. If so, place the schools on the preliminary list of persistently dangerous schools and visit both schools to verify the incident data reported for the 2004-05 school year.
The Department will review the incident records for 2003-2004 for these schools. The Department will also use more current data and closely review these schools’ 2004-2005 and as needed 2005-2006 data. If the transitional violence standard equals or exceeds the threshold established by the Commissioner, the Department will place the school(s) on the potentially persistently dangerous list for 2006-2007. The Department accepts the recommendation to visit the schools to verify the incident data reported for the 2004-2005 school year.
Recommendation 3 - Determine whether any commercial software packages can be adapted for incident classification and reporting purposes. If such packages are available, make the school districts aware of these packages.
A workgroup consisting of school district program and data staff and Regional Information Center staff will:
Review and analyze strengths and weaknesses of existing software programs that are being used by local school districts and BOCES in reporting violent incidents;
Develop suggestions for a new software package for school districts and BOCES to use for electronic submission to the Department and provide building and district analysis of data;
Assist in development of web-based staff development materials to assist school district staff in completing the data forms; and
Ensure links between data concerns and activities and curricula supported by science-based research that can help remedy problem areas.
Recommendation 4 - Streamline the Individual Incident Report to make it more user-friendly.
Among other things, we are creating a more user-friendly, modified version of the report that is used by staff familiar with the reporting requirements and process, while continuing to provide a full version (with greater detail in definitions and instructions) for those who are not as familiar. We hope in that way to streamline the process while maintaining good data quality.
Recommendation 5 - Remind school districts that Individual Incident Reports and other records used to record individual incidents should be retained for six years.
The Department has for the last two years advised, and will continue to advise, school districts of the requirement to retain the records for six years, through a web-based Question and Answer document. Section A, Question 3 of this document addresses this question specifically.
The web address for the Question and Answer document is: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/sss/SDFSCA/UniformViolentIncidentReportingSystemQ&A2-27-2005.htm
Recommendation 6 - Perform a comprehensive review of the explanatory materials made available to the school districts for the incident reporting process. Use the review to eliminate inconsistencies in the materials and clarify matters not adequately understood by the school districts.
As outlined above, we have made revisions and are now doing so. Through ongoing staff development, public engagement and communication with the field, the Department makes revisions to explanatory materials and guidance as needed. Most recently, the Department modified the Question and Answer document to provide additional guidance regarding when incidents are reportable and whether incidents that result in detention are reportable.
The web address for the Question and Answer document is: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/sss/SDFSCA/UniformViolentIncidentReportingSystemQ&A2-27-2005.htm
Recommendation 7 - Develop a single, uniform training program in the incident reporting process, mandate school district attendance at the program, and offer the program early enough in the reporting cycle to allow timely implementation by the districts.
Specialized training and staff development is available to all school district staffs through a variety of means, such as site visits, personal presentations, video-conferencing, web-based information sharing, and telephone and e-mail communications. The Department will continue these efforts to foster compliance and assist school districts in satisfying the requirements. The Department is also collaborating with New York State School Boards Association to establish training for all school board members.
Recommendation 8 - Develop and implement procedures to enforce compliance with the requirement of superintendents’ certification of districts’ violent and disruptive incidents reports to SED. Such procedures could include (but not be limited to) formal notification of a district’s Board of Education when the superintendent has not certified the district’s reports.
We agree. The Department is implementing procedures to notify a district’s Board of Education when district’s reports are not submitted or certified by the superintendent. The Department is also seeking to amend Education Law §2802 in 2005 to ensure the accuracy of the reported data, by requiring superintendents of schools to certify that the data reported are accurate and true. Under this bill, the knowing or intentional submission of false and inaccurate data would be cause for removal of certification.
Recommendation 9 - Develop more appropriate and more comprehensive procedures for the assessment of evidence presented by schools that are seeking to avoid being designated as persistently dangerous, and formalize these procedures in policy or regulation.
We agree. We will require documentation for changes to data already submitted by school districts and will outline these.
Recommendation 10 - Require schools on the preliminary list of persistently dangerous schools to submit documentation in support of any revisions they make to previously reported incident data. If this documentation is questionable, either deny the revisions or visit the schools and review their records to ensure that the revisions are appropriate. In addition, visit some or all of these schools, as appropriate, to verify the incident data that is submitted for the current year.
In the past, the Department has accepted oral explanation and/or written documentation to justify changes in data. However, in the future, the Department will only accept written documentation to support changes in reported data. In addition, Department staff will visit schools to review and verify incident data as staff resources allow.
Recommendation 11 - Verify the accuracy and completeness of the 2003-04 and 2004-05 incident data submitted by the 14 schools that were removed from the list of persistently dangerous schools in 2005. If, after review, any of the schools have a Violence Index of 25 or higher in both school years, determine whether the schools should be designated as persistently dangerous.
The Department will do so. We will also use more current data and closely review these schools’ 2004-2005 and as needed 2005-2006 data. If the transitional violence standard equals or exceeds the threshold established by the Commissioner, the Department will place the school(s) on the potentially persistently dangerous list for 2006-2007.
Recommendation 12 - Require school districts to affirm in the annual incident report that they have given parents a choice of a different school when their children are victims of violent criminal offenses at school.
The Department will amend the annual incident report to include a school district affirmation that parents have been properly advised of transfer options when such options exist consistent with the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, USDOE’s non-regulatory guidance, Education Law §2802(7)(c), and 8NYCRR §120.5(d).
Recommendation 13 - Develop automated processing controls that will check the incident data entered on the School Accountability Data System for completeness, reasonableness, and internal consistencies and discrepancies.
We have been working to this end for the past two years. Beginning January 2006, the Department now has the capacity to collect this information electronically. The electronic data collection system includes edits to improve the accuracy of the data.
Recommendation 14 - Develop a fully automated incident reporting system in which the school districts electronically submit their incident data. Beginning January 2006, the Department now has the capacity to collect this information electronically. The electronic data collection system includes edits to improve the accuracy of the data.
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