REPORT OF EXAMINATION 2019-MS-1 DIVISION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY New York State School Safety A Statewide and Regional Review August 2019 Spotlight on Education Table of Contents Introduction 1 2 Recent Audits of SAVE Act Planning Requirements 2 3 3 4 5 6 8 9 9 Conclusion 11 Regional Profiles 12 Appendix 22 Notes 23 25 Introduction Violence of any type has no place in schools. In the absolute worst cases, such incidents may end with loss of life. Yet other instances of violence and disruption, such as assaults, sexual offenses, bomb threats and weapons possession, can also cause serious physical and emotional harm. Students need and deserve a safe learning environment. Parents, educators, the public and State policymakers agree that student safety must be a top priority in every school. In an effort to secure school buildings from both internal and external threats, school districts in New York State are spending millions of dollars annually to install security cameras and metal detectors and restrict access to school buildings by reinforcing entrances. These figures do not include spending on personnel, such as school resource officers or staff to handle oversight of entrances, which is not separately reported. This report summarizes some of the information reported by New York’s public school districts on violent and disruptive incidents and expenditures on school building security materials and equipment, and includes a series of regional profiles. In these difficult times, including what can feel like an epidemic of violence and mass shootings, it is critical that school and government officials, parents, and communities at large are aware of what’s happening in our schools. The Office of the State Comptroller’s (OSC) audits and reports are assessing school districts’ reported data and their compliance with requirements designed to ensure that we are providing the safest, most effective educational environment possible for our children and school personnel. New York State School Safety by the Numbers Violent and Disruptive Incidents in Schools: School Year (SY) 2017-18 (includes New York City and charter schools) 32,084 Total Incidents • 14,144 Assaults • 7,006 Alcohol or Drugs • 5,464 Weapons Possession • 4,583 Sexual Offenses • 692 False Alarms • 194 Bomb Threats • 1 Homicide Capital Expenditures on School Building Security: SY 2013-14 to 2017-18 (excludes New York City and charter schools) $27.1 million Total Spending • • • • • $15.1 million on Security Cameras $4.4 million on Interior Hardened Doors $3.4 million on Exterior Hardened Doors $3.5 million on Electronic Security Systems $670,328 on Metal Detectors New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 1 School Safety and the SAVE Act In 1999, a State-authorized task force consisting of parents, teachers, school administrators, law enforcement experts, business leaders, mental health professionals and local elected officials was created for the purpose of providing recommendations on how to prevent school violence and increase the safety of students and teachers in New York’s public schools. The task force’s work was referred to as “Project SAVE” and it helped shape the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) Act, which was adopted into law in 2000, a year after the tragic school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.1 The SAVE Act requires all New York State public schools, including charter schools, to document “violent and disruptive incidents” taking place on school property, including incidents occurring in or on a school bus, and at school functions. This data is then used to create lists of “persistently dangerous schools.”2 It also requires the board of education of every school district in the State, every board of cooperative educational services (BOCES) and every county vocational education and extension board, and the chancellor of the New York City school district, to develop comprehensive districtwide and building-level school safety plans. Investments in school building security equipment and materials – i.e. video surveillance cameras, “hardening” of exterior and interior doorways, and alarm systems, among other things – may be included in the comprehensive safety plans and their expenditures are reported to the New York State Education Department (SED) through school district annual financial filings. This report uses the data outlined above, as reported by school districts and charter schools to SED, to describe the overall level of safety and preparedness of schools statewide. It does not assess the accuracy of the reporting by individual school districts, nor the effectiveness of SED in overseeing such reporting, although several audits by this agency have found schools that have underreported or miscategorized violent or bullying incidents.3 However, the data are still useful in helping to understand the different challenges facing schools depending on what grades they serve, the background of their students, and even what region of the State they are in. Recent Audits of SAVE Act Planning Requirements OSC recently completed a series of audits on the implementation and oversight of the SAVE Act’s planning requirement. The first audit reviewed SED’s oversight of school safety planning and found that SED was not sufficiently monitoring school districts’ compliance with the requirements for school safety planning and other requirements related to the Act.4 The next audit examined the New York City Department of Education’s implementation of school safety planning requirements, at the school district and school building level. This audit found that the Department needs to improve its compliance with the school safety planning requirements outlined in the Law and State and City Regulations.5 Most recently, OSC released a global summary of a series of audits conducted in 17 school districts and two charter schools in the rest of the State, which found that none of the school safety plans met all the minimum requirements of the SAVE Act and that no schools met all of the annual safety training requirements.6 2 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review School Safety and Educational Climate Incident Category SED publishes aggregated data reported by schools on violent and disruptive incidents in its School Safety and Educational Climate (SSEC) summary. In school year (SY) 2017-18, over 4,700 New York State public and charter schools, with a combined student population of nearly 2.7 million, reported a total of 32,084 violent and disruptive incidents. 7 Figure 1 School Violent and Disruptive Incidents Reported by Category, SY 2017-18 Category Assault Alcohol or Drugs Weapons Possession Sexual Offenses False Alarm Bomb Threat Homicide Total Statewide Incidents Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students 14,144 7,006 5,464 4,583 692 194 1 32,084 44.1% 21.8% 17.0% 14.3% 2.2% 0.6% <0.1% 100.0% 5.3 2.6 2.0 1.7 0.3 0.1 <0.1 12.0 The most commonly-reported type of incident was assault. Assaults Source: New York State Education Department (SED), School Safety and Educational Climate (SSEC), SY 2017-18, with calculations by the Office of the that are reported to SED by school State Comptroller (OSC). Includes charter schools but does not include Pre-K districts involve some level of only schools. injury. This can include anything from a playground fight that results in a black eye, abrasion or headache (reported as “assault with physical injury”) to an altercation that requires a visit to the emergency room or even a hospital stay (reported as “assault with serious physical injury”). Schools reported a total of 14,144 incidents of assault of all kinds, or 44 percent of the total incidents. (See Figure 1.) Assaults with serious physical injury accounted for less than one-tenth of all assaults. Alcohol and drug-related incidents (just over 7,000) were the next most common type and include illegally using, possessing, or being under the influence of a controlled substance, marijuana, or alcohol. Drugs are much more commonly reported than alcohol, making up over 84 percent of these incidents. Weapons possession accounted for 17 percent of total incidents. Weapons include, but are not limited to, firearms, knives and explosives. Just over 30 percent of these weapons were found through routine security checks, with the rest discovered under other circumstances. Sexual offenses comprise a wide range of behaviors. By far the most common were “other sexual offenses” (89 percent), which include inappropriate touching of another student on a part of the body that is generally regarded as private and sexual conduct involving a child who is incapable of consent by reason of disability or age. The more serious incidents were forcible sexual offenses (11 percent), which include incidents of rape and sodomy. False alarms and bomb threats together were less than 3 percent of the total incidents reported statewide. One homicide was reported by public schools in SY 2017-18. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 3 Grade Organization Schools of different grade levels face different types of challenges. Elementary schools, with nearly 1.3 million pupils, reported the lowest rate of incidents (8.7 per thousand students). But violent and disruptive incident rates climb with grade level: middle or junior high schools had 13.6 incidents per 1,000 students and senior high schools had 15.1 incidents per 1,000 students. (See Figure 2.) Assaults made up nearly 63 percent of the total incidents in elementary schools, with sexual offenses accounting for another 20 percent. By high school, the largest percentage of incidents involve alcohol and drugs (44 percent), followed by assaults (25 percent). This is not to say that assaults and sexual offenses go away in higher grade levels. The rate of assaults per 1,000 students is 3.8 in high school, higher than for any category of incident other than alcohol and drugs. Sexual offense rates are slightly higher in middle or junior high schools than in elementary schools, although they drop in high school. In addition, the severity of the incidents is different: the percentage of assaults that resulted in serious injuries rises from 5 percent in elementary to nearly 9 percent in high school. Similarly, while just over 7 percent of sexual offenses in elementary schools were forcible offenses, in high school this rises to over 16 percent. Figure 2 School Violent and Disruptive Incidents by Grade Organization, SY 2017-18 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 17.5 15.1 13.6 8.7 Elementary Elementary Middle and Junior Middle or High Junior High 11,307 5,920 Senior High High Senior 10,386 Other Schools Schools Other 4,471 Incidents Incidents Incidents Incidents 1,295,592 433,940 686,886 255,478 Students Students Students Students As a Share of Total Incidents By Category Alcohol and Drugs False Alarm Assault Sexual Offenses Bomb Threat Weapons Possession 15.9% 43.8% 62.8% 43.2% 24.9% 20.4% 11.4% Elementary 27.3% 17.5% 7.2% 42.6% 11.1% 20.1% 21.8% 16.1% Middle or Junior High Senior High Other Schools Incidents Per 1,000 Students by Category Category Middle or Senior Other Elementary Junior High High Schools Alcohol and Drugs 0.2 2.2 6.6 4.8 Assault 5.5 5.9 3.8 7.4 Bomb Threat 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 False Alarm 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.4 Sexual Offenses 1.8 2.4 1.1 1.9 Weapons Possession 1.0 2.7 3.3 2.8 Total Incidents 8.7 13.6 15.1 17.5 Source: SED, SSEC, SY 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Includes charter schools but does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar chart. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high and K-12 schools, along with 8 schools that did not have an identifiable grade organization. One homicide occurred in other schools. 4 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Need/Resource Capacity Figure 3 Violent and disruptive incidents in schools also vary depending on the type of district the school is in. SED uses a need/resource capacity index as a broad measure of student need relative to school district wealth.8 (New York City is not included in this discussion, but it is included in the Regional Overview section starting on page 6.) The large city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers (shown as the “Big 4 Cities”) had the highest incident rate (13.2 per thousand students). However, high-need rural and high-need urban/suburban districts had high rates as well (11.7 and 11.3 incidents per 1,000 students, respectively). These three categories of high need districts, added together, serve close to half a million of the State’s children. Average-need school districts, which serve the largest group – 742,000 pupils – had a lower rate, but still had the highest total number of incidents (outside of New York City). Low-need schools had the fewest incidents per thousand students, with 4.8. (See Figure 3.) Weapons possession accounted for 36 percent of all incidents in the Big 4 Cities, and 22 percent in other high-need urban/suburban districts, making it a much larger issue for those schools than in high-need rural school districts, where alcohol and drug incidents were more common. School Violent and Disruptive Incidents by Need/Resource Capacity, SY 2017-18 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students High Need 13.2 11.7 11.3 8.6 4.8 Big 4 Cities Big Cities Urban/Suburban Urban/ Suburban 1,417 2,370 Rural Rural 1,726 Average Need Average Need Low Need Low 6,403 1,744 Incidents Incidents Incidents Incidents Incidents 107,569 210,468 147,545 741,734 364,461 Students Students Students Students Students As a Share of Total Incidents by Category Alcohol and Drugs False Alarm Assault Sexual Offenses Bomb Threat Weapons Possession High Need 25.5% 28.8% 29.6% 39.0% 6.2% 7.2% 35.6% Big 4 Cities 22.3% Urban/ Suburban 33.3% 38.5% 40.0% 36.7% 8.5% 14.2% 7.9% 14.0% 7.2% 8.9% Rural Average Need Low Need 45.2% 36.4% Incidents Per 1,000 Students by Category Big 4 Cities High Need Urban/ Suburban 3.4 3.2 3.9 Average Need 3.3 Assault 3.9 4.4 4.7 3.2 1.7 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0 False Alarm 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.1 Sexual Offenses 0.8 0.8 1.0 0.7 0.3 Weapons Possession 4.7 2.5 1.7 1.2 0.4 13.2 11.3 11.7 8.6 4.8 Category Alcohol and Drugs Total Incidents Rural Low Need 2.2 Source: SED, SSEC, SY 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include charter schools, New York City schools and Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 6.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar chart. Notes: Big 4 Cities comprise the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 5 Although alcohol and drug-related incidents were the biggest issue for districts with higher wealth levels, their rate of 2.2 incidents per 1,000 students was substantially lower than in other districts. Conversely, although these incidents represented a smaller share of the total in highand average-need districts, the rate in those districts is higher: between 3.2 and 3.4 incidents per thousand students in most of these categories, and 3.9 in high-need rural districts. Similarly, while assaults accounted for a similar percentage of incidents in most types of districts, the rate of assaults per thousand students was considerably lower in low-need schools (1.7) than in average-need schools (3.2), and highest in high-need rural districts (4.7). Regional Overview New York City’s public schools, which serve 1.1 million (40 percent) of the State’s 2.7 million students, reported 17,991 incidents, or 56 percent of the State’s total. Even though a recent OSC audit found that the City’s schools had underreported and misclassified similar types of data in the past, New York City’s rate of 16.8 incidents per thousand students was higher than any other region in New York. The City’s rate was also higher than the Big 4 Cities in the need/resource capacity discussion above. In contrast, the other (largely suburban) downstate districts of the Long Island and Mid-Hudson regions had the lowest rates in the State, at 6.1 and 7.6 incidents per thousand, respectively.9 Upstate incident rates varied less, from 9.0 in the North Country to 12.0 in the Capital District. (See Figure 4.) The types of incidents reported varied considerably by region. Downstate, New York City’s most frequently reported incidents were assault, sexual offenses and weapons possession, while the Long Island and Mid-Hudson regions’ schools had a much larger proportion of drug and alcohol incidents. Upstate, assaults were most frequently reported by schools in the North Country and the Capital District, while alcohol and drug incidents were more common in the Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley regions. Central New York reported a much higher percentage of weapons possessions incidents in the State than any other region did, and Mohawk Valley and North Country schools reported higher rates of sexual offenses. New York City has high overall incident rates including a high percentage of assaults, reporting 8.3 assaults per thousand students, the highest in the State and significantly higher than the next region (Capital District at 5.3). The City also reported 3.3 sexual offenses per 1,000, which was three times higher than the second-highest region (Mohawk Valley with 1.1). However, the City also had the lowest rates of alcohol and drug-related incidents in the State, while other regions ranged from 2.3 to 4.4 incidents per thousand students. (For additional regional statistics, go to the Regional Profiles section starting on page 12.) 6 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Figure 4 School Violent and Disruptive Incidents by Economic Development Region, SY 2017-18 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students Upstate Downstate 16.8 12.0 Capital Capital District District 1,726 Incidents 144,042 Students 10.3 Central Central NY NY 1,168 Incidents 113,162 Students 11.3 Finger Finger Lakes Lakes 1,905 Incidents 168,228 Students 9.5 10.9 9.0 Mohawk Mohawk Valley Valley 589 Incidents 61,830 Students 10.5 7.6 6.1 North North Country Country 525 Incidents 58,544 Southern Southern Tier Tier 1,003 Incidents 91,839 Students Students Western Western NY NY 2,006 Incidents 191,394 Students Long Long Island Island 2,662 Incidents 438,996 Students Mid-MidHudson New New York York City Hudson City 2,509 17,991 Incidents Incidents 330,465 1,073,396 Students Students As a Share of Total Incidents by Category Alcohol and Drugs Assault Bomb Threat False Alarm Sexual Offenses Upstate Weapons Possession Downstate 11.3% 30.0% 33.3% 35.6% 28.0% 37.0% 40.7% 30.6% 38.7% 39.0% 49.4% 28.7% 44.1% 36.4% 30.7% 6.8% 11.7% 17.9% Finger Lakes 46.5% 35.1% 42.0% 37.7% 33.4% 8.6% 26.9% 19.0% Capital District Central NY 19.6% 11.6% 6.2% 6.9% 16.0% 11.6% 15.2% 17.3% 12.5% 16.7% 17.1% Mohawk Valley North Country Southern Tier Western NY Long Island MidHudson New York City 7.6% 9.0% Incidents Per 1,000 Students by Category Upstate Category Capital Central District NY Downstate Finger Mohawk North Southern Western Lakes Valley Country Tier NY Long Island MidNew Hudson York City Alcohol and Drugs 3.6 3.4 4.0 3.5 2.5 4.4 3.2 2.3 3.0 1.9 Assault 5.3 3.0 4.1 2.9 4.2 3.8 4.4 2.3 2.5 8.3 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.1 False Alarm 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.4 Sexual Offenses 0.5 0.9 0.8 1.1 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.6 3.3 Weapons Possession 2.3 2.8 2.0 1.5 1.0 1.7 1.8 0.8 1.3 2.9 12.0 10.3 11.3 9.5 9.0 10.9 10.5 6.1 7.6 16.8 Total Incidents Source: SED, SSEC, SY 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Includes charter schools but does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 6.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar chart. One homicide occurred in New York City. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 7 No Incidents Just over one-fourth, or 1,210, of all public and charter schools that submitted violent and disruptive incident data reported having no incidents of any kind in SY 2017-18. Collectively, these schools had a student population of over half a million. When looking at schools by grade level, elementary schools were far more likely to report no incidents (nearly 40 percent of all, or 1,034 schools) compared to middle or junior high schools (11 percent) and senior high schools (3.4 percent). (See Figure 5.) By school district type, over half (or 301) of the schools in lowneed districts reported having no incidents. Average-need districts also had a substantial share of schools without incidents (38 percent, or 525 schools). Conversely, 17 percent, or 31, of the schools in the Big 4 Cities reported no incidents. Figure 5 Share of Schools that Reported No Violent and Disruptive Incidents, SY 2017-18 By Grade Organization 39.7% 12.5% 11.4% Elementary 3.4% Middle and Junior High Senior High Other Schools By Need/Resource Capacity High Need 50.3% 25.6% 17.2% Big 4 Cities Urban/Suburban 29.1% Rural 38.4% Average Need Low Need By Economic Development Region Downstate Upstate 34.2% 35.3% 36.6% 25.7% 47.2% 43.0% 40.6% 27.1% 27.9% Regionally, downstate schools 8.3% displayed a stark contrast between New York City (where only 8.3 Capital Central Finger Mohawk North Southern Western Long Mid- New York District NY Lakes Valley Country Tier NY Island Hudson City percent reported having no incidents) and its mainly suburban Source: SED, SSEC, SY 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Charter schools and New York City are not included in the neighbors. Nearly half of Long need/resource capacity chart. Island’s schools reported no Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high and K-12 schools, along with 8 schools that did not have an identifiable grade organization. Big 4 Cities incidents, as did 41 percent of comprise the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse schools in the Mid-Hudson region. and Yonkers. Upstate, the portion of schools reporting no incidents was lower in the western part of the State (the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Western New York) than in other regions. 8 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Building Security Expenditures School districts have made investments in building security materials and equipment over the years to improve school safety, and they report on certain of these in their annual financial filings with SED. They also report whether these investments are included in their district-wide school safety plans.10 These one-time capital investments represent just a fraction of the total spending on school safety improvements: some spending – such as the employment of school resource officers or staff to handle oversight of entrances – is not separately reported. Figure 6 Total School Building Security Capital Expenditures, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18 Total Expenditures $27.1 million Exterior Hardened Doors $3,381,063 (12%) Electronic Security Systems $3,520,802 (13%) Metal Detectors $670,328 (2%) Interior Hardened Doors $4,379,343 (16%) Security Cameras $15,118,132 (56%) Outside of New York City, school districts reported spending just over $27 million on these types of building security materials Source: SED, State Aid Management System (SAMS), SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include charter and equipment from SY 2013-14 to 2017schools or the New York City school district. Totals may not sum to 11 18. Over 50 percent, or $15 million, of 100 percent due to rounding. these expenditures went towards “security cameras,” defined as the purchase of video surveillance equipment, including installation costs. (See Figure 6.) Nearly $8 million went to hardening of interior ($4.4 million) or exterior doors ($3.4 million). Hardening doors includes the purchase and installation of commercial door jams, deadbolt locks and re-enforced screws, plates and hinges. School districts also spent $3.5 million on electronic security systems for operations such as access and intrusion controls, including alarming facilities. Smart Schools Bond Act The expenditures discussed in this section are all funded by traditional State building aid. Schools can also receive funding for “high-tech security” under the $2 billion Smart Schools Bond Act (SSBA), which can be used to fund school and community connectivity, classroom technology, Pre-K classrooms, and to replace transportable classrooms. 12 As of July 1, 2019, a total of 289 school districts had been approved for $145 million in SSBA funding for high-tech security projects including video surveillance, emergency notification systems and physical access controls; relatively little SSBA funding had actually been spent. 13 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 9 As shown in Figure 7, the highly populated downstate regions of the State spent the most in total dollars: Long Island schools spent over $6 million on school building security equipment and materials from SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, and Mid-Hudson schools reported spending another $5.6 million. However, the Mohawk Valley and North Country regions spent the most on a per pupil basis, at $6.74 and $6.30, respectively. Western New York schools reported spending the least, both in total and per pupil. Figure 7 School Building Security Capital Expenditures by Region, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18 Region Long Island Mid-Hudson Finger Lakes Southern Tier Central New York Mohawk Valley North Country Capital District Western New York New York State Total Expenditures (Over 5 Years) $6,171,677 $5,617,347 $3,147,872 $2,225,718 $2,208,410 $2,158,076 $1,889,782 $1,878,871 $1,771,915 $27,069,668 Total Expenditures Per Pupil $2.76 $3.31 $3.74 $4.71 $3.82 $6.74 $6.30 $2.61 $1.89 $3.34 Source: SED, SAMS, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include charter schools or the New York City school district. 10 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Conclusion In order to learn effectively, students need to feel safe. Many students, along with those working in our educational institutions, are confronted with violent and disruptive activity on a regular basis. Fighting and other types of assault are a big part of the problem, and many schools also struggle with the prevalence of alcohol and drugs on school grounds, sexual offenses and students bringing weapons to school. The public rightly demands that school officials take the necessary actions to ensure the safety of all students, from both external and internal threats. An appropriate response in a specific school district and even a specific school building will likely be somewhat different depending on the number and mix of risks the students face. For this reason, the collection of data on violent and disruptive incidents is an important aspect of New York State’s SAVE Act. As this report shows, one size does not fit all as far as school safety is concerned. Students at different grade levels, in schools of different levels of need, and in different parts of the State face different profiles of risk, and schools must manage accordingly. This means that the quality of the data reported is also of utmost importance. OSC audits have found that schools have tended to underreport violent and disruptive incidents and to misclassify the incident types, especially with regard to their severity. The labeling of schools with a high School Violence Index as “persistently dangerous” may be a disincentive to proper reporting. But accurate data is critical for the State and its school districts to make decisions about how to make students safer. Of course, these reports focus on the most common types of violence and disruptive incidents experienced by students and teachers. School district officials must also be concerned about the rare and devastating incidents, such as active shooter emergencies. Schools spent more than $27 million over the last five years to add safety features such as security cameras, alarms and deadbolts, although recent controversial security measures taken by school officials show that school districts must strike a balance between providing a safe learning environment and protecting the privacy of students. 14 Planning is also vital when trying to anticipate such potentially deadly incidents, and our recent audits show that many schools need to do more to enhance this function. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 11 Capital District School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Assault 762 44.1% 5.3 Alcohol and Drugs 517 30.0% 3.6 Weapons Possession 328 19.0% 2.3 Sexual Offenses 69 4.0% 0.5 False Alarm 42 2.4% 0.3 Bomb Threat 8 0.5% 0.1 1,726 100.0% 12.0 Total Incidents 144,042 Student Population 1,726 5.5 8.7 Elementary 13.4 13.6 Middle or Junior High 18.0 As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 25.2% 68.5% 44.9% Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 23.6 15.1 Senior High 17.5 Other Schools 11.3 Urban/Suburban High Need 14.0 Rural High Need 21.1% 21.4% Elementary Middle or Junior High Senior High 9.4% Other Schools Alcohol and Drugs Assault 0.1 3.4 6.8 4.8 Low Need 30.9% 40.9% 44.1% 48.8% 11.8% 13.8% Rural High Need Average Need 9.3% 9.3% Low Need 31.4% Urban/Suburban High Need Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 35.6% 7.5% Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High 8.6 34.4% 41.6% 23.4% 10.7 Average Need Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 53.1% 24.7% 11.7 As a Share of Total Incidents 31.8% 47.8% Capital District New York State 18.9 Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 20.5% Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students Capital District New York State Number of Schools (34.2% Reported No Incidents) $1.9M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Grade Organization 278 Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools 8.6 7.5 Violent and Disruptive Urban/Suburban Rural Average Incident Category High Need High Need Need Alcohol and Drugs 4.0 4.8 Low Need 3.8 2.1 3.8 6.0 4.5 12.6 Assault 7.8 5.7 4.7 3.3 Bomb Threat <0.1 <0.1 0.1 0.1 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.0 <0.1 0.0 False Alarm 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.3 False Alarm 0.5 0.8 0.2 0.1 Sexual Offenses 0.3 0.5 0.7 1.0 Sexual Offenses 0.4 1.1 0.4 0.6 Weapons Possession 1.1 3.1 3.9 2.2 Weapons Possession 5.9 1.7 1.5 0.6 Total Incidents 5.5 13.4 18.0 23.6 18.9 14.0 10.7 6.8 Total Incidents Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. 12 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Central New York School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Alcohol and Drugs 389 33.3% 3.4 Assault 335 28.7% 3.0 Weapons Possession 314 26.9% 2.8 Sexual Offenses 100 8.6% 0.9 False Alarm 20 1.7% 0.2 Bomb Threat 10 0.9% 0.1 1,168 100.0% 10.3 Total Incidents 113,162 221 Student Population 1,168 $2.2M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Grade Organization 3.9 8.7 Elementary 14.2 13.6 Middle or Junior High 18.3 Senior High As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 22.0% 27.4% 12.2% 11.3% 34.5% 48.6% 28.7% Elementary Middle or Junior High 15.1 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 13.7 17.5 Other Schools Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 14.6 13.2 Big 4 Cities 11.8 11.3 Urban/ Suburban High Need Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 17.2% 21.0% 30.8% 9.7% 16.4% 7.5% 58.1% 30.6% 33.9% 46.5% Senior High 14.9% 33.1% 44.8% 18.8% Other Schools Big 4 Cities Urban/ Suburban High Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High Alcohol and Drugs Assault 0.3 4.1 Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students Central New York New York State Number of Schools (35.3% Reported No Incidents) 14.3 Central New York New York State 11.7 Rural High Need 8.9 8.6 Average Need 3.0 4.8 Low Need As a Share of Total Incidents Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 15.8% 7.0% 46.5% 26.3% Rural High Need 15.3% 10.7% 23.5% 11.8% 31.6% 23.5% 40.0% 41.2% Average Need Low Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools 8.5 4.5 Violent and Disruptive Big 4 Urban/Suburban Rural Average Low Incident Category Cities High Need High Need Need Need Alcohol and Drugs 2.8 5.3 3.8 3.6 1.3 1.9 4.9 3.0 4.6 Assault 2.2 3.6 6.6 2.8 0.7 Bomb Threat <0.1 0.2 0.2 0.0 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.1 0.0 False Alarm 0.2 0.2 <0.1 0.3 False Alarm 0.4 0.0 0.4 0.1 0.0 Sexual Offenses 0.4 1.7 1.0 1.3 Sexual Offenses 0.7 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.4 Weapons Possession 1.1 3.1 5.6 2.9 Weapons Possession 8.5 2.0 2.3 1.4 0.7 Total Incidents 3.9 14.2 18.3 13.7 14.6 11.8 14.3 8.9 3.0 Total Incidents Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Big 4 Cities comprise the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 13 Finger Lakes School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Assault 694 36.4% 4.1 Alcohol and Drugs 678 35.6% 4.0 Weapons Possession 341 17.9% 2.0 Sexual Offenses 130 6.8% 0.8 False Alarm 45 2.4% 0.3 Bomb Threat 17 0.9% 0.1 1,905 100.0% 11.3 Total Incidents 168,228 323 Student Population 1,905 $3.1M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Grade Organization 6.2 8.7 Elementary 11.7 13.6 Middle or Junior High 18.2 Senior High As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 18.9% 20.2% 7.9% 15.1 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 17.6 17.5 Other Schools 36.1% Elementary Middle or Junior High 14.6 13.2 Big 4 Cities 16.0% 17.6% 11.1% 20.6% Senior High 9.4 8.6 3.6 Average Need Low Need Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 15.2% 9.1% 15.4% 32.9% 29.9% 39.8% 44.9% Rural High Need Average Need 7.0% 54.5% 41.5% 37.7% 19.8% Other Schools Big 4 Cities 4.8 As a Share of Total Incidents 16.0% 8.3% Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High 11.7 Rural High Need 28.3% 29.8% 56.4% 15.5 Finger Lakes New York State Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 32.5% 66.1% Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students Finger Lakes New York State Number of Schools (25.7% Reported No Incidents) 21.2% Low Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools Violent and Disruptive Incident Category Big 4 Cities Rural High Need Average Need Low Need Alcohol and Drugs 0.3 4.2 10.2 6.6 Alcohol and Drugs 2.9 6.2 4.2 0.8 Assault 4.1 3.8 3.7 5.2 Assault 6.1 5.1 2.8 2.0 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.0 False Alarm 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.6 False Alarm 0.6 0.2 0.2 0.0 Sexual Offenses 0.3 0.9 1.1 2.0 Sexual Offenses 0.9 1.3 0.7 0.3 Weapons Possession 1.3 2.2 2.9 3.1 Weapons Possession 4.1 2.5 1.4 0.5 Total Incidents 6.2 11.7 18.2 17.6 14.6 15.5 9.4 3.6 Total Incidents Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Big 4 Cities comprise the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. 14 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Long Island School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Alcohol and Drugs 1,029 38.7% 2.3 Assault 1,003 37.7% 2.3 Weapons Possession 333 12.5% 0.8 Sexual Offenses 239 9.0% 0.5 False Alarm 41 1.5% 0.1 Bomb Threat 17 0.6% <0.1 2,662 100.0% 6.1 Total Incidents 438,996 Student Population 2,662 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students Long Island New York State 8.7 2.9 Elementary 6.5 Middle or Junior High Senior High As a Share of Total Incidents 10.3 8.4 Other Schools Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 10.8% 18.6% 11.5% 19.5% 21.8% 79.6% 39.3% Long Island New York State 17.5 15.1 9.8 Middle or Junior High 11.3 Urban/Suburban High Need 7.8% 18.7% 9.5% 16.7% 42.6% 57.6% 26.6% Senior High Other Schools Urban/Suburban High Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High Alcohol and Drugs Assault 0.1 1.3 8.6 4.8 Average Need Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 14.9% 60.6% 6.7 4.8 Low Need As a Share of Total Incidents 19.6% Elementary Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 13.6 Number of Schools (47.2% Reported No Incidents) $6.2M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Grade Organization 646 Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 8.7% 12.8% 9.9% 7.8% 34.3% 37.9% 47.0% 37.5% Average Need Low Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools 5.9 5.9 Violent and Disruptive Urban/Suburban Incident Category High Need Average Need Low Need Alcohol and Drugs 2.2 2.5 2.3 2.3 2.6 2.1 1.7 Assault 3.6 2.5 1.7 Bomb Threat <0.1 0.1 <0.1 0.2 Bomb Threat 0.0 <0.1 0.1 False Alarm 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 False Alarm 0.2 0.1 <0.1 Sexual Offenses 0.2 1.3 0.5 1.5 Sexual Offenses 0.8 0.7 0.4 Weapons Possession 0.3 1.2 1.1 0.8 Weapons Possession 1.6 0.9 0.4 Total Incidents 2.9 6.5 9.8 10.3 Total Incidents 8.4 6.7 4.8 Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 15 Mid-Hudson School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Alcohol and Drugs 979 39.0% 3.0 Assault 837 33.4% 2.5 Weapons Possession 420 16.7% 1.3 Sexual Offenses 190 7.6% 0.6 False Alarm 60 2.4% 0.2 Bomb Threat 23 0.9% 0.1 2,509 100.0% 7.6 Total Incidents 330,465 545 Student Population 2,509 $5.6M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Grade Organization 3.1 8.7 Elementary 8.2 13.6 Middle or Junior High 12.5 Senior High As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 15.1 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 21.1 40.7% Mid-Hudson New York State 17.5 13.2 6.2 Other Schools Big 4 Cities 60.2% 42.0% 38.8% 33.4% 11.5% 9.7% 7.5% 38.2% Big 4 Cities 9.8% 19.5% 13.2% 18.3% 19.8% 15.4% 12.3% Elementary Middle or Junior High Senior High Other Schools 9.7 11.3 10.5 11.7 Urban/ Suburban High Need Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 20.6% 63.7% Alcohol and Drugs 0.1 1.7 Rural High Need 39.4% 39.1% 23.4% Urban/ Suburban High Need Average Need 4.5 4.8 Low Need Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 25.5% 8.6% 9.3 8.6 As a Share of Total Incidents 25.8% Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students Mid-Hudson New York State Number of Schools (40.6% Reported No Incidents) 40.8% 33.3% 13.6% 14.5% 14.9% Rural High Need Average Need 50.5% 33.8% 7.3% 8.0% Low Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools 7.5 8.9 Violent and Disruptive Big 4 Urban/Suburban Rural Average Low Incident Category Cities High Need High Need Need Need Alcohol and Drugs 2.4 2.5 2.7 3.8 2.2 2.0 3.3 2.3 7.1 Assault 0.7 3.8 4.1 3.1 1.5 Bomb Threat <0.1 0.1 0.1 0.3 Bomb Threat 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.1 False Alarm 0.1 0.4 0.1 0.7 False Alarm 0.1 0.2 0.5 0.3 0.1 Sexual Offenses 0.3 1.1 0.5 1.6 Sexual Offenses 0.6 0.8 1.4 0.7 0.2 Weapons Possession 0.6 1.6 1.9 2.6 Weapons Possession 2.4 2.3 1.5 1.4 0.4 Total Incidents 3.1 8.2 12.5 21.1 Total Incidents 6.2 9.7 10.5 9.3 4.5 Assault Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Big 4 Cities comprise the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. 16 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Mohawk Valley School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Alcohol and Drugs 218 37.0% 3.5 Assault 181 30.7% 2.9 Weapons Possession 94 16.0% 1.5 Sexual Offenses 69 11.7% 1.1 False Alarm 21 3.6% 0.3 Bomb Threat 6 1.0% 0.1 589 100.0% 9.5 Total Incidents 61,830 Student Population 5.2 8.7 Elementary 11.7 13.6 $2.2M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 15.9 15.1 Number of Schools (36.6% Reported No Incidents) 589 Grade Organization Mohawk Valley New York State 145 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 17.5 12.0 Mohawk Valley New York State 13.9 11.3 9.3 11.7 7.6 8.6 2.5 Middle or Junior High Senior High As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 13.5% Other Schools Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 27.6% 56.3% 52.6% 28.4% 16.8% 35.2% 22.5% 16.7% 18.1% 12.2% 21.1% Elementary Middle or Junior High Senior High Other Schools 17.9% Low Need 33.7% 85.7% 38.2% 17.2% 10.2% 14.6% 13.1% Urban/Suburban High Need Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 44.6% 21.0% Rural High Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High Average Need Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 34.3% 10.3% 14.7% Rural High Need As a Share of Total Incidents 42.1% 12.2% 7.2% Urban/Suburban High Need 4.8 10.1% 14.0% 14.3% Average Need Low Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools Violent and Disruptive Urban/Suburban Rural Average Incident Category High Need High Need Need Low Need Alcohol and Drugs 0.7 3.2 8.9 5.0 Alcohol and Drugs 4.8 4.2 2.6 0.0 Assault 2.7 3.3 3.6 2.0 Assault 4.9 1.6 2.9 2.2 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 Bomb Threat 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.4 False Alarm 0.2 1.2 0.3 0.0 False Alarm 0.4 0.6 0.1 0.0 Sexual Offenses 0.6 1.7 1.1 2.1 Sexual Offenses 2.0 1.0 0.8 0.0 Weapons Possession 0.9 2.1 1.9 2.5 Weapons Possession 1.8 2.0 1.1 0.0 Total Incidents 5.2 11.7 15.9 12.0 13.9 9.3 7.6 2.5 Total Incidents Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 17 New York City School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Assault 8,894 49.4% 8.3 Sexual Offenses 3,525 19.6% 3.3 Weapons Possession 3,073 17.1% 2.9 Alcohol and Drugs 2,027 11.3% 1.9 False Alarm 386 2.1% 0.4 Bomb Threat 85 0.5% 0.1 100.0% 16.8 Total Incidents 17,991* 1,073,396 17,991 1,817 Student Population Violent and Disruptive Incidents Number of Schools (8.3% Reported No Incidents) Grade Organization Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students New York City 21.3 14.9 13.6 16.9 15.1 New York State 19.6 17.5 8.7 Elementary Middle or Junior High Senior High Other Schools As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Assault Bomb Threat False Alarm 8.3% 48.3% 29.7% 21.6% 9.7% 20.6% 28.4% Middle or Junior High Senior High 25.5% 8.8% Weapons Possession 14.7% 29.1% 47.1% 61.7% Elementary Sexual Offenses 14.8% 19.3% Other Schools Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Incident Category Alcohol and Drugs Assault Bomb Threat False Alarm Sexual Offenses Weapons Possession Total Incidents Elementary 0.3 9.2 <0.1 0.3 3.8 1.3 14.9 Middle or Junior High 1.8 10.0 0.1 0.4 4.6 4.4 21.3 Senior High 4.9 5.0 0.1 0.4 1.6 4.8 16.9 Other Schools 2.9 9.5 0.1 0.4 2.9 3.8 19.6 Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. *New York City also reported one homicide in SY 2017-18. 18 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review North Country School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Assault 244 46.5% 4.2 Alcohol and Drugs 147 28.0% 2.5 Sexual Offenses 61 11.6% 1.0 Weapons Possession 61 11.6% 1.0 False Alarm 8 1.5% 0.1 Bomb Threat 4 0.8% 0.1 525 100.0% 9.0 Total Incidents 58,544 Student Population 4.2 8.7 Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students North Country New York State 13.6 $1.9M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 9.4 Number of Schools (43.0% Reported No Incidents) 525 Grade Organization 14.4 15.1 149 12.9 North Country New York State 17.5 14.9 11.3 9.1 11.7 7.3 8.6 4.8 0.0 Elementary Middle or Junior High Senior High Other Schools Urban/Suburban High Need Rural High Need As a Share of Total Incidents Average Need As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 9.3% 11.1% 9.6% 11.4% 10.7% 11.3% 7.0% 11.5% 11.9% 15.0% 33.7% 45.8% 64.0% 42.7% 43.8% 41.6% 32.2% 22.1% 30.4% 26.8% Urban/Suburban High Need Rural High Need Average Need 21.6% 13.5% 31.1% 77.8% 28.4% Elementary Middle or Junior High Low Need Senior High Other Schools Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 13.7% 0.0% Low Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools Violent and Disruptive Urban/Suburban Rural Average Incident Category High Need High Need Need Low Need Alcohol and Drugs 0.0 2.7 6.0 4.2 Alcohol and Drugs 3.3 2.8 2.0 0.0 Assault 3.3 2.9 4.9 5.9 Assault 9.6 3.9 3.2 0.0 Bomb Threat 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.0 Bomb Threat 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 False Alarm 0.1 0.5 0.2 0.0 False Alarm 0.2 0.2 <0.1 0.0 Sexual Offenses 0.5 1.3 1.6 1.5 Sexual Offenses 1.0 1.1 1.0 0.0 Weapons Possession 0.4 2.0 1.4 1.4 Weapons Possession 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.0 Total Incidents 4.2 9.4 14.4 12.9 14.9 9.1 7.3 0.0 Total Incidents Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 19 Southern Tier School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Alcohol and Drugs 408 40.7% 4.4 Assault 352 35.1% 3.8 Weapons Possession 152 15.2% 1.7 Sexual Offenses 62 6.2% 0.7 False Alarm 21 2.1% 0.2 Bomb Threat 8 0.8% 0.1 1,003 100.0% 10.9 Total Incidents 91,839 Student Population Violent and Disruptive Incidents 4.3 8.7 Elementary 13.2 13.6 Middle or Junior High Senior High As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 26.7% 15.1 Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 9.8% 12.8% 15.5% 17.2 17.5 11.3 Other Schools Middle or Junior High 27.6% 19.9% 49.4% 33.0% Senior High Other Schools Urban/Suburban High Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High Alcohol and Drugs Assault 0.3 4.0 Rural High Need Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 68.2% Elementary 11.7 9.9 8.6 Average Need As a Share of Total Incidents 45.3% 30.2% 11.9 11.3 Urban/Suburban High Need 13.4% 37.4% 57.2% Southern Tier New York State Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 17.3% Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 18.2 Number of Schools (27.1% Reported No Incidents) 1,003 $2.2M Grade Organization Southern Tier New York State 225 Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 11.1% 8.7% 15.3% 33.6% 43.8% 43.4% 32.6% Rural High Need Average Need Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools 12.4 5.7 Violent and Disruptive Urban/Suburban Incident Category High Need Alcohol and Drugs 5.6 Rural High Need Average Need 3.9 4.3 2.5 4.9 2.8 7.8 Assault 2.2 5.2 3.3 Bomb Threat <0.1 0.1 <0.1 0.3 Bomb Threat 0.0 0.2 0.1 False Alarm 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.6 False Alarm 0.1 0.2 0.2 Sexual Offenses 0.2 1.7 1.0 0.5 Sexual Offenses 0.2 0.6 0.9 Weapons Possession 1.1 2.3 1.8 2.3 Weapons Possession 3.1 1.8 1.1 Total Incidents 4.3 13.2 18.2 17.2 11.3 11.9 9.9 Total Incidents Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. 20 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Western New York School Safety Regional Profiles School Year 2017-18 Violent and Disruptive Number of As a Share of Incidents Per Incident Category Incidents Total Incidents 1,000 Students Assault 842 42.0% 4.4 Alcohol and Drugs 614 30.6% 3.2 Weapons Possession 348 17.3% 1.8 Sexual Offenses 138 6.9% 0.7 False Alarm 48 2.4% 0.3 Bomb Threat 16 0.8% 0.1 2,006 100.0% 10.5 Total Incidents 191,394 359 Student Population 2,006 $1.8M Violent and Disruptive Incidents Grade Organization 5.9 8.7 Elementary 9.8 13.6 Middle or Junior High 16.5 15.1 Senior High As a Share of Total Incidents Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses 16.5% 10.7% 17.3% 8.4% 41.2% 60.9% 9.9% Elementary 25.7% Middle or Junior High Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students 16.3 17.5 Other Schools Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 15.1% 19.2% 16.6 Western New York New York State 13.2 Big 4 Cities 12.7 11.7 9.7 11.3 Urban/ Suburban High Need Alcohol and Drugs Bomb Threat Sexual Offenses Alcohol and Drugs Assault 0.6 2.5 As a Share of Total Incidents 7.0% Assault False Alarm Weapons Possession 34.8% 57.5% 44.6% 45.5% 29.3% 33.7% 25.2% 31.3% 29.1% Big 4 Cities Urban/ Suburban High Need Rural High Need Average Need Low Need 33.3% Other Schools 7.0% Per 1,000 Students By Category Violent and Disruptive Middle or Incident Category Elementary Junior High Low Need 12.7% 34.6% 46.4% Average Need 5.1 4.8 13.1% 20.9% 44.7% Rural High Need 8.1 8.6 7.9% 27.7% 26.0% Senior High Building Security Expenditures (SY 2013-14 to 2017-18) Need/Resource Capacity Total Incidents Per 1,000 Students Western New York New York State Number of Schools (27.9% Reported No Incidents) 7.2% 7.3% Per 1,000 Students By Category Senior High Other Schools 7.6 5.4 Violent and Disruptive Big 4 Urban/Suburban Rural Average Low Incident Category Cities High Need High Need Need Need Alcohol and Drugs 4.9 3.3 3.2 2.5 1.5 3.6 4.0 4.3 7.3 Assault 5.7 3.4 7.3 3.6 2.3 Bomb Threat <0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 Bomb Threat 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 False Alarm 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.3 False Alarm 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.3 Sexual Offenses 0.5 1.0 1.0 0.8 Sexual Offenses 1.0 0.7 1.0 0.6 0.4 Weapons Possession 1.0 1.6 3.2 2.5 Weapons Possession 4.6 2.0 0.9 1.1 0.6 Total Incidents 5.9 9.8 16.5 16.3 16.6 9.7 12.7 8.1 5.1 Total Incidents Sources: New York State Education Department, School Safety and Educational Climate, SY 2017-18; State Aid Management System, SY 2013-14 to 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Does not include Pre-K only schools. Data labels that are less than 7.0 percent are not shown in the stacked bar charts above. Totals may not sum in tables and charts due to rounding. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high, K-12 schools and schools with no identifiable grade organization. Big 4 Cities comprise the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. Charter schools are not included in need/resource capacity. New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 21 Appendix Schools (and Students) that Reported Violent and Disruptive Incident Data, SY 2017-18 Grade Organization Elementary Schools Percentage Number of Total Students Percentage Number of Total 2,604 55.3% 1,295,592 48.5% Middle or Junior High 736 15.6% 433,940 16.2% Senior High 872 18.5% 686,886 25.7% Other Schools 496 Need Resource/Capacity New York City* 10.5% Schools Percentage Number of Total 255,478 9.6% Students Percentage Number of Total 1,593 33.8% 961,655 36.0% Big 4 Cities 180 3.8% 107,569 4.0% Urban/Suburban High Need 317 6.7% 210,468 7.9% Rural High Need 375 8.0% 147,545 5.5% 1,368 29.1% 741,734 27.8% Low Need 598 12.7% 364,461 13.6% Charter Schools* 277 Average Need Economic Development Region 5.9% Schools Percentage Number of Total 138,464 5.2% Students Percentage Number of Total Capital District 278 5.9% 144,042 5.4% Central New York 221 4.7% 113,162 4.2% Finger Lakes 323 6.9% 168,228 6.3% Long Island 646 13.7% 438,996 16.4% Mid-Hudson 545 11.6% 330,465 12.4% Mohawk Valley 145 3.1% 61,830 2.3% New York City 1,817 38.6% 1,073,396 40.2% North Country 149 3.2% 58,544 2.2% Southern Tier 225 4.8% 91,839 3.4% Western New York 359 7.6% 191,394 7.2% 4,708 100.0% 2,671,896 100.0% New York State Source: SED, SSEC, SY 2017-18, with calculations by OSC. Includes charter schools, but does not include Pre-K only schools. Notes: Other schools include junior-senior high and K-12 schools, along with 8 schools that did not have an identifiable grade organization. Big 4 Cities comprise the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers. *These need/resource capacity categories are not included in the report. 22 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Notes Chapter 181 of the Laws of 2000 enacted Project SAVE, the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act. For more information and resources on Project SAVE and New York State’s SAVE Act, go to www.nyscfss.org/project-save-safetyplans and www.p12.nysed.gov/sss/ssae/schoolsafety/save/. 1 In 2017, an amendment to the New York State Commissioner’s Regulations, Section 100.2 (gg), was adopted by the Board of Regents, thus creating the School Safety and Educational Climate (SSEC) summary data collection where public school districts and charter schools began submitting all Violent and Disruptive Incident Reporting (VADIR) data starting in SY 2017-18. In accordance with federal law, VADIR data are weighted to reflect the most serious violent incidents, using a combination of a school’s School Violence Index and Weighted Incident Exclusion Process. The purpose of such data is to determine which public elementary and secondary schools are considered “persistently dangerous.” For more information on SSEC and VADIR reporting requirements and methodology, go to www.p12.nysed.gov/sss/ssae/schoolsafety/vadir/. 2 See Office of the New York State Comptroller (OSC), State Education Department Compliance With the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act (2013-S-71), January 2015, www.osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093015/13s71.pdf. See also OSC, Implementation of the Dignity for All Students Act: New York City Department of Education (2017-N-6), March 2019, www.osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093019/sga-2019-17n6.pdf. 3 OSC, Overight of School Safety Planning Requirements: State Education Department (2018-S-34), April 2019, www.osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093019/sga-2019-18s34.pdf. 4 OSC, Compliance With School Safety Planning Requirements: New York City Department of Education (2018-N-2), June 2019, www.osc.state.ny.us/audits/allaudits/093019/sga-2019-18n2.pdf. 5 OSC, Safe Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) Act – Safety Plans (2019-MS-1), July 2019, www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/swr/2019/safe-schools/global-2019-ms-1.pdf. 6 For the purpose of this report, some of the VADIR categories were merged together. For a definition of VADIR categories, go to www.p12.nysed.gov/sss/ssae/schoolsafety/vadir/glossary201718.html. 7 8 High-need categories include large city (the dependent city school districts of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, referred to as “Big 4 Cities”), urban/suburban high-need and rural high-need. For this report, the need/resource capacity categories of New York City and charter schools were not included. However, New York City is included in the regional overview section. For this report, “downstate” includes the regions of Long Island, Mid-Hudson and New York City, while “upstate” includes the Capital District, Central New York, Finger Lakes, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Southern Tier and Western New York regions. 9 Charter schools and the New York City school district do not report their expenditures on school building security materials and equipment to SED. 10 School districts use Form FB, Schedule N, to submit their total expenditures on school building security materials and equipment through the SED’s State Aid Management System. For more information on the various types of expenditures reported by school districts, go to stateaid.nysed.gov/sams/. Since these are one-time capital expenditures, the discussion in the section is based on aggregated spending over the most recent five years reported, SY 2013-14 through 2017-18. 11 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 23 Notes The Smart School Bond Act was included in Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2014, as part of the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2014-15 Enacted Budget, and was approved by the voters in a statewide referendum held during the 2014 General Election. See Education Law Section 3641(16). 12 As of July 1, 2019, the State had approved plans for over $1.4 billion in total Smart School Bond Act spending. See New York State Education Department, Smart Schools, last updated June 27, 2019, at www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/smart_schools. As of the end of SFY 2019-20, the State had reported spending $235 million of this amount, with no breakdown by expenditure category. See New York State Enacted Capital Program and Financing Plan reports for SFY 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, which may be found at www.budget.ny.gov. 13 Jeff Preval, “State tells Lockport Schools to stop using facial recognition, again,” WGRZ, June 28, 2019, www.wgrz.com/article/news/state-tells-lockport-schools-to-stop-using-facial-recognition-again/71abc0e45d-82ba-462e-8c24-b97614b7412a. 14 24 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review Office of the NEW YORK STATE COMPTROLLER New Yor k St at e Compt roller THOMAS P. DiNAPOLI Division of Local Government and School Accountability 110 State Street, 12th floor, Albany, NY 12236 Tel: 518.474.4037 • Fax: 518.486.6479 Email: localgov@osc.ny.gov GLENS FALLS BUFFALO BINGHAMTON NEWBURGH www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov Executive • 518.474.4037 SYRACUSE ROCHESTER HAUPPAUGE Technical Assistance is available at any of our Regional Offices Elliott Auerbach, Deputy Comptroller Tracey Hitchen Boyd, Assistant Comptroller BINGHAMTON REGIONAL OFFICE Tel 607.721.8306 • Fax 607.721.8313 • Email Muni-Binghamton@osc.ny.gov Audits, Local Government Services and Professional Standards • 518.474.5404 BUFFALO REGIONAL OFFICE Tel 716.847.3647 • Fax 716.847.3643 • Email Muni-Buffalo@osc.ny.gov (Audits, Technical Assistance, Accounting and Audit Standards) Local Government and School Accountability Help Line • 866.321.8503 or 518.408.4934 (Electronic Filing, Financial Reporting, Justice Courts, Training) Counties: Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, Tioga, Tompkins Counties: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, Wyoming GLENS FALLS REGIONAL OFFICE Tel 518.793.0057 • Fax 518.793.5797 • Email Muni-GlensFalls@osc.ny.gov Counties: Albany, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, Washington HAUPPAUGE REGIONAL OFFICE Tel 631.952.6534 • Fax 631.952.6091 • Email Muni-Hauppauge@osc.ny.gov Counties: Nassau, Suffolk Division of Legal Services Municipal Law Section • 518.474.5586 New York State & Local Retirement System Retirement Information Services Inquiries on Employee Benefits and Programs 518.474.7736 NEWBURGH REGIONAL OFFICE Tel 845.567.0858 • Fax 845.567.0080 • Email Muni-Newburgh@osc.ny.gov Counties: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster, Westchester ROCHESTER REGIONAL OFFICE Tel 585.454.2460 • Fax 585.454.3545 • Email Muni-Rochester@osc.ny.gov Counties: Cayuga, Chemung, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne, Yates SYRACUSE REGIONAL OFFICE Tel 315.428.4192 • Fax 315.426.2119 • Email Muni-Syracuse@osc.ny.gov Counties: Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, St. Lawrence STATEWIDE AUDIT Tel 315.793.2484 New York State School Safety: A Statewide and Regional Review 25 Contact Office of the New York State Comptroller Division of Local Government and School Accountability 110 State Street, 12th floor Albany, NY 12236 Tel: (518) 474-4037 Fax: (518) 486-6479 or email us: localgov@osc.ny.gov www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/index.htm Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/nyscomptroller Follow us on Twitter @nyscomptroller