Int. No. 226-A

By Council Members Vallone Jr., Moskowitz, Addabbo Jr., Fidler, Foster, Gentile, Koppell, Nelson, Weprin, Palma, Gennaro, Sanders Jr., Liu, Comrie, Recchia Jr., Vann, McMahon, Seabrook, Rivera, Felder, Katz, Sears, Martinez and The Public Advocate (Ms. Gotbaum)

A Local Law to amend the New York city charter, in relation to requiring the police department and the department of education to provide the public with information regarding school violence.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Legislative intent and findings.

In order to combat violence in our schools, residents of the city must have accurate information on the number and types of incidents occurring and where these incidents are taking place. This information must be made public so that parents are aware of the safety conditions within which their children learn and so that our civic leaders can institute meaningful reform.

The police department collects and reports information about criminal incidents and certain non-criminal incidents that occur in the schools. The Department of Education currently provides information to the public on its website about incidents in schools based on reports prepared by the Police Department. In addition, the Department of Education maintains the Online Occurrence Reporting System (“OORS”), in which information concerning violent and seriously disruptive incidents in the schools (in addition to other types of information not related to school safety) is recorded. The information relevant to school safety in OORS is not currently reported by the Department of Education on its website.

To help parents and the public understand and fully assess the problem of school crime and other serious disruptive incidents, the DOE must continue to post school safety data on the internet and to enhance and improve upon the information that is provided. By receiving this information, the public will be in a better position to analyze and comment upon any inconsistencies and to weigh in on proposed policy amendments.

§2. Chapter 20 of the New York City Charter is amended by adding a new section 529, to read as follows:

§529. Education department and police department school incident reporting requirements.

a.  The New York city department of education, or its successor, shall make available to the public, pursuant to subdivision d of this section, reports that reflect the environment of criminal and seriously disruptive behavior in schools operated by the department of education.

b.  Such reports shall include an annual reporting, on a city-wide basis as well as for each school or co-located group of schools operated by the department of education, of information reported by the New York city police department to the department of education on the following: the total amount of major felony crime, disaggregated by felony category; the total amount of other crime, disaggregated by crimes against persons and crimes against property; and the total amount of non-criminal incidents.

c.  Such reports shall also include an annual reporting, on a city-wide basis as well as for each school or co-located group of schools operated by the department of education, of incidents designated by the chancellor in the citywide standards of discipline and intervention measures (the “discipline code”) as seriously disruptive, dangerous or violent behavior in schools operated by the department of education, as reported in the department of education’s online occurrence reporting system, or a successor reporting system.  The chancellor, in consultation with the police department, shall develop guidelines to avoid duplicative reporting pursuant to this subdivision of information already contained in reports described in subdivision b of this section.

d.  The department of education shall make such reports available on its web site and shall include such information in the school report card for each school that it operates.  The department shall also make such reports available in paper form at all schools and all district and regional offices, and shall provide copies to the public on request.   Such annual reports shall be available by October 1^st, and shall include data from the previous school year (September 1^st through June 30^th) of information reported by the New York city police department to the department of education and, as soon as practicable, but no later than one year after the effective date of this law, shall also include the reports generated by the department of education described in subdivision c of this section.

§3. This local law shall take effect ninety days after its enactment.