Audit Finds NY Schools Significantly Underreported Violent Incidents

Auditors found SED did not designate persistently dangerous schools for the 2013-14 school year, despite the SAVE Act requirement that it do so annually. By not designating these schools, SED failed to comply with provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 that require it to notify local educational agencies of this designation in time for these agencies to notify parents of the option to transfer to a safe public school. On Aug. 1, 2014 SED did designate schools on the 2014-15 persistently dangerous list.

While SED has used this data in the past to identify schools with comparatively high incident rates and provide assistance to help ensure they have adequate violence prevention and response programs, these efforts are compromised if the underlying data is faulty, according to DiNapoli’s auditors.

DiNapoli recommended SED:

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• Conduct and document a risk assessment related to compliance with the SAVE Act and VADIR requirements. Decide where to best focus limited resources to help schools enhance school safety and improve the completeness and accuracy of VADIR reporting;
• Comply with provisions of the SAVE Act and the corresponding regulations that require SED to annually designate persistently dangerous schools, notify local educational agencies of the designation so they can notify parents timely of the option to transfer to a safe public school, if one is available;
• Report annual VADIR results to the Governor, the Legislature and the Board of Regents. Improve and enhance training efforts to reach more schools and provide targeted assistance to higher risk schools and school districts; and
• Review Burgard’s and Fulton’s incident records for the 2011-12 school year and other years as applicable to determine if either school should have been designated persistently dangerous for 2011-12 or subsequent years and take appropriate corrective action.

SED officials generally agreed with the audit’s recommendations and indicated that certain actions have been and will be taken to address them.

Read the audit.

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