ยง 2802. Uniform violent incident reporting system. 1. The
commissioner, in conjunction with the division of criminal justice
services, shall promulgate regulations defining "violent or disruptive
incidents" for the purposes of this section.
2. The commissioner, in conjunction with the division of criminal
justice services, shall establish a statewide uniform violent incident
reporting system which public school districts, boards of cooperative
educational services and county vocational education and extension
boards shall follow.
3. The uniform violent incident reporting system shall require public
school districts, boards of cooperative educational services and county
vocational education and extension boards to annually report to the
commissioner in a form and by a date prescribed by the commissioner, the
following information concerning violent and disruptive incidents that
occurred in the prior school year:
a. the type of offenders;
b. if any offender is a student, the age and grade of the student;
c. the location at which the incident occurred;
d. the type of incident;
e. whether the incident occurred during or outside of regular school
hours;
f. where the incident involves a weapon, whether the weapon was a
firearm, knife or other weapon;
g. the actions taken by the school in response to the incident,
including when the incident was reported to law enforcement officials
and whether disciplinary action was taken against the offenders;
h. any student discipline or referral action taken against a
student/offender, including but not limited to an out-of-school
suspension, an involuntary transfer to an alternative placement, an
in-school suspension, a referral for community service, a referral for
counseling, or a referral to the juvenile justice system, and the
duration of such action; and
i. the nature of the victim and the victim's age and grade where
appropriate.
4. The commissioner shall require a summary of such information to be
included, in a form prescribed by the commissioner, in the school
district report cards or board of cooperative educational services
report cards required by this chapter.
5. By April first of each year, the commissioner shall report to the
governor, the legislature and the regents concerning the prevalence of
violence and disruptive incidents in the public schools, and the
effectiveness of school programs undertaken to reduce violence and
assure the safety and security of students and school personnel. The
report shall summarize the information available from the incident
reporting system, and compare the incidence of violent and disruptive
incidents of schools and school districts and boards with other schools
and school districts and boards based on similarity in size and grade
levels and other characteristics, including student need and resources,
as determined by the commissioner. The report shall also, to the extent
possible, relate the results available from the incident reporting
system, together with such other analysis and information as the
commissioner determines is appropriate, to the effectiveness of school
violence measures undertaken by participating schools and school
districts, including the school codes and school safety plans required
by sections twenty-eight hundred one and twenty-eight hundred one-a of
this article.
6. The commissioner, in conjunction with the commissioner of the
division of criminal justice services, shall promulgate regulations to
implement the provisions of this section and to assure to the extent
practicable that the reports used by school districts are uniform and
comparable with respect to the types of incidents reported and the
responses of the schools and the school districts. Such regulations
shall provide for the confidentiality of all personally identifiable
information and shall ensure that any personally identifiable
information which is collected is used only for its intended purpose.
7. Notwithstanding any other provision of state or local law, rule or
regulation to the contrary, any student who attends a persistently
dangerous public elementary or secondary school, as determined by the
commissioner pursuant to paragraph a of this subdivision, or who is a
victim of a violent criminal offense, as defined pursuant to paragraph b
of this subdivision, that occurred on the grounds of a public elementary
or secondary school that the student attends, shall be allowed to attend
a safe public school within the local educational agency to the extent
required by section eighty-five hundred thirty-two of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of nineteen hundred sixty-five, as amended.
a. The commissioner shall annually determine which public elementary
and secondary schools are persistently dangerous in accordance with
regulations of the commissioner developed in consultation with a
representative sample of local educational agencies. Such determination
shall be based on data submitted through the uniform violent incident
reporting system over a period prescribed in the regulations, which
shall not be less than two years.
b. Each local educational agency required to provide unsafe school
choice shall establish procedures for determinations by the
superintendent of schools or other chief school officer of whether a
student is the victim of a violent criminal offense that occurred on
school grounds of the school that the student attends. Such
superintendent of schools or other chief school officer shall, prior to
making any such determination, consult with any law enforcement agency
investigating such alleged violent criminal offense and consider any
reports or records provided by such agency. The trustees or board of
education or other governing board of a local educational agency may
provide, by local rule or by-law, for appeal of the determination of the
superintendent of schools to such governing board. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law to the contrary, the determination of such chief
school officer pursuant to this paragraph shall not have collateral
estoppel effect in any student disciplinary proceeding brought against
the alleged victim or perpetrator of such violent criminal offense. For
purposes of this subdivision, "violent criminal offense" shall mean a
crime that involved infliction of serious physical injury upon another
as defined in the penal law, a sex offense that involved forcible
compulsion or any other offense defined in the penal law that involved
the use or threatened use of a deadly weapon.
c. Each local educational agency, as defined in subsection thirty of
section eighty-one hundred one of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of nineteen hundred sixty-five, as amended, that is required to
provide school choice pursuant to section eighty-five hundred thirty-two
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of nineteen hundred
sixty-five, as amended, shall establish procedures for notification of
parents of, or persons in parental relation to, students attending
schools that have been designated as persistently dangerous and parents
of, or persons in parental relation to, students who are victims of
violent criminal offenses of their right to transfer to a safe public
school within the local educational agency and procedures for such
transfer, except that nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to
require such notification where there are no other public schools within
the local educational agency at the same grade level or such transfer to
a safe public school within the local educational agency is otherwise
impossible or to require a local educational agency that has only one
public school within the local educational agency or only one public
school at each grade level to develop such procedures. The commissioner
shall be authorized to adopt any regulations deemed necessary to assure
that local educational agencies implement the provisions of this
subdivision.