N.Y. Education Law § 2802: Uniform violent incident reporting system

§ 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.