New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 8 - EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Chapter II - Regulations of the Commissioner
Subchapter E - Elementary and Secondary Education
Part 120 - School Choice and Supplemental Educational Service Providers
Section 120.3 - Unsafe school choice
Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 12, March 20, 2024
Each local educational agency shall ensure that any student who attends a persistently dangerous public elementary or secondary school, as determined by the Commissioner pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section, or who is a victim of a violent criminal offense, as defined pursuant to subdivision (b) of this section, 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 at the same grade level within the local educational agency. For purposes of this section, a safe public school shall mean a public school that has not been designated by the Commissioner as a persistently dangerous public elementary or secondary school.
(a) Persistently dangerous schools. Pursuant to guidelines to be developed by the Commissioner in consultation with a representative sample of local educational agencies, the Commissioner shall determine which public elementary and secondary schools are persistently dangerous. A determination that a school is persistently dangerous shall be based upon objective information including, at a minimum, data submitted through the uniform violent incident reporting system, also known as the "school safety and educational climate report", established pursuant to section 2802 of the Education Law and pursuant to section 100.2(gg) of this Subchapter, over a period of two years.
(b) Victims of violent criminal offenses. Each local educational agency that is 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. The determination of such chief school officer pursuant to this subdivision 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) Transfer. Any student who transfers to a safe public school pursuant to the provisions of this section shall be enrolled in the classes and other activities of the public school to which such student transfers in the same manner as all other children at the public school.
(d) Notification. Each local educational agency that is required to provide school choice pursuant to the provisions of this section and section 2802 of the Education Law 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. Such notice shall be, to the extent practicable, provided in the dominant language or mode of communication used by the parents or persons in parental relation to such students. 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.
(e) Duration of unsafe school choice.
(f) When the Commissioner has designated a school of a local educational agency as a persistently dangerous public elementary or secondary school, or when a student has been the victim of a violent criminal offense that occurred on the grounds of a public elementary or secondary school that the student attends, it shall be the responsibility of such local educational agency, based on objective criteria, to designate a safe public school or schools within the local educational agency to which students may transfer. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to require a local educational agency to designate a safe public school 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 make such a designation.
(g) Transportation. The local educational agency shall provide transportation for any student permitted to transfer to the safe public school within the local educational agency it has designated pursuant to subdivision (f) of this section, within the transportation limits established pursuant to section 3635 and subdivision 4 of section 4401 of the Education Law.
(h) In the event that a local educational agency fails to comply with the school choice provisions of this section or section 2802 of the Education Law, the parent or person in parental relation to a student attending a school that has been designated as persistently dangerous and the parent, or persons in parental relation to a student who is the victim of a violent criminal offense, may commence an appeal to the Commissioner pursuant to section 310 of the Education Law.
(i) Removal of persistently dangerous public elementary or secondary school designation. In the event that a local educational agency believes that a school has demonstrated the progress necessary to have its designation as a persistently dangerous public elementary or secondary school removed for the next school year, such local educational agency may petition the Commissioner to remove such designation by the date prescribed by the Commissioner.
A school's designation as persistently dangerous shall not be removed if, in the Commissioner's judgment, conditions that may contribute to a dangerous environment remain present at the school.