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VIOLENCE, VANDALISM AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
IN NEW JERSEY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

2003-2004

The Commissioner’s Annual Report to the Education Committees
of the Senate and General Assembly

NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

April 2005
PTM
1505.03

Commissioner’s Report to the Education
Committees of the Senate and General Assembly
On Vandalism, Violence, and Substance Abuse
In the Public Schools of New Jersey
July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004

Based on the Electronic Violence
and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS)

William L. Librera, Ed.D.
Commissioner

Prepared by staff of the
Division of Student Services
Isaac Bryant
Assistant Commissioner

Susan B. Martz, Director
Office of Program Support Services

New Jersey Department of Education
100 River View Plaza, P.O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625-0500

April 2005
PTM
1505.03

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

A. Legislative Charge

B. Purpose of the Report

C. Federal and State Context

1. Gun-Free Schools Act
2. Unsafe School Choice Option Policy
3. Violence Awareness Week
4. Public Hearings on Violence and Vandalism
5. Penalties for Falsification of EVVRS Records
6. Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying
7. Administrative Code

D. Changes to the Reporting System

1. Background
2. Changes to Meet Requirements of the Unsafe School Choice Option Policy
3. Efforts to Reduce Variability in the Application of Standards for Reporting

Findings

A. Unduplicated Counts

B. Results by School Type

C. Header Information

D. Incident Frequency by Major Category

E. Incident Frequency by Type within Major Category

F. Cost of Vandalism

G. Disciplinary Actions Taken

H. Offenders and Victims

I. Analysis of Data on Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying

J. Data Summary

PROGRAMMATIC RESPONSE

A. Policy

1. Administrative Code.
2. Student Discipline
3. Unsafe School Choice Option Policy
4. Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying
5. Violence Awareness Week
6. Public Hearings on Violence and Vandalism
7. Alternative Education

B. Prevention and Intervention Programs

1. Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Program
2. Core Curriculum Content Standards
3. Intervention and Referral Services
4. Positive Student Discipline Reform Demonstration Project
5. Character Education Initiative
6. New Jersey Center for Character Education
7. Youth Gang Prevention and Intervention Project (Phase II)
8. Student Support Services Planning and Development Project
9. Alternative Education
10. Peer Transitions Project
11. Community Services for Suspended and Expelled Youth
12. Drug Abuse Education Fund Project
13. Disaffected Youth Grant Program

C. Professional Development and Technical Support

1. School Emergencies and Crises
2. Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools Promising Programs Showcase
3. Community Services for Suspended and Expelled Youth Conference
4. Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying
5. Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS)
6. Intervention and Referral Services
7. Unsafe School Choice Option Policy
8. Technical Assistance

D. Publications and Materials

1. Resource Manual for Intervention and Referral Services
2. A Guide for the Development of a Districtwide School Safety Plan
3. School Safety Manual: Best Practices Guidelines
4. Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools Promising Programs Showcase
5. Model Policy Prohibiting Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying
6. Memorandum of Agreement between Education and Law Enforcement Officials

E. Planning, Collaboration and Coordination

1. Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force Advisory Committee
2. Truancy Working Group
3. Collaboration with Mental Health Agencies and Student Support Personnel
4. Other Collaborative Partnerships

F. Research, Evaluation and Data Collection

1. Evaluation/Data Collection Projects
2. New Jersey Student Health Survey

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

A. Technical Review of the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System

B. School Safety Manual: Best Practices Guidelines

C. Youth Gang Prevention and Intervention Project (Phase III)

D. Intervention and Referral Services

E. Social Norms Project

F. Social-Emotional Learning

G. Technical Assistance for SDFSCA and USCO

H. School Safety and Crisis Prevention and Response Training

Appendix A: Public School Safety Law

Appendix B: Summary of Changes to Incident Definitions, 2003-04

Appendix C: Data Collection Form

Appendix D: Weapons and Substance Detail

Appendix E: District Totals by County

List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1: Incidents by School Type

Figure 2: Number of Schools by Range of Incidents

Figure 3: Incidents by Major Category

Figure 4: Types of Vandalism Where Districts Incurred Cost

Figure 5: Number of Suspensions by Duration

Figure 6: Placement of Students Removed or Suspended

Figure 7: Number of Schools Reporting Incidents of Harassment/Intimidation/Bullying, 2003-04

Table 1: Location of Incidents

Table 2: Police Notification

Table 3: Incidents by Type

Table 4: Disciplinary Action Taken

Table 5: Offender Type

Table 6: Victim Type

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Commissioner of Education’s Report on Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse in New Jersey Public Schools is submitted annually to the education committees of the Senate and Assembly of the New Jersey State Legislature. It provides the Legislature with data in four broad categories of incidents: violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse. It also summarizes initiatives implemented by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to assist schools in addressing problems of school violence, safety and climate, student conduct and the use of illegal substances.

Prior to the 1999-2000 school year, districts submitted summaries of their violence and vandalism data to the county offices of education. In March of 2000, they reported incidents directly to NJDOE over the Internet on the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS). This year’s report is the fifth to provide data from the EVVRS. Despite the introduction of additional types of incidents to report, the total number of incidents reported by school districts in 2003-2004 was 20,207, down 1,979 (or 9 percent) from 22,186 in 2002-2003. This change, as well as other year-to-year comparisons contained in this report, must be interpreted with caution. Some incident definitions changed in 2003-04¹ and three new types of violent incidents were added to the EVVRS. Additionally, two districts experienced major declines totaling 1,252 fewer incidents reported or 63 percent of the total decrease of 1,979 in the number of incidents reported. ²

Consistent with previous years’ data, more than two-thirds of all schools (69 percent) reported five or fewer total incidents in 2003-2004 with one school in three (34 percent) reporting no incidents at all. The distribution of the location of incidents also mirrored that of prior years with three incidents in ten (30 percent) taking place in the classroom and another 21 percent in the school corridor. The police were notified in 38 percent of incidents reported, up six percent in the two years from 2001-02.

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¹ See “Changes to the Reporting System,” Part D of the Introduction section of this report.

² Camden City Public Schools reported 849 fewer incidents and Trenton City School District reported 403 fewer incidents in 2003-04 than they did in 2002-03 following a local review of criteria used to classify incidents as serious enough to report to the state through the EVVRS.
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Overall, there was a significant decline in the number of incidents of violence and vandalism, a small increase in the number of weapons incidents and a modest decrease in the number of substance abuse incidents.

• For the second year in a row incidents in the violence category declined by 11 percent, driven primarily by reductions in the number of simple assaults (24 percent), fights (12 percent), sex offenses (45 percent) and threats³ (20 percent);

• The number of incidents reported under vandalism decreased by nine percent, due primarily to declines in incidents involving damage to property (10 percent) and theft (7 percent);

• The number of incidents involving weapons increased by 3 percent, accounted for principally by increases in incidents involving knives; and

• The number of incidents reported under the substance abuse category decreased 4 percent, driven primarily by an 8 percent decline in use of substances.

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³ The total for a new category in 2003-04, “Terroristic Threat,” was added to the total number of “Threats” reported to make the data comparable to that of 2002-03.
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In 2003-2004, out-of-school suspension was again the disciplinary action taken most frequently in response to reported incidents -- in 90 percent of the cases where a disciplinary action was taken. The percentage of students committing offenses by student type remained fundamentally unchanged from the prior year. Regular education students constituted 73 percent of offenders and students with disabilities 27 percent. The number of school personnel reported as victims of any type of incident declined by 9 percent.

The NJDOE has aggressively pursued a variety of strategies to address the problems of student disruption and violence since the inception of the Safe Schools Initiative. The NJDOE’s most recent efforts to strengthen its approach to reducing school violence and improving school safety cover a broad array of policies, programs and other strategic initiatives, including the following:

• Formation and continued coordination of a School Sector Advisory Committee and other working and planning groups of the Attorney General’s Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force to address the unique needs of schools for responding to potential attacks and threats. As a result of advisory committee planning, the department developed and disseminated to all chef school administrators a confidential publication titled School Safety Manual: Best Practices Guidelines. Plans are under way to conduct on-site security audits in every school building in New Jersey.

• Development and dissemination of guidance documents, including: Resource Manual for Intervention and Referral Services (developed in support of N.J.A.C. 6A:16-7); Guidelines for Public Schools and Approved Charter Schools to File Violence and Vandalism Hearing Transcripts in Accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:17-46 and Guidelines for Public Schools and Approved Charter Schools to Observe School "Violence Awareness Week" in accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:36-5.1; and Model Policy Prohibiting Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying on School Property, at School-sponsored Functions and on School Busses (developed in support of N.J.S.A. 18A:37-13 et seq.). Plans are under way to revise the videotape program series titled Intervention and Referral Services for General Education Pupils: A Four-Part Videotape Program Series and Videotape Companion Guide for dissemination in the 2005-2006 school year;

• The proposal of regulations on student conduct for inclusion in the chapter of administrative code, N.J.A.C. 6A:16, Programs to Support Student Development; the comprehensive review of N.J.A.C. 6A:16 for readoption in 2006; the adoption of new regulations that impose a penalty on a school employee who knowingly falsifies a report of an incident of violence and vandalism, in accordance with the authorizing statute [N.J.S.A. 18A:17-46(1)]; and the adoption of regulations in 2001 addressing school safety, violence and health services in N.J.A.C. 6A:16;

• The development and implementation of an Unsafe School Choice Option Policy, in accordance with the provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001;

• Hosting a statewide conference for developers of violence and substance abuse prevention and intervention programs designated as exemplary by the United States Department of Education to showcase their programs to New Jersey educators. The presentations and conference proceedings were videotaped and copies disseminated to all New Jersey school districts. Plans are under way to host a statewide conference in the spring of 2005 for developers of violence and substance abuse prevention and intervention programs designated as promising by the United States Department of Education to showcase their programs to New Jersey educators;

• Implementation of the Positive Student Discipline Reform Demonstration Project; the Intervention and Referral Services Initiative; the Student Support Services Planning and Development Project; the Community Services for Suspended and Expelled Youth Project; the Disaffected Youth Grant Program; and the Character Education Initiative, including establishment of the New Jersey Center for Character Education at Rutgers University;

• Supplementing the capacity for local school response to behavioral, social-emotional and health problems by making available to all school districts federal funding, under the federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) program, that is specifically intended for local school violence and substance abuse prevention activities;

• Collaborative initiatives, including: the Attorney General’s Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force Infrastructure Advisory Committee-School Sector; the Youth Gang Prevention and Intervention Project; the Peer Transitions Program in cooperation with the Department of Health and Senior Services; co-sponsorship of the Stop the Pain: New Jersey Cares About Bullying Conference with the Department of Law and Public Safety; the Truancy Working Group composed of representatives from the Legislature, the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Department of Human Services; and collaboration with the Department of Human Services, the Department of State, Attorney General’s Education Law Enforcement Working Group, the Violence Institute of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), the New Jersey School Boards Association, the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, the New Jersey Education Association, the New Jersey Pupil Services Administrators Association, the New Jersey Counselors Association, the Association of Student Assistance Professionals of New Jersey, the New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies, the New Jersey Association of School Psychologists and other organizations, associations and agencies.

The NJDOE is committed to providing ongoing support for school district efforts to improve their comprehensive school safety programs and further reduce the levels of violence, vandalism and substance abuse in New Jersey schools. Continued training opportunities for both school administrative and support personnel, refinement of the Internet-based reporting system and analysis of these data will assist local districts and the NJDOE to accurately track progress in making schools safe for all students and staff.

INTRODUCTION

A. Legislative Charge

In 1982, N.J.S.A. 18:53 (see Appendix A), was signed into law. The "Public School Safety Law" was a response to a problem long recognized by the state Legislature, violence and vandalism in the schools. The law stipulated that:

The Commissioner of Education shall each year submit a report to the Education Committees of the Senate and General Assembly detailing the extent of violence and vandalism in the public schools and making recommendations to alleviate the problem.
(N.J.S.A. 18:53).

The law has a significant local component: It requires that school staff who witness or have knowledge of an incident of violence file a report of the incident with the school principal and, as amended in 2002, that the superintendent of schools hold a public hearing in the third week of October summarizing the data submitted to the department and submit a transcript of the proceedings to the department.

B. Purpose of the Report

The Commissioner’s report provides the Legislature with data in four broad categories of incidents: violence, vandalism, weapons and substance abuse. Analysis of trends yields indications of progress and of concern and provides guidance to the department as it endeavors to focus its resources appropriately. In this report, the department also notifies the Legislature and the public of the actions taken by the Commissioner, State Board of Education and the Department of Education (DOE) to address the problems indicated in the data. Since 1994 when the State Board of Education adopted a resolution supporting implementation of the Department of Education’s Safe Schools Initiative, the department has embarked on various actions designed to address the problem of school violence and disruption documented in the incident reporting system. The department’s recent actions under the Safe Schools Initiative are described in the Programmatic Response section of this report.

C. Federal and State Context

Provided below are summary descriptions of federal and state statutes and regulations that support the need for accurate and complete data collection under the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS). The intent of these requirements is to support the provision of safety and security for students and to prevent unnecessary or extended interruptions to student learning.

The data gathered under the EVVRS are an excellent source of information for helping schools to conduct comprehensive needs assessments, including the identification of patterns of incidents (e.g., types, locations, times, individuals or groups involved) consistent with the statutory and regulatory information provided below. The identification of priority needs based upon objective information is the cornerstone of effective planning for appropriate educational responses to school safety needs.

1. Gun-Free Schools Act

Under the Gun-Free Schools Act, districts must report annually the number of firearms incidents that occurred by type of firearm [rifle, handgun, other (e.g., bomb)] within type of school (i.e., elementary, middle, high school). In completing information on each incident as it is entered, each school fulfills its reporting obligation and need not summarize the data separately at the end of the year.

2. Unsafe School Choice Option Policy

The Unsafe School Choice Option provision (Title IX, Part E, Subpart 2, SEC. 9532) under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 sets forth the following:

Each state receiving funds under this Act shall establish and implement a statewide policy requiring that a student attending a persistently dangerous public elementary school or secondary school, as determined by the State in consultation with a representative sample of local educational agencies, or who becomes a victim of a violent criminal offense, as determined by State law, while in or on the grounds of a public elementary school or secondary school that the student attends, be allowed to attend a safe public elementary school or secondary school within the local educational agency, including a public charter school. (italics added)

The NJDOE’s Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO) Policy was adopted by resolution by the State Board of Education in June 2003. The USCO statute and the NJDOE’s USCO policy contain two provisions that apply to local educational agencies (LEAs) receiving funds under NCLB: 1) persistently dangerous schools; and 2) victims of violent criminal offenses. Effective the beginning of each school year, LEAs receiving NCLB funds must be prepared to complete the transfer of students who choose to exercise the option offered under Provision I and Provision II of the USCO policy, as appropriate. Compliance with the policy is a condition of receiving funds under any and all titles under NCLB. Chief school administrators annually are required to certify compliance with the NJDOE’s USCO policy in their applications for NCLB funds.

The maintenance of accurate and complete records of incidents of violence, vandalism and substance abuse is particularly important since the EVVRS is the data source used by the NJDOE to determine persistently dangerous schools under the USCO Policy. Additionally, schools are required to report information on victims of violent criminal offenses, pursuant to the USCO Policy.

The required policy for these school safety requirements may be found at http://www.nj.gov/njded/grants/nclb/policy/unsafe.htm. A question and answer document can be found at: http://homeroom.state.nj.us/evvrs/uscopolicyqanda.doc. A fact sheet describing the process for determining the policy and summarizing key issues is located at: http://www.nj.gov/njded/grants/nclb/policy/unsafe_facts.htm

3. Violence Awareness Week

In January 2002, a state law (N.J.S.A. 18A:36-5.1) was passed designating the third week of October each year as "School Violence Awareness Week." During this week, school districts are required to organize activities, such as age-appropriate forums for student discussions on conflict resolution, as well as issues of student diversity and tolerance. Also, districts are required to invite law enforcement personnel who must be invited to join members of the teaching staff in the discussions. Finally, programs must be provided for school board employees that are designed to help them recognize warning signs of school violence and to instruct them on recommended conduct during an incident of school violence.

4. Public Hearings on Violence and Vandalism

In January 2002, a state law (N.J.S.A. 18A:17-46 et seq.) was passed requiring each chief school administrator to conduct a public hearing on all acts of violence and vandalism which occurred in the previous school year. The proceedings of the pubic hearing must be transcribed and kept on file by the local board of education, which must make the transcript available to the public.

Verification of the annual report must be part of the NJDOE’s monitoring of the school district. The local board of education is required to provide ongoing staff training in fulfilling the reporting requirements pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:17-46. Additionally, the majority representative of the school employees must have access monthly to the number and disposition of all reported acts of school violence and vandalism.

5. Penalties for Falsification of EVVRS Records

In compliance with N.J.S.A. 18A:17-46 et seq., the NJDOE has adopted new regulations [N.J.A.C. 6A:16-5.3(f)] that require district boards of education to impose a penalty on school employees who knowingly falsify a report of an incident of violence and vandalism.

6. Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying

Legislation (N.J.S.A. 18A:37-13 et seq.) enacted in September 2002 required each school district to adopt a policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation and bullying on school property, at school-sponsored functions and on school buses by September 2003. To assist school districts in developing these policies, the legislation required the NJDOE to develop and issue a model policy applicable to grades kindergarten through twelve. The NJDOE’s model policy titled Model Policy Prohibiting Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying on School Property, at School-sponsored Functions and on School Busses can be found at http://www.state.nj.us/njded/parents/bully.htm. Schools must report on the EVVRS all incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying that apply to the definition of harassment, intimidation and bullying under the statute.

Each school district is granted local control over the contents of the policy and ancillary procedures, but, at a minimum, the ten components set forth in the authorizing statute must be addressed in a school district’s policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation and bullying. In part, the provisions of the statute require school district’s to stipulate both the consequences and the remedial actions for persons violating the policy; persons who engage in reprisal or retaliation against someone who reports a violation of the policy; and persons who falsely report allegations of harassment, intimidation and bullying as a means of retaliation or as a means of harassment, intimidation or bullying.

The NJDOE recognizes that decisions about consequences and actions to be taken in response to violations of policies prohibiting harassment, intimidation and bullying should take into consideration the unique circumstances of the acts and the persons involved, as well as the unique conditions and characteristics in each school district. The NJDOE also recognizes that these decisions must comport with existing school district policies, including those that address the provisions of N.J.A.C. 6A:16, Programs To Support Student Development, in general, and N.J.A.C. 6A:16-5.1, Code of Student Conduct, in particular, as well as the provisions of the district’s Memorandum of Agreement Between Education and Law Enforcement Officials, pursuant to N.J.A.C..6A:16-6, Law Enforcement Operations For Substances, Weapons, and Safety.

7. Administrative Code

The State Board of Education approved a new Chapter of administrative code entitled Programs to Support Student Development (N.J.A.C. 6A:16) in April 2001. The chapter includes new subchapters that address school safety issues, including:

• Codes of student conduct;

• Emergency and crisis management plans;

• Incident reporting;

• Access to juvenile information;

• Firearms, weapons and assault offenses; and

• Law enforcement operations for substances, weapons and safety.

The regulations also contain subchapters on comprehensive substance abuse programs, substance abuse intervention, reporting allegations of child abuse and neglect, intervention and referral services, alternative education, home or out-of-school instruction for general education students and school health services.

D. Changes to the Reporting System

1. Background

Districts have reported incidents over the Internet for five years.⁴ The Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System, http://homeroom.state.nj.us (EVVRS), deployed in March 2000, requires districts to report electronically information about individual incidents – including offender and victim information. An EVVRS User Manual, accessible on the EVVRS homepage, contains general guidance for reporting and incident definitions, e.g., what constitutes a simple assault, aggravated assault, a fight. The data entered and verified by districts on the EVVRS form the basis of the Findings section of this report to the state legislature and of the report to the federal education department on the Unsafe School Choice Option policy.

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⁴ For a description of changes to the reporting system pre-dating the Internet-based system, see this report for the school year 2000-2001, available at http://www.state.nj.us/njded/atoz.htm#V
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2. Changes to Meet Requirements of the Unsafe School Choice Option Policy

Changes were made to incident definitions in the EVVRS for the 2003-04 school year. As noted above, the State Board of Education adopted the Unsafe School Choice Option Policy (USCO) in June, 2003 and reissued the policy a year later. Provision I defines criteria for identifying "persistently dangerous schools" and Provision II describes conditions leading to the determination that a student has been the victim of a violent criminal offense. Provision II, in particular, influenced changes in the incident definitions through its requirement that the offenses counted under this provision were those enumerated in the state criminal code. NJDOE staff reviewed definitions to determine their match with the definitions of "violent criminal offenses" in the state criminal code. The following EVVRS definitions were revised in varying degrees to bring them into alignment with those in the code: Violence (Fight, Gang Fight, Sex Offense, and Threat); Vandalism (Arson); and Weapons (Possession of a Firearm, Assault with a Weapon, and Possession of a Weapon). In order to include all types of "violent criminal offense" in the EVVRS, three new types of violence incidents were added: Terroristic Threat, Kidnapping and Harassment/intimidation/bullying. Appendix B lists incident definitions, displaying both versions (2002-03 and 2003-04).

3. Efforts to Reduce Variability in the Application of Standards for Reporting

The department recognizes that individuals interpret and apply the definitions in the EVVRS User Manual differently. For example, one student calls a second student a name; the second student pushes in return and the two begin to tussle. They stop when a security guard intervenes. One district might consider it a scuffle and not report it on the EVVRS, while another may consider it a fight sufficiently serious to report. The department recognizes that this kind of difference in perspective introduces "error" into the system, i.e., a departure from the true number that would be reported if everyone interpreted and applied the definitions in the same way. Therefore, there may be variability in reporting across districts. Additionally, a shift in responsibility for reporting within a school or district can produce changes in violence and vandalism figures reported year to year and, thus, represents another potential source of inaccuracy.

To reduce errors and promote consistency in reporting, the department created "scenarios" for those types of incidents that, due to their particular circumstances, invite discrete differences in interpretation. The scenarios describe incidents within the context in which they occur and provide factors to consider in selecting the correct incident category. The revised incident definitions and the scenarios were distributed to all chief school administrators, included in the revised EVVRS User Manual, posted separately on the EVVRS homepage, and discussed during the EVVRS training sessions. During its annual EVVRS training for district administrators and EVVRS account users conducted in the spring of 2004 and winter of 2004-05, the department stressed the importance of districts referring to these two documents when deciding whether an incident is the type to be reported on the EVVRS and, if so, how to classify it. The importance of including offender and victim information – particularly the information on USCO Provision II – received special attention in the EVVRS training and in notices e-mailed to all EVRS account users during the 2003-04 school year.

Findings

A. Unduplicated Counts

This report provides unduplicated counts of incidents for the total number of incidents and the total by major reporting category. The total for the four incident categories will not necessarily add up to the grand total of all incidents. Beginning with the introduction of the EVVRS in 1999-2000, if a single incident included a threat and a simple assault, for example, each type is recorded and counted. In deriving a total for the number of incidents of violence, however, the incident that included both a threat and a simple assault would be counted once. Similarly, in calculating an unduplicated total of the number of incidents, an incident that included a fight and damage to property would count as one incident, as well as one incident of violence and one incident of vandalism. Thus, totals, as indicated, are unduplicated counts of the number of incidents within a category. A bias incident that included violence and vandalism would be counted as one bias incident in addition to being counted in the two major reporting categories.

B. Results by School Type

The following analysis examines differences in the number of incidents by the type (i.e., grade range) of the school. For the purposes of this analysis, an elementary school is defined as any school that ends at grade 6 or below; a middle school is any school that terminates in the 7 through 9 grade range, and a high school is defined as any school that terminates at grade 10 or above. Charter schools are included and are categorized in the same manner. Schools in special services school districts with only students with disabilities had no data on grade range available, so their data along with those of adult evening high schools, are included under "Other" in the chart below.

Figure 1 below shows the modest increase in the number of incidents occurring in elementary schools and the decrease in middle and high schools over the past two school years. In 2003-04, more than half the incidents (53 percent) took place in high schools (an increase of four percent), one third (33 percent) occurred in middle schools, 12 percent in elementary schools and 3 percent in special services schools and adult evening high schools.

Figure 1: Incidents by School Type

The distribution of incidents across schools has remained stable. Again in 2003-04, one school in three (34 percent) reported no incidents. When one includes this group with no incidents, nearly seven schools in ten (69 percent) reported five or fewer incidents. Six to ten incidents occurred in ten percent of schools, 11-24 in 12 percent and 25 or more in 10 percent (down from 12 percent in 2002-03) of all schools.

Figure 2: Number of Schools by Range of Incidents

C. Header Information

Header information is the data that a district records for every incident and includes:

• the date and time of the incident;

• the location of the incident (optional field);

• whether police were notified and if a complaint was filed; and

• whether bias was involved.

The date and time data are primarily for local use and were not analyzed. The distribution of data on the location of incidents is nearly identical to that reported for 2002-2003 (see Table 1). Three incidents in ten occurred in the classroom, while overall, three in four (76%) occurred inside the school building.

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Table 1: Location of Incidents

Police were notified in a greater proportion of incidents in 2003-04. Notification occurred in 38 percent of all incidents reported by districts, an increase from 35 percent in 2002-03 and 32 percent two years earlier, 2001-2002. Complaints were filed either by the district, parent or student in half the cases about which police were notified.

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Table 2: Police Notification

Districts reported 167 incidents of bias in the school year, a one-year increase of ten percent from the 152 incidents of bias reported in 2002-2003.

D. Incident Frequency by Major Category

Figure 3 displays the total unduplicated count of incidents by each of the four major reporting categories for the past two years. There were fewer incidents of violence (a decline of 11 percent); this decline is particularly notable in view of the addition of three types of violence (harassment/intimidation/bullying, terroristic threat and kidnapping). There was a nine percent decrease in incidents of vandalism, and a small increase in weapons offenses (three percent), and a four percent decrease in substance offenses.

Figure 3: Incidents by Major Category

E. Incident Frequency by Type within Major Category

The overall 11 percent decrease in violence is indicated most markedly in the declines in the following types of violence: simple assaults (24 percent), fights (12 percent), sex offenses (45 percent) and threats (20 percent). There was one incident of kidnapping (not shown in Table 3). In the vandalism category, the 10 percent decrease in damage to property and seven percent decrease in thefts constitute the most notable changes. The increase in the possession, assault with, or sale/distribution of, weapons other than firearms is reflected in increases in the number of incidents involving air guns, imitation guns and knives (see Appendix D). The change in the total for firearms is reflected in the increase in incidents of possession of a handgun from nine in 2002-03 to 14 in 2003-04.

Overall, there was a four percent decrease in the number of incidents of possession, use or distribution of substances. There were 50 fewer incidents involving marijuana (a decline of three percent), and 27 fewer incidents involving drug paraphernalia (a decline of 24 percent). There were 33 more substance incidents involving cocaine (50 percent increase). The most frequently abused drug was marijuana, involved in 66 percent of all substance abuse incidents (see Appendix D).

Table 3: Incidents by Type

F. Cost of Vandalism

Districts reported an unduplicated total of 1,183 incidents of vandalism in which they incurred cost - a decline of 14 percent from 2002-2003. Property damage (71 percent) and theft (26 percent) accounted for most of the incidents resulting in costs to districts (see Figure 4). As multiple types of vandalism were involved in a few incidents, the totals by type of vandalism in Figure 4 exceed the unduplicated total (1,183 incidents) in 2003-04. The total cost to all districts was $632,621, a three percent increase from the cost of vandalism in 2002-03.

Figure 4: Types of Vandalism Where Districts Incurred Cost

G. Disciplinary Actions Taken

In 90 percent of the cases where a disciplinary action was taken, students who committed an offense received an out-of-school suspension. Removal to an alternative program was used in two percent of the cases. These percentages are consistent with the data from 2002-2003 (see Table 4).

Table 4: Disciplinary Action Taken

Half of the out-of-school suspensions (45 percent) were for less than five days; 21 percent were for 10 days or more (see Figure 5). The most frequently issued single suspension was that of five days – used in 4,810 cases (24 percent) in 2003-04.

Figure 5: Number of Suspensions by Duration

Figure 6 displays the types of alternative placements selected by districts when students were removed from school for disciplinary reasons. Of the 199 students placed in an out-of-district program in 2003-04, 25 attended a county alternative education program - ten more than in 2002-03.

Figure 6: Placement of Students Removed or Suspended

H. Offenders and Victims

In 2003-2004, regular education students constituted 73 percent of the offenders in the cases where the offender was known. Students with disabilities, who represent 16 percent of the student population, constituted slightly more than one quarter (27 percent) of offenders. The proportions are similar to those of 2002-2003. See Table 5.

Table 5: Offender Type

Regular education students constituted a smaller percentage of victims in 2003-04 (61 percent) than in 2002-03 (64 percent). The data in Table 6 also show a nine percent decline in the number of school staff (includes contracted staff) who were victims of an offense of any kind, the second consecutive year that the number of staff victimized has shown a decline. The percentage of students with a disability who were victims (18 percent) nearly mirrors their percentage (16 percent) in the student population.

Table 6: Victim Type

I. Analysis of Data on Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying

The 2003-04 school year was the first year during which districts reported incidents of harassment, intimidation, and bullying on the EVVRS. Those incidents that were to be reported had to meet the criteria specified in the definition (see below), a definition that is based upon criminal statute (N.J.S.A. 2C:16-1(a) :

Any gesture or written, verbal or physical act that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or a mental, physical or sensory handicap, or by any other distinguishing characteristic, that takes place on school property, at any school -sponsored function or on a school bus and that:

a) a reasonable person should know, under the circumstances, will have the effect of harming a student or damaging the student’s property; or b) has the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students in such a way as to cause substantial disruption in, or substantial interference with, the orderly operation of the school.

Thus, in order to be reported on the EVVRS, a bullying incident, for example, would not be reported if the victim failed to possess a distinguishing characteristic; nor would the bullying incident be reported where a) the victim possessed a distinguishing characteristic yet the incident did not cause harm or damage to the student’s property; or b) the act did not cause substantial interference or disruption with the orderly operation of the school. Only incidents that meet the criteria are to be reported.

A total of 1,187 incidents of harassment/intimidation/bullying were reported in 2003-04. Some of these incidents occurred in conjunction with other incidents: assault (71), threat (68), sex offense (12), robbery/extortion (9), and damage to property (7). Close to half the incidents (530 or 45 percent) occurred in middle schools, 472 (40 percent) in high schools and 170 (14 percent) in elementary schools. These 1,187 incidents took place in only 97, or four percent of all schools, an average of 12 incidents per school.

Figure 7: Number of Schools Reporting Incidents of Harassment/Intimidation/Bullying, 2003-04

J. Data Summary

The total number of incidents of 20,207 represents a decrease of 1,979 incidents or nine percent from the total of 22,186 reported in 2002-2003. As noted in the Executive Summary, this change must be interpreted with caution as follows:

• some incident definitions changed in 2003-04, e.g., gang fight/assault, sex offense, possession of a weapon (see Appendix B);

• three new types of violent incidents were added to the EVVRS (terroristic threat, kidnapping and harassment/intimidation/bullying); and

• two districts experienced major declines in the number of incidents reported. Camden City Public Schools and Trenton School District reported 849 and 403 fewer incidents respectively. The total of 1,252 fewer incidents reported by these two districts accounts for 63 percent of the decline in the overall statewide total.

Despite these changes and the decline in three of the four incident categories, the data in this Findings section again show certain consistencies. Where incidents occur, the frequency with which police are involved, the number of schools reporting a given number of incidents, the district’s disciplinary response and the type of student involved change very little year to year. This consistency suggests that some of the factors that influence the occurrence of violence, vandalism and substance abuse in schools are general and, to an extent, constant.

Although the NJDOE recognizes that there is interdistrict variation in the categorization and reporting of reporting incidents, the department remains optimistic that the recent revision of the incident definitions, the development of the incident scenarios and the expanded training for district personnel will bring greater uniformity to the reporting process. Because of this interdistrict variation, however, it is inappropriate, at this time, to compare data between or among districts. The department uses the data to analyze trends to determine the types of programs needed and to measure progress in its efforts to assist districts in creating safe learning environments for all students. With consistent reporting, districts can use trend data in conjunction with other information on student conduct to gauge the success of their prevention programs and intervention strategies that address identified problems and patterns.

PROGRAMMATIC RESPONSE

New Jersey’s schools are basically safe places, despite perceptions cultivated by terrible tragedies that have occurred in our nation’s schools, including Littleton, Colorado in 1999, as well as the threat to our homeland security with the events of September 11, 2001. School districts and the state have implemented programmatic responses to foster school safety at all points of the continuum, from prevention through crisis response and recovery. Comprehensive responses include the following: developing clearly defined student behavior policies and codes of student conduct; assessing the immediate surroundings, as well as the social and emotional learning climate of the school community; developing an emergency and crisis management plan with clearly defined plans, procedures and mechanisms for responding to emergencies and crises; implementing research-based prevention and intervention programs; and planning for the effective use of available community resources.

The NJDOE has aggressively pursued a variety of policy and program strategies to address the problem of disruption and violence since the beginning of the Safe Schools Initiative in 1994. The following is a summary of the department's most recent efforts to strengthen the assistance offered to school districts to increase school safety and reduce school violence.

A. Policy

1. Administrative Code.

The chapter of administrative code titled Programs to Support Student Development (N.J.A.C. 6A:16) adopted by the State Board of Education in April 2001 specifies minimum standards for district boards of education in establishing policies and procedures and in operating programs to support the social, emotional and physical development of students.

The NJDOE proposed to the State Board of Education in October of 2004, regulations on student conduct as a subchapter of the chapter of administrative code titled Programs to Support Student Development (N.J.A.C. 6A:16) and proposed technical amendments to subchapters on school safety, law enforcement operations for substances, weapons and safety and intervention and referral services.

2. Student Discipline

A working group was established within the NJDOE to review student discipline in response to issues that were raised during the public comments on N.J.A.C. 6A:16, Programs to Support Student Development. A major activity of the working group was the administration of nine policy forums in the fall of 2001 that were designed to engage representatives from statewide education associations and constituency groups in identifying a broad range of student discipline concerns and possible remedies for department consideration. The following recommendations have been or are in the process of being implemented:

• Development of a regulatory framework for student discipline.

• In response to this recommendation, a student discipline code discussion paper was approved by the State Board of Education for dissemination and comment. In October 2004, regulations on student conduct were proposed to the State Board of Education as a subchapter of the chapter of administrative code titled Programs to Support Student Development (N.J.A.C. 6A:16). The proposed regulations are scheduled for adoption in August 2005.

• Convening an advisory panel to explore consistent uses of programs and policies regarding alternative education for general education students who are suspended or expelled from school.

• As a result of this recommendation, the NJDOE convened the advisory panel, and the findings of the panel are under consideration by the department’s internal working group on student discipline.

• The NJDOE is considering implementation of the remaining recommendations below from the student discipline policy forums, which would be implemented subsequent to the adoption of proposed N.J.A.C.6A:16-7, Student Conduct:

• Development or revision of guidance documents and publications.

• Provision of training and technical assistance.

• Increased ongoing interagency and intra-agency collaboration.

3. Unsafe School Choice Option Policy

As a condition for receiving funds under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the NJDOE was required to establish and implement a statewide policy requiring that students attending persistently dangerous schools or who become victims of violent criminal offenses while in or on the school grounds that they attend be allowed to transfer to a safe public school within the local educational agency. The NJDOE’s policy was adopted by resolution by the State Board of Education in June 2003. All local educational agencies receiving NCLB funds must comply with the provisions of the policy, as appropriate.

In November 2004 and February 2005, the Unsafe School Choice Option Policy Advisory Panel was reconvened to review the existing policy and consider modifications.

4. Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying

To assist school districts in developing the required harassment, intimidation and bullying policies, the authorizing statute (N.J.S.A. 18A:37-13 et seq.) required the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to develop and issue a model policy applicable to grades kindergarten through twelve. The NJDOE’s model policy was developed and disseminated in December 2002 and can be found at the following Web Site: http://www.state.nj.us/njded/parents/bully.htm.

5. Violence Awareness Week

The NJDOE has provided guidelines and information to local boards of education for use in planning the activities that are required (N.J.S.A. 18:36-5.1) in observance of the week for each year the requirement has been in effect. The guidelines can be found at: http://www.state.nj.us/njded/students/safety/violence.htm.

6. Public Hearings on Violence and Vandalism

For each year the requirement (N.J.S.A. 18A:17-46) has been in effect, the NJDOE has provided guidelines and information to local boards of education for complying with the statute and submitting the required documentation to the NJDOE. The guidelines in effect for the 2004-2005 school year can be f