Chalkbeat

Education news. In context.

Chalkbeat

New York

NYPD

police presence

New York
June 20, 2019

NYC announces its first overhaul of how police operate inside schools since Mayor Giuliani

The changes mark a major move away from the zero-tolerance policies that dominated the city's approach to school discipline when the agreement was last updated.

Pocketed Change

New York
April 12, 2019

Public funding of private-school security in New York City grows by millions

This story was originally published on April 12 by THE CITY. A program that uses public funds to pay for unarmed…

budget dance

New York
March 20, 2019

‘Everything is on the table’ — Carranza talks budget cuts to NYC schools at City Council hearing

The chancellor’s testimony touched a numerous hot button issues beyond funding. Here’s what else we learned at Wednesday’s City Council hearing.

Mysterious Doc

New York
October 31, 2017

Read the rarely-seen agreement that put New York City police in charge of school safety

What that agreement actually says has been a bit of a mystery: It hasn’t been widely available to the public. Advocates have demanded that it be overhauled.

Who's In Charge

New York
October 6, 2017

A 1998 agreement that put the New York City police in charge of school safety has never been revised — until now

Due to a decades-old agreement between the police and education departments, the police are in charge of most matters involving school security.

School safety

New York
September 27, 2017

The fatal stabbing in a Bronx classroom was horrific — but also extremely rare

One student has not killed another inside a school for 25 years, officials said.

Fact check

New York
August 1, 2017

Mayor de Blasio just said New York City’s schools are safer than ever. Is he right?

One of his staunchest critics says just the opposite.

open sesame

New York
April 18, 2017

Requesting public records from NYC’s education department? Be prepared to wait… 103 days

"My thought was, ‘Gee things are going to get so much better’ and the reverse has occurred."

Where's the data?

New York
August 16, 2016

NYPD misses deadline to report student interactions with police

“It’s disappointing that the NYPD has had a year to get ready to report this information and hasn’t been able to do so."

School safety

New York
July 21, 2016

City will no longer suspend students in grades K-2, and releases a slew of new school crime data

Advocates largely praised the new policy, but stark racial disparities in school discipline persist.

Uncategorized

New York
December 3, 2013

Families flock to school safety forum in District 19

Brian Conroy, commanding officer of the NYPD’s School Safety Division, speaks at a safety forum at P.S. 13 in East New York. At far right…
New York
September 4, 2013

Police arrests and tickets in school down, but racial gap persists

Jessica Morillo, a student who said she was tackled by school safety agents and issued a disorderly conduct summons after losing her temper on her way into school after a doctor's appointment. The number of students getting arrested or ticketed by New York City police officers during school is trending down, according to updated police statistics released last week. The decline comes in the second school year for which the New York City Police Department, which governs school safety, has been required to publicly report how many student arrests it makes and summonses it gives out. It is also required to report the data disaggregated by gender, race, age and the category of offense. Despite the dip, racial disparities in the arrests have remained constant, which critics say is a signal that sweeping changes to student safety policies are still needed. During a six-month period this year, spanning from January to June 30, police made 360 students arrests, a 33 percent decline over the same period in 2012, according to data collected by the New York Civil Liberties Union. For the same period, 465 summonses were handed out, a 50 percent decline compared to the previous year. More than half of the summonses issued were for disorderly conduct, behavior that includes fighting, obscene language, or other kinds of public disturbances. 
New York
August 23, 2013

Quinn calls for principals to have more school discipline power

Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn shakes the hand of Cheyanne Smith, who will be a senior at the Bushwick School for Social Justice and has worked with the Urban Youth Collaborative. Mayoral candidate and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called for principals to have more control over disciplinary decisions in schools. But she stopped short of saying she would transfer full authority back to principals from the New York Police Department. While the Bloomberg administration has famously considered principals to be the CEOs of their schools, principals’ authority does not extend to safety agents, who since 1998 have been under the authority of the New York Police Department in an arrangement that advocates say breeds tension. Some Democratic candidates for mayor have said they would restore authority to principals if elected. But Quinn said she would seek a healthy balance between the NYPD and educators' influence in school discipline. "I think you want the school safety agents to also have NYPD training, you want them to also have that focus," she said at a press conference at City Hall today. "But we want the majority of focus and we want final decisions to be made by the principals. That's critical."
New York
May 17, 2013

Community members carve out a role in school guards' training

School safety agents participated in a community-run training session in the Bronx earlier this year. When Lynn Sanchez, a Bronx parent activist, challenged police and education officials to address persistent school climate problems during a public forum on school safety last year, she did not think they would say yes. And yet just months later, Sanchez was sitting with safety agents during one of their training sessions — which, for the first time, community members and advocates were helping to lead. She saw a long-standing vision of collaboration coming together in that room. “We have to make sure everyone is on same page — we have to include school safety officers, teachers, principals, paras, students, and parents — in order for a school climate to change,” Sanchez said. The community-run training sessions represent a striking shift in the city’s strategy for preparing safety agents to work in schools, where their role has historically been fraught. While the Bloomberg administration has famously considered principals to be the CEOs of their schools, principals’ authority does not extend to safety agents, who since 1998 have been under the authority of the New York Police Department in an arrangement that advocates say breeds tension. The quiet shakeup so far has taken place only in a corner of the Bronx, where community groups were able to persuade the police department to let them play a role in the training of 450 agents, and its future is far from certain. But students, educators, and advocates say they are confident that the approach could go a long way toward easing some of the tensions that have plagued city schools, and a small-scale expansion of the first round of trainings appears to be in the works.
New York
April 16, 2013

Advocates ask candidates for school discipline climate change

At a rally Monday, junior Benia Darius said the next mayor needs to take a different approach to school discipline. After years of pressing Mayor Bloomberg to make school discipline fairer, students and advocates are turning their attention to the candidates seeking to replace him. At a rally outside City Hall just before a City Council hearing on school climate Monday, students and advocates from the Dignity in Schools Campaign called on the next mayor to take a different approach to school discipline. They want a model that relies less on suspensions and other punitive measures, and also ensures that black and Latino students are not disproportionately affected by school discipline. “We need a mayor that is going to implement and fund restorative justice in our schools,” said Benia Darius, a junior at Bushwick School for Social Justice. “I am soon going to start my training as a peer mediator, and I’m going to be part of the change in my school. But what I want to know today as a student is what you as mayoral candidates are going to do to change these issues in our schools?”
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