State: After 5 years, classrooms no safer
Though Pennsylvania students have made academic progress over the past five years, their schools are no safer, state education officials announced today.
Roughly 68,000 incidents were reported for the 2008-09 school year statewide, about the same as five years ago.
"Clearly, more must be done to change the climate of our schools, and there is room for improvement even within our schools that most students, parents and teachers would consider safe schools," said Gerald Zahorchak, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education.
Along with the school safety numbers, Zahorchak also said that there will be a push for school districts to better report violence and better tools for monitoring school safety.
The state Board of Education, board president Joseph Torsella said, will act quickly to define school climate requirements and make them formal expectations of all districts, much like the board's academic standards.
Torsella, state Senate Education Chairman Jeffrey Piccola (R., Dauphin) and state House Education Chairman James Roebuck (D., Phila.) spoke in favor of legislation that would tighten school safety reporting requirements.
Senate Bill 56, which awaits action by the House, calls for closer collaboration between police departments and school districts. It would also hold school administrators personally responsible for reporting violence accurately, with possible criminal consequences for those who fail to accurately report.
"We have a duty to make all schools in Pennsylvania safer," Piccola said.
Zahorchak also announced that a number of Philadelphia schools - whose reported serious incidents dropped last year - will have on-site safety reviews conducted by an independent agency.
The city schools, including the state's 25 schools labeled "Persistently Dangerous" under the federal No Child Left Behind law, will get recommendations for how to improve violence there.
Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said she welcomed the visits.
"I'm not afraid of the review," Ackerman said this morning. "I think the review might be really helpful."
