Unsafe School Choice Options under NCLB – Overview by MyAmericanChild

Under the Unsafe Schools Choice (USC) option of NCLB, any student attending a school that has been identified as “persistently dangerous” by its State Education Agency (SEA) must be allowed to attend a different school that is deemed safe. This is referred to as the “group option” because it applies to all the students at the designated school. In addition, any student who has been the “victim of a violent crime” while in or on the grounds of his or her public school (whether or not it is designated to be “persistently unsafe”) must be allowed the same choice of a different public school. This is referred to as the “individual option” because the opportunity to transfer to a different school applies only to the victim of the crime. All SEAs are required to specify reasonable conditions for a school to be designated as “persistently unsafe” or for an individual to be considered the “victim of a violent crime.” All school districts (LEAs) are required to fully and accurately report to the SEA all incidents of violent crime that have taken place at their schools. So far this combination of SEA definitions and LEA reporting has led to very few schools being identified as persistently dangerous. For the 2004-2005 school year, only 28 public schools out of the nearly 100,000 in the United States were so identified. Contrary to what common sense and news reports would lead one to believe, forty-four states and the District of Columbia reported that they had no persistently dangerous schools at all. We do not have information on how many families became eligible for the “individual option” because their child was the victim of a violent crime. The USDOE is questioning the states over their implementation of the Unsafe School Choice options option under NCLB. MyAmericanChild supports that investigation.