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New York City
May 2003

New Beginnings for Disruptive Students

Although school crime has decreased eight percent in 2002, important issues of school safety remain. The number one dilemma remains the same: how to deal with constantly disruptive, rowdy, and dangerous students who, in spite of repeated discipline in a mainstream setting, continue to prevent their classmates from learning.

In order to help these chronic problem-students, and to ensure a peaceful learning environment for their classmates at the same time, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has hired ten community-based groups to help run 17 new neighborhood reform schools, schools safety chief Benjamin B. Tucker said at a joint hearing of the City Council Education and Public Safety Committees. The creative part? These minischools, with 40-60 students each, will not mimic jails where nothing positive happens, but shall squarely aim to rehabilitate their charges so they can eventually return to regular schools.

These New Beginnings Schools will be set up as satellites to the City’s 17 most troubled high schools at a cost of $1.8 million. Each school will have 2-3 teachers, along with professional staff from nonprofit groups.

“The underlying objective of the centers places an emphasis on providing the support services needed to effect positive change in student behavior and attitude,” Tucker said. “At the same time, removing these chronically disruptive students will yield broad benefits by creating a more orderly environment.”

“Teachers can not teach, and students can not learn, if they don’t feel safe,” said Education Committee Chair Eva Moskowitz in supporting the measure. “But, since it’s been shown that a third of all the problems occur in only ten per cent of the schools, I welcome these steps toward a solution.”

The Department of Education’s Office of School Safety and Planning, under Mr. Tucker, has begun implementing a comprehensive school safety agenda with an emphasis upon identifying those schools with the highest criminal incident rates, and ensuring the more effective use of disciplinary strategies to address the behavior of disruptive students. A critical component of this agenda has been the office’s cooperation and coordination with the New York City Police Department, in particular the School Safety Division. The Police Department has assumed responsibility of the recruitment, hiring, and training of over 4,000 School Safety agents operating in New York City Public Schools.

The New Beginnings Schools, ready to begin operation in a matter of weeks, are a fruit of this cooperative agenda. Students attending these centers will be engaged in project-based learning and will receive requisite credit-bearing instruction in literacy and numeracy.

“We believe these centers will augment the Department’s existing disciplinary policy,” Tucker said. “They will ensure a swift and certain response for those students who persistently disrupt the school environment. Yet, at the same time, the centers will also offer opportunities for students to get the support and assistance they need to be productive.”#

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