Criteria for Designating Persistently Dangerous Schools in 2017-18
Each school year…the Department shall establish a school violence index as a comparative measure of the level of school violence in a school. The school violence index (SVI) will be computed in accordance with a formula established by the Commissioner that considers the enrollment of the school and is weighted to reflect the most serious violent incidents, which shall include, but need not be limited to the following categories of incidents: homicide, forcible sexual offense, and incidents involving the possession, use, or threatened use of a weapon. 8 NYCCR §100.2 (gg)
Persistently Dangerous Criteria
Schools may be designated as persistently dangerous if they meet the following criteria:
IF for BOTH 2016-17 AND 2017-18 a school has EITHER:
- An SVI of 1.5 or greater; OR
- An SVI of 0.5 or greater AND a total of 60 or more serious incidents
THEN the school may be designated as persistently dangerous.
The School Violence Index (SVI)
The SVI is a ratio of violent incidents to enrollment in a school and is determined by the number of incidents, the seriousness of the incidents, and the school’s enrollment. The table below provides the weights for each type of violent incident that carries a weight.
Incident Category(These Types of Incidents are Considered to be Serious Incidents) |
Weight |
Homicide |
100 |
Forcible Sex Offenses |
60 |
Other Sex Offenses |
40 |
Assault: Serious Physical Injury |
45 |
Assault: Physical Injury |
30 |
Weapons Possession: Routine Security Check |
1 |
Weapons Possession: Other |
15 |
Material Incidents of Discrimination, Harassment, and Bullying (all excluding Cyberbullying) |
1 |
| Cyberbullying | 1 |
To calculate the SVI for each school, the incident counts for each type of incident are multiplied by the weight for that type of incident and those products are added together to obtain an overall weighted incident total. This total is then divided by the enrollment, which results in the SVI score.