Misleading safety data could hurt kids

A Feb. 2 report, “Violent and Disruptive Incidents and Bullying in New York Schools,” from State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli should serve as a wake-up call for anyone tempted to declare victory on school safety.

Data from the New York State Education Department, or SED, shows that rates of “serious” violent and disruptive incidents, namely assault, sexual offense and weapons possession, remain near zero. Yet, bullying, cyberbullying and drug-related incidents are rising statewide, in many cases exceeding pre-pandemic levels. That disconnect is significant, as it reveals a system that risks measuring safety through definitions rather than by students’ lived experiences.

In his analysis of seven years of School Safety and Educational Climate data from SED, DiNapoli found that bullying is now the most frequently reported school safety incident.

Not including cyberbullying, bullying accounted for nearly two-thirds of all reported incidents statewide in the 2023-24 school year. Almost 30,000 bullying incidents were reported — translating to 12.4 incidents per 1,000 pupils. In schools that reported at least one incident, the rate was far higher.

Cyberbullying, meanwhile, remains officially “low” in the data, but that is precisely the problem. Anonymity, off-campus activity and the digital lives students have after dismissal make cyberbullying notoriously difficult to detect and report. The report itself acknowledges that many incidents likely go unreported. When nearly 35 percent of public schools report no bullying or cyberbullying incidents, the question is not whether bullying exists, but whether schools are capturing it honestly.

Drug-related incidents tell a similar story. After dropping during the period of remote learning, the number of drug incidents in secondary schools has risen above pre-Covid levels. Statewide rates climbed from 4.2 incidents per 1,000 students in 2017-18 to 6.5 in 2023-24, with especially high rates in upstate districts. These are not abstract numbers. They reflect daily realities that students, teachers and families confront in hallways, bathrooms and social spaces.
Yet at the same time these troubling trends are rising, reports of serious violent and disruptive incidents have plummeted. That decline coincides not with a dramatic transformation of school culture, but with changes to reporting definitions implemented in 2021-22. Under the revised rules, incidents are only reportable if the offender is at least 10 years old, the incident meets felony criteria, and it has been referred to law enforcement.

The result is a dataset that may be technically accurate under state rules, but deeply misleading if taken at face value. Schools may still experience serious incidents that never meet the threshold for state reporting, creating a false sense of security for parents and policymakers who rely on these numbers to assess safety.

This is not the intent of New York’s school safety laws. The Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act, enacted in 2000, and the Dignity for All Students Act, adopted a decade later, were designed to protect young people and ensure transparency in reporting harassment, bullying and violence. After the Sandy Hook tragedy in Connecticut, New York state rightly sought to refine and streamline reporting to focus on prevention. But refinement must not become minimized.

Limiting cellphone use during the school day is a modest step in the right direction. It will reduce in-school distractions. But bullying and cyberbullying don’t stop at the dismissal bell. Students carry their social worlds and their conflicts home in their pockets. Without sustained education, intervention and accountability, phones will simply resume their role as weapons after school hours.

Schools need to be honest with themselves about what these incidents are and properly report them to the State Education Department. That honesty isn’t about protecting reputations or presenting a picture of perfect calm. It’s about identifying real problems so they can be addressed.

Pretending a school or district is blissful may look good on paper, but it does nothing to protect students. Reliable, transparent data is the foundation of meaningful solutions.

If we want safer schools in reality and not just safer statistics, we must confront bullying, cyberbullying and substance use head-on, report them accurately, and commit to prevention that extends beyond the school day. Our children deserve nothing less.