(The Sentinel) – A May 7th letter from the U. S. Department of Education to Kansas school officials has dusted off a decades-long, but neglected regulation allowing students victimized in “persistently dangerous schools” to transfer to another school in the district.
The “Unsafe School Choice Option” was part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in the 1960’s and was reauthorized in subsequent federal iterations, including No Child Left Behind and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The regulation specifies:
Each State receiving funds under this chapter shall establish and implement a statewide policy requiring that a student attending a persistently dangerous public elementary school or secondary school, as determined by the State in consultation with a representative sample of local educational agencies, or who becomes a victim of a violent criminal offense, as determined by State law, while in or on the grounds of a public elementary school or secondary school that the student attends, be allowed to attend a safe public elementary school or secondary school within the local educational agency, including a public charter school.
Each state is allowed to set its own standards for what it determines to be a dangerous school. Despite a reported 857,500 violent incidents in or around school grounds in 2022, and 346 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in 2023, according to latest statistics, only 25 schools in 2025 were designated as “persistently dangerous” and 15 of those came from Arkansas. Education Secretary Linda McMahonrecently praised the state for taking a lead in designating schools as such.
Kansas defines a school as “persistently dangerous” if they for three consecutive years:
Have 1 + students expelled for a federal Gun Free Schools violation; and 2% or five students (whichever is greater) utilize the individual option; and 2% or five students are expelled for violence related offenses including crimes against persons which constitute the commission of a felony, including murder, aggravated assault, battery, criminal threat, hazing, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, and stalking; or sex crimes such as rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, indecent solicitation of a child, sexual battery, sexual exploitation of a child, and sodomy; or child abuse or terroristic threat.
The narrow definition and three-year timetable in Kansas may account for the state reporting no “persistently dangerous schools” in 2021, 2022, and 2023, despite reported incidents around the state in recent years, and its recent designation as having the 46th safest schools in the United States in a poll by WalletHub.com.
During the 2021-2022 school year, no schools in the United States were reported as “persistently dangerous”, in spite of the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection reporting 1.2 million violent offenses that same school year.
An example from the State of Ohio, which has a two-year window in which to report school violence, illustrates why so few schools are designated as “persistently dangerous”:
A “persistently dangerous” school is defined by State law as a school that has two or more violent criminal offenses in or on school grounds, per 100 students, in each of two consecutive school years. In schools with 300 or fewer students enrolled, six or more violent criminal offenses must occur. Likewise, if a school has 1350 or more students enrolled, 27 or more violent criminal offenses must occur in each of two consecutive school years.
The letter from the Department of Education suggested several guidelines for designation of “persistently dangerous schools”:
- Consider reducing the period of time before a school is determined to be persistently dangerous
- Review data and information related to violent incidents as opposed to responses to violent incidents.
- Regularly review and revise the processes and procedures for collecting school safety data from LEAs (Local Education Agencies
- Consider providing multiple school choice options.
We requested comments from the Kansas Department of Education on the letter and updated information on school incidents statewide, as well as a response from USD 500 in Kansas City regarding the Department’s efforts. Neither responded.
