The new school safety data released today, which takes into account NYPD precinct level arrests and the use of handcuffs and restraints, shows there are deep racial inequities in school safety practices. While crime is down 17%  since 2013, there were still almost 1,400 school-based arrests in the 2015-2016 school year. Black students make up 27.1% of the student population, but account for more than half of all school-based arrests and almost two-thirds of all of school-based summonses. This over-policing of low-income Black and Brown communities results in racial disparities in arrests and summons for low-level infractions and student misbehavior.

“The City must take steps to end racial disparities in school safety practices, and shift investments away from policies that criminalize students and towards positive approaches to school climate and discipline that ensure students’ human rights to a quality education and to be treated with dignity,” said Liz Sullivan-Yuknis of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) and Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York (DSC-NY).

DSC-NY looks forward to working with the administration to decrease racial disparities in school safety and to create broader transformation in schools.