2000-2001 Annual Report on Discipline, Crime, and Violence

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P. O. BOX 2120
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23218-2120

SUPTS. MEMO NO. 35
July 6, 2001

ADMINISTRATIVE

TO:	Division Superintendents
FROM:	Jo Lynne DeMary Superintendent of Public Instruction
SUBJECT:	2000-2001 Annual Report on Discipline, Crime, and Violence

The purpose of this memo is to provide information for submitting data on discipline, crime, and violence in public schools for the 2000-2001 year. Data should be submitted for the 365-day period starting with the first day of your 2000-2001 school year. Data submitted will meet the reporting requirements for the following:

safety indicators for the state School Performance Report Card
state crime and violence report as required in §22.1-280.1, Code of Virginia
federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) report on suspension and expulsion of students with disabilities
federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act
federal Gun-Free Schools Act

All data must be submitted electronically to the Department of Education (DOE) on or before Friday, September 14, 2001. The designated local contact person for this report should coordinate the collection of the data for the division. The data may be maintained locally through any chosen method. However, when data are submitted, school divisions must use either the Excel spreadsheet or a system-generated ASCII flat file. Data must be combined into one file before it is submitted; no files from individual schools will be accepted. The completed ASCII text file should be named disxxx01.txt (where xxx is the three-digit division number). Please e-mail the discipline file to discipln@pen.k12.va.us by September 14, 2001. A verification of data submitted by school divisions will be conducted prior to release of any data.

Changes for the 2000-2001 reporting process are as follows:

Number of victims in incidents must be reported.
Race code 03 must be used to report black students, and race code 04 must be used to report Hispanic students.
Permanent expulsion, reduced expulsion, and alternative education placement are reported as individual data elements in separate columns.
Offense codes SX8 and SX9 are no longer used.

School code of conduct violations listed under OT1 in the Offense Codes should not be reported to DOE unless the discipline results in out-of-school suspension or expulsion. Violations for all other required DOE offense codes must be reported.

Divisions shall report offenses that occurred in the school in which the student’s membership and attendance is maintained. If the offender is unknown or is not a student, then the school in which the incident occurred shall report the offense.

Information related to this data collection process can be downloaded from the Department of Education’s website at www.pen.k12.va.us. Users can select "Reports" at the top of the home page, or "Data and Publications" at the bottom, and then select "Discipline, Crime, and Violence Data Collection" from the "Collections" list to access the following:

ASCII File Layout
Excel Spreadsheet
Instructions for Reporting Discipline, Crime, and Violence Data (includes offense codes)
Discipline Import Spreadsheet (for data exported from the discipline module of the student information system)

The complete address to access information is: www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Publications/Discipline/datacoll/coll.htm.

Questions regarding data entry for this report, use of the Excel spreadsheets, use of the ASCII flat file, or any other inquiries may be directed to (mailto:discipln@pen.k12.va.us) or to Roger Mancastroppa at (804) 225-2966.

JLD/JCC/dmb