http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/nyregion/new-york-public-schools-have-safest-year-on-record.html 2016-09-16 04:01:15 New York Public Schools Have Safest Year on Record The decline in major crimes, announced by Commissioner William J. Bratton, has coincided with a decrease in suspensions and school-related arrests and summonses. === In The announcement was made at Leadership and Public Service High School in Lower Manhattan as a way of calling attention to the Education Department’s effort to change its approach to discipline. Leadership and Public Service has reduced its number of student suspensions by over 70 percent since the 2012-13 school year Ms. Fariña has promoted that approach as a model for the entire public school system as it tries to reduce suspensions and arrests in schools. Mr. Bratton, whose last day as commissioner is Friday, described 2015-16 as “the safest year we’ve had” since 1998, the year the Police Department began tracking data on major crimes in public schools. The number of such crimes — including rape, felony assault, robbery, burglary and grand larceny — was 532 last year, a 13 percent decline from the year before and a 35 percent decline from the 2011-12 school year, said Assistant Chief Brian J. Conroy, the commanding officer of the school safety division. This decline, which began in 2012-13, has coincided with a decrease in suspensions and school-related arrests and summonses. The Police Department on Thursday The number of weapons confiscated in the city’s public schools, however, has increased for the last two years to 2,053 this past school year from 1,347 in 2013-14. Mr. Bratton argued the increase was “a positive thing” because it meant that school staff members and school safety agents were doing a better job of finding weapons before they could be used. Within hours of the announcement, though, the The group in recent months has repeatedly painted the public schools as increasingly dangerous. In April, the group and several public school families The state data has not been updated for the most recent school year, but in August the state announced that the number of New York City public schools designated as “persistently dangerous” — reflecting a high rate of violent episodes over a period of two years — The Education Department has proposed changes to the school discipline code that would further reduce suspensions, including ending most suspensions for children in kindergarten through second grade. Those proposed changes have drawn criticism from both the teachers’ union and the principals’ union.