New Safety Initiatives in NYC Public Schools
Restraint Cases
48% resulted in arrests
Intervention Rates
Black students receive intervention more than twice as often
Youngest Student Handcuffed
6 years old
Overall Takeaways:
- Since the pandemic, there has been an increase in school safety incidences relative to past years. This increase is not simply reflecting an increase in the student population—enrollment is actually down from 2016.
- Overall, mitigated and child in crisis interventions have increased, while arrested, juvenile report, and summons interventions have decreased.
- Of interventions that resulted in use of restraints, arrested was the most common intervention type (48.1% of restraint cases), followed by child in crisis (21.3%), juvenile report (16.8%), mitigated (7.0%), summons (5.5%), and PINS warrant (1.3%).
- The precinct with the highest intervention to student enrollment ratio (562 interventions per 1000 students since 2016) is precinct 121 in Staten Island.
Race Specific:
- Relative to their share of the population in NYC schools (23.7%), Black students are disproportionately more likely to receive any kind of intervention (52.5%), as well as disproportionately more likely to be arrested (59.8%), restrained in general (60.1%), and restrained with metal (59.77%).
- This pattern was stronger among students 10 and under, with Black students representing 54.0% of all interventions, 66.7% of all arrests, 58.4% of students restrained, and 66.7% of all students restrained with metal in this age category.
- Black students are also disproportionately more likely to receive child in crisis interventions (45.6%). Even relative to the racial breakdown of students receiving child in crisis interventions, Black students are disproportionately more likely to receive restraints in these cases (60.8%).
Age Specific:
- The median age of students receiving any intervention was 14, whereas the median age for those arrested, restrained, or restrained with metal was 16.
- The youngest student to receive an intervention was 3, while the youngest students to be arrested, restrained, and restrained with metal were 8, 5, and 6 respectively.
- A total of 7,285 students 10 and under received an intervention.
Force, Abuse of Authority, Discourtesy, Offensive Language(FADO) Reports:
- When looking at FADO complaints, we see that generally “Force” complaints make up 50-75% of each quarter’s complaints, “Discourtesy” makes up 25-50%, and “Abuse of Authority” and “Offensive Language” each make up 0-12.5%.
- Overall, 75-100% of FADO complaints remain open at the end of every quarter.
- For complaints that remain open at the time of the quarterly report, we see that in general those complaints have been open for around 50 days.
Student Safety Act Reports
- SSA Report by Precinct
- SSA Report by School
- FADO Quarterly Report
All data is from 2016 to the second quarter of 2023. For the Student Safety Act reports, incidences were filtered to only include students who are 18 or younger.
Between 2016 Q1 and 2023 Q2, there were 66,064 interventions. Interventions tend to peak in Q4 of each year (October 1 – December 31), and dip in Q2 (April 1 – June 3). Since the pandemic, there has been an increase in interventions relative to past years. This increase in interventions is not simply reflecting an increase in the student population—enrollment which is actually down from 2016.
Restraints were used in 8,103 cases since 2016 (12.3% of all cases). The number of interventions involving restraints per quarter has decreased since 2016. Meanwhile, the number of interventions not involving restraints has increased in recent quarters, which follows the overall trend in total interventions.
When an intervention resulted in the use of restraints, arrested was the most common intervention type.
Between 2016 and 2023 Q2, we see that: 50.7% of interventions were mitigated, 26.0% were child in crisis, 12.1% were juvenile reports, 6.7% were arrested, 4.1% were summonses, and 0.3% were PINS warrant. Overall, mitigated and child in crisis interventions have increased, while arrested, juvenile report, and summons interventions have decreased.
Trends by Precinct
The table and chart to the right show that the precinct with the highest intervention to student enrollment ratio (562 interventions per 1000 students since 2016) is precinct 121 in Staten Island. Out of the remaining four precincts in the top 5 precincts with the highest intervention to student ratio, three of them are in Brooklyn (84, 75, and 90) and one is in the Bronx (47).
Trends by Race
The racial breakdown of students receiving interventions has stayed more or less stable since the start of the reporting period. However, the share of black students receiving interventions has decreased by roughly 7-8%, and increased slightly among Hispanic, White, and Asian/Pacific Islander students.
The racial breakdown of all interventions between 2016 and 2023 Q2 was as follows: Black: 52.5%, Hispanic: 36.1%, White: 5.7%, Asian/Pacific Islander: 2.9%, Other: 2.2%, Unknown: 0.2%. Relative to their share of the population in NYC schools (23.7%), Black students are disproportionately more likely to receive any kind of intervention (52.5%), as well as disproportionately more likely to be arrested (59.8%), restrained in general (60.1%), and restrained with metal (59.8%). Every other racial group is underrepresented relative to their population share.
Black students are disproportionately more likely to receive child in crisis interventions. Even relative to the racial breakdown of students receiving child In crisis interventions, Black students are disproportionately more likely to receive restraints.
Trends by age
The median age of students receiving any intervention is 14, whereas the average age for those arrested, restrained, and restrained with metal was 16. The youngest student to receive an intervention was 3, while the youngest students to be arrested, restrained, and restrained with metal were 8, 5, and 6 respectively. 7,285 students 10 and under received an intervention.
Force, Abuse of Authority, Discourtesy, Offensive Language(FADO) Reports
The figure to the right shows the number of FADO complaints by quarter from Q1 2016 to Q2 2023. We see that usually the number of complaints is much lower in the third quarter of each year, as students are out of school for the summer. The pandemic caused a sharp reduction in the number of complaints, as many students weren’t in school. We also see that the number of complaints post-pandemic has not risen to the pre-pandemic level.
The figure to the right shows, for each quarter, the percentage breakdown of FADO complaints by the type of complaint. We see that generally “Force” complaints make up 50-75% of each quarter’s complaints, “Discourtesy” makes up 25-50%, and “Abuse of Authority” and “Offensive Language” each make up 0-12.5%.
The figure to the right shows, for each quarter, the percentage of the quarter’s complaints that remained “open” at the time of the quarterly report. We see that in general 75-100% of complaints remain open. Note that the Q2 2023 data point could be a typo in the report or a change in definition which includes open complaints from previous quarters.
The figure to the right shows, for each quarter, the average number of days a complaint has been open (for those complaints that remain open at the time of the quarterly report). We see that in general open complaints have been open for around 50 days. Note that the Q2 2023 data point could be a typo in the report or a change in definition which includes open complaints from previous quarters.
The figure to the right shows a heatmap (by police precinct) of the total number of FADO complaints per 1,000 students (from Q1 2016 to Q2 2023), with darker colors indicating more complaints. Precinct 14 had the highest number of total complaints per 1,000 students (with 4.73 complaints). Note: Some complaints did not have precinct information.