The State Board of Education adopted standards in May 2003 that will allow a student who is a victim of a violent criminal offense to transfer to a safe public school and allow a student who attends a persistently dangerous school to transfer to a safe public school. Both transfer options would take place within the LEA and include any public charter schools. Together, these two requirements are known as the Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO). These requirements are part of the Federal No Child Left Behind regulations.
The standards require Local Education Agencies to provide a student who is the victim of a violent criminal offense the option to transfer to another school that is a safe public school. The standards also establish definitions of "victim" and "violent criminal offense" for the Local Education Agency to use in applying the transfer option.
The standards also require the Department to identify those schools that meet the definition of "persistently dangerous school." After that identification takes place, Local Education Agencies with persistently dangerous schools must provide each student who attends such a school the option to transfer to another school that is a safe public school. The Local Education Agency, with technical assistance provided the Department, also must develop a corrective action plan that addresses the conditions in each persistently dangerous school.
