Hundreds of Colorado schools are misreporting safety data that parents ultimately rely upon to determine whether their child’s school is safe.
Critical information, such as the number of students caught with dangerous weapons or drugs, the number expelled or suspended for the offenses, and how often police were notified, is inaccurately stated on annual School Accountability Reports.
Because the safety figures are wrong, hundreds of schools look as if they have more-serious safety problems than actually exist while others seem to ignore the issues they do have, according to an analysis of Colorado Department of Education computerized records and interviews with school officials.
For instance, although 454 schools reported at least one dangerous-weapon incident last year, just two in five told education officials that they had reported the incidents to police, as required by state law. A total of 234 of them appear in Department of Education records to have skirted state law by not expelling the violators.
But in every case in which the data were presented to school and school district officials for verification, they disputed parts of the state reports. They complained that a lack of definition in state laws had combined with clerical errors to present untrue pictures of violence in their schools.
“We don’t not refer to law enforcement kids who bring guns and knives to school,” said Larry Borland, director of security for Douglas County RE-1, where data suggest 31 of 49 dangerous-weapon cases resulted in an expulsion – and state education records show that despite a mandatory reporting policy, police were told of none.
“We just don’t have kids with dope and the police not know,” he said.
In April, The Denver Post reported how schools have misstated the number of assaults and fights students are involved in.
Some schools overstated the number by including every little tussle – contradicting the state’s directions for providing the information – while others reported no fights despite police reports to the contrary.
School officials say the cause of the misreporting of weapons and drug violations is the same as that for the assaults and fights: Simple errors, varying interpretations of what qualifies as a violation, and a failure to verify the data.
Colorado’s top education official acknowledges that bad numbers make for bad policy.
“If you put out a number, it should be a good one,” Education Commissioner William Moloney said. “If you’re not in a position to validate it, you should not put it out.”
But while great attention is paid to test scores, in the four years that Colorado has required annual School Accountability Reports to guide parents in choosing schools, no one in state government has ever verified the contents related to safety.
What results are glaring and obvious inconsistencies. Colorado Springs Academy 20 district officials reported expelling 10 students in 46 dangerous-weapons incidents. The number of expulsions should match the number of incidents involving dangerous weapons, if state law is followed.
Academy 20 officials say they simply overreported the number of incidents, including lighters, nail files and other items as dangerous weapons even though those items don’t qualify by state definition. They insist that the correct number of dangerous-weapons incidents is 10, not 46.
The lack of oversight and acknowledgment of inaccuracy has some parents wary.
“I know that there is no verification of the figures,” said Jan Tanner, treasurer of the Colorado Parent Teacher Association. “I’m very concerned that the state is spending … large dollars and not verifying.”
The accountability reports are intended to ensure parents “got a sense and an awareness of the school climate,” said Rick O’Donnell, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education who championed school accountability as Gov. Bill Owens’ policy chief.
“One of the first things parents want to know is if their child’s school is safe and drug-free,” O’Donnell said, “and what’s being done about it.”
If the reports are to be believed, many schools are neither:
The report for Douglas County High School says officials never told an in-school police officer about the 31 drug cases there last year – even though eight students were expelled – but did tell the officer about 16 tobacco infractions.
School officials say they actually told police about each incident, but somehow failed to accurately mark that on the state report.
At Aurora Central High School, where police were told about every drug-related case, state education records show that police were never told about any of the 11 dangerous-weapons incidents. School officials say that’s not true but acknowledge that they failed to properly fill out the paperwork.
Districts with the most glaring data inconsistencies say the faulty information is the result of clerical missteps stemming from a variety of factors ranging from poor reporting to confusion over the state’s data requirements.
Some acknowledge that they just failed to double-check.
“We’re not quite sure how this all went through without being double-checked and how it’s not right,” said Deb Haviland, spokesperson for Adams County School District 50, also called Westminster, where the district reported 35 dangerous-weapons incidents occurred when only 10 were really recorded. “We’re taking this seriously and are concerned how the data is reflected.”
In some cases, the data may be accurate as reported to education officials.
In Adams County District 12, policy requires administrators to tell police of “all school-related situations which may involved criminal violations.”
“It’s just a matter of course,” spokeswoman Janelle Albertson said.
But Adams 12 told state officials that only 19 of 39 dangerous-weapons cases were referred to law enforcement. That discrepancy shouldn’t exist, said Kevin West, the district’s manager of intervention services.
“Bottom line is we have some additional training to do,” West said.
Some districts seemed to get it right – sort of. At Adams-Arapahoe School District 28J in Aurora, expulsions for dangerous weapons matched the reported incidents, 31.
But they reported that police were called in on just three of them, records show.
“I can’t imagine why or how we’d have a dangerous weapon that doesn’t involve police,” said Greg Moore, the district’s director of organizational support.
Education Commissioner Moloney said the system is broken but fixable.
“This is a problem we can diminish but not eliminate,” he said. “The data is not as useful as it could be and doesn’t do as many things it could. But it’s not worthless … yet.”
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-820-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
