New Jersey Department of Education:
Purpose of the Report
The Commissioner’s annual report provides the Legislature with information reported by school districts concerning incidents of serious student misconduct grouped into the following four major reporting categories: violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse. An analysis of trends yields indications of progress and of ongoing concern, and provides guidance to districts, other agencies, and the department as they endeavor to focus resources on areas of need. In the Programmatic Response section of this report, the department notifies the Legislature and the public of the actions taken by the State Board of Education and the Department of Education to address the problems evident in the data.
FINDINGS
The Findings section summarizes the data reported by districts over the Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS). Districts are required to report incidents, as defined in the EVVRS, if they occur on school grounds during school hours, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored event, using the Violence, Vandalism, and Substance Abuse (VV-SA) Incident Reporting Form in Appendix B. The reporting of this year’s findings is intended to be read in electronic format; the reader can link to figures that depict the findings described in the report. Paper copies of the figures may be found in Appendix C of the print version of this document. More detailed findings, i.e., district and school summary data, may be accessed at http://www.state.nj.us/education/schools/vandv/.