Posted on Friday, May 9, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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The Department of Education (DOE) provided new guidance to all states Wednesday reinforcing the federally mandated “Unsafe School Choice Option” that requires states to allow students to change schools if they face violence in the classroom.
DEO explained that the “Unsafe School Choice Option” is a provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that “requires each state to establish and implement a policy designed to ensure students in persistently dangerous schools are provided with an opportunity to attend a safe public elementary or secondary school, including a public charter school.”
DOE is requiring states to define what qualifies as a persistently dangerous school, identify those specific schools, and offer school choice to affected students. Five states were already able to identify persistently dangerous schools in the 2023-2024 school year. States have the flexibility to create definitions for these schools based on their local needs.
“The Trump-McMahon Department of Education is committed to ensuring all children can attend a safe school in which they can focus on mastering the reading and mathematics skills necessary for success in school and beyond,” said Hayley Sanon, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. “In today’s guidance, we encourage states to build on the work they have done to maximize parent options for choosing the safest school setting for their children.”
States are required to provide options for parents to change their children’s schools under two circumstances. The first is if students “attend a public elementary or secondary school that the State has determined to be unsafe (i.e., to be persistently dangerous) based on State-determined criteria established in consultation with a representative sample of LEAs.” The second is if students “become a victim of a violent criminal offense, as determined by State law, while in or on the grounds of a public elementary school or secondary school that the student attends.”
The DOE explained in the letter that the number of persistently dangerous schools currently reported by states appears low compared to “the number of violent offenses in schools reported through the Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).” No schools were designated as persistently dangerous in the 2021-2022 school year despite public school districts reporting “through the CRDC approximately 1.2 million violent offenses in that same school year.”
Virginia and Arkansas are two examples of states working with DOE to ensure that they properly follow the guidance. Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Emily Anne Gullickson praised McMahon’s work on the issue.
“The Unsafe School Choice Option empowers students and families by providing additional pathways to safer educational environments, giving every child the opportunity to learn and thrive in a secure setting,” she said. “Virginia is committed to providing all students with a safe and vibrant learning community. We appreciate Secretary McMahon and the Department for providing guidance as we work to expand education freedom in the Commonwealth.”
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
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