Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein today announced the creation of the Department of Education's Office of School Safety and Planning as well as the appointment of Benjamin B. Tucker as its Chief Executive. The newly created office will work collaboratively with the New York City Police Department and the Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinator to implement a comprehensive, new school safety plan and provide support to all schools on the effective, coordinated use of disciplinary tools, truancy prevention programs, and school safety resources. The Mayor and the Chancellor also announced a new data-driven strategy, known as SchoolSafe, which will focus on those schools with the highest rates of criminal incidents that continue to account for a disproportionate amount of school-based crime. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Criminal Justice Coordinator John Feinblatt joined the Mayor and Chancellor at William H. Taft High School in the Bronx.

"First and foremost, students and teachers coming into our schools must have a safe and orderly environment," Mayor Bloomberg said. "Children cannot learn and teachers cannot teach if they are scared or intimidated. The new school governance structure gives us the opportunity to make our schools safer because the Department of Education now reports to the Mayor and will be better able to coordinate its efforts with the Police Department and the Criminal Justice Coordinator. Accountability means someone is finally in charge and I am pleased to announce the appointment of Benjamin Tucker as Chief Executive of the Office of School Safety and Planning. Ben is a respected and accomplished criminal justice expert, as well as an attorney and professor, and I am confident that he will effectively draw upon his extensive knowledge and experience to promote safety in our City's schools."

"A safe climate is an essential prerequisite for instruction to take place in our schools," Chancellor Klein said. "In recent years, we have made significant progress in addressing issues of crime and safety. But more can be done: by collaborating with the NYPD and the Mayor's Criminal Justice Coordinator, we can ensure that principals, teachers, and school safety personnel in every school are working together effectively. This level of interagency collaboration demonstrates the power of the new school governance structure."

Chief Executive Benjamin B. Tucker has broad experience in criminal justice at both the national and local level to the Office of School Safety and Planning. Tucker has served as the Deputy Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked with police departments across the nation on innovative safety initiatives. His experience in New York City government includes service as Deputy Assistant Director for Law Enforcement Services of the Mayor's Office of Operations, Assistant Director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, and Chief of Operations at the Manhattan Borough President's Office. Tucker also led national projects at both the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse of Columbia University and the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service of New York University. He began his career as an officer in the New York City Police Department, spending several years as a police liaison for safety issues in City schools. Tucker, who is leaving his teaching post as Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Pace University, earned degrees from the Fordham University School of Law and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

As part of SchoolSafe, the Office of School Safety and Planning will work to identify those schools with the worst criminal incident rates and implement comprehensive action plans that draw on new and existing resources such as programs for truancy, attendance, and discipline. SchoolSafe will focus on the 10% of schools with the highest incident rates, which account for over one-third of all reported school crime. These middle and high schools have criminal incident rates that exceed the average by 150%. These schools also score lower in key academic performance areas: graduation rates for these schools are 30% below average and the percentage of students meeting minimum academic standards is 16% below average. A joint committee comprised of representatives of the Department of Education, the NYPD, and the Coordinator's office will monitor these schools and measure the effectiveness of new procedures and initiatives by analyzing incident rates, perceptions of safety, and other key indicators.

In addition to SchoolSafe, the new safety plan includes three other pro-active components aimed at enhancing the teaching and learning environment in schools throughout the City. First, the Office of School Safety and Planning will monitor and immediately respond to schools that show signs of escalating incident rates. Second, the Office will promote safety in all schools by working with community-based organizations and appropriate City agencies to develop truancy prevention programs, after-school activities, and other initiatives that involve students in school governance such as youth courts. Finally, the Office will develop a continuum of immediate and graduated responses for individual students engaged in misconduct, so that the schools, police, and juvenile justice system may send a consistent and unified message to deter future misbehavior and criminal conduct. Over the past two years, school safety has significantly improved in the New York City public schools, with criminal incidents dropping by 16% and gun confiscations falling by more than 50%.