Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning to talk about the issue of youth violence. This is a topic of great importance to all of us at the Department of Education as well as to educators throughout the country. Tragic events in places such as Conyers, Georgia; Littleton, Colorado; Springfield, Oregon; Paducah, Kentucky; Pearl, Mississippi; and Jonesboro, Arkansas have driven home the fact that horrible acts of violence can strike anywhere, even in communities and school districts that are generally safe.

We recognize the devastating effects that violence can have on families, communities, and schools. Children cannot learn and teachers cannot teach if they are victimized or threatened. If students are to reach the high academic standards the States have set for them, we must find ways to create safe, disciplined, and drug-free learning environments that support academic achievement.

This morning I'd like to talk with you about: (1) some of the things we have learned as we have worked with parents, students, teachers, and community members; (2) the actions we have taken to ensure that all students and teachers go to schools that are safe, disciplined, and drug-free; and (3) additional actions we are planning to take.

However, before proceeding I want to urge the Subcommittee to give very careful consideration to the President's FY 2000 request for education programs. We believe that the initiatives identified in that proposal are critically important in creating safe, disciplined, and drug-free learning environments and preventing youth violence. The existing proposal includes funding for many initiatives, including Safe and Drug-Free Schools, class size reduction, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and Reading Excellence. Funds for these and other important programs are necessary to improve the quality of education in the country and to ensure that students and teachers are safe. Funding of the programs included in our FY 2000 request, many of which affect the school environment, is our highest priority.

In particular, I want to encourage the Subcommittee to consider providing the full $600 million for the 21st Century Community Schools program requested in the President's FY 2000 budget. This program has generated tremendous interest from schools and communities across the country, and combines an important violence prevention strategy - increased adult supervision of adolescents - with an emphasis on improving academic skills.

Lessons Learned

We have been intensively involved in helping schools create safe, disciplined, and drug-free learning environments for many years. Over that time we have learned some important things about our schools and their safety. For example, we know that:

• Despite recent, high-profile cases such as those in Jefferson County, Colorado and Springfield, Oregon, schools remain safe places. Less than one percent of homicides among youth aged 12-19 occur in schools and 90 percent of schools haven't reported any serious violent crime. I have included a copy of the Annual Report on School Safety with my remarks for the record.
• There are many examples of schools that are doing a great job of ensuring that all students and faculty work and learn in an atmosphere that is safe, disciplined, and drug-free. We also know that there are numerous programs that, if implemented appropriately, can be very effective in reducing and preventing school crime and violence.
• There is a direct link between school reform issues and safe schools. Safe schools are schools where teachers are adequately trained; where the ratio between teachers and students is sufficient to ensure that no children "fall between the cracks"; where the instructional program is strong; where teachers and students treat each other with respect and civility; and where buildings are not over crowded or decaying.
• The most effective way to address school crime and violence is through a community-wide approach. While sound discipline policies and effective violence prevention programming are important elements in any effort to create safe, disciplined, and drug-free learning environments, we must also work to create access to adequate mental health resources; after-school programming; quality child care; early childhood services; and family strengthening programs. These services, while necessary for ensuring that our children and youth remain safe and healthy, do not necessarily need to be provided for by schools; however, linkages with medical and public health professionals, community groups and others that have responsibility for providing these services are necessary.
• Almost every school in the country is doing something to help create environments that are conducive to teaching and learning. For example, every school district in the country has policies prohibiting the possession of firearms, and almost every school has policies regarding the use and possession of illicit drugs. Further, almost every school district in the country has some sort of programming related to the prevention of drug use or violent behavior. Unfortunately, not all the programs being implemented are based upon sound research and many may have only limited effectiveness.
• Schools have not always been prepared to deal with issues related to crime, especially serious violent crime. While a growing number of schools have "crisis plans" or "school safety plans", many still do not.
• Schools are not always prepared to deal with the aftereffects of a serious crime or crisis. Experience with recent shootings in Springfield, Oregon, and Jefferson County, Colorado has taught us that there are significant psychological and emotional consequences of serious and violent crime and that these issues have to be dealt with if teaching and learning are to resume.
• There are ways to identify students who are experiencing trouble and the earlier we can provide these students with help the more likely it is that we will be able to help them resolve their problems. Unfortunately, in many school systems and communities resources are simply inadequate to support students identified with mental health problems.

Violence Prevention Activities

As you know, the Department of Education has been involved in a variety of activities and programs designed to ensure that every child has the opportunity to go to a school and every teacher has the opportunity to teach in a school without being threatened, attacked, bullied, robbed, or forced to witness the use or exchange of drugs. We are not alone in these efforts. Working with us every step of the way are our colleagues within the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Our work with these agencies reflects a partnership approach to creating safe environments - an approach that is necessary in every community in this country so that educators, law enforcement personnel, mental health and public health providers, youth-serving organizations, businesses, churches, parents, and youth themselves, come together to craft workable solutions. Success in creating safe schools is contingent upon our ability to forge linkages at all levels of government, to share resources and ideas and work together in a community, for our children and youth.

Generally, ED activities designed to reduce violence in our schools are focused on a limited number of strategic goals. We work to identify, disseminate information about, and support effective, research-based violence prevention strategies. We also seek to improve the quality of data available to the public about the issue of school violence. And finally, we want to encourage communities and neighborhoods to bring resources to bear in a comprehensive way to address the issue of school violence.

Our Safe Schools, Healthy Students initiative, which we are implementing jointly with agencies from the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, emphasizes all of these strategic priorities. The initiative is designed to provide students, schools, and their communities with enhanced comprehensive educational, mental health, social service, law enforcement, and, as appropriate, juvenile justice system services that promote healthy childhood development and prevent violence and alcohol and other drug abuse. As part of the initiative, applicants develop a single application for funds to support activities that together form a comprehensive, community-wide approach to promoting healthy childhood development and preventing violent behavior among youth. Funds from the three Departments to provide support for these comprehensive activities. In the future, we hope to work more closely with the Department of Labor as an additional partner in this initiative.

The initiative requires that applicants use objective data to demonstrate the nature and magnitude of the problems to be addressed by the grants. Applicants must also establish performance-based goals for their program and evaluation activities that measure progress toward goals. Safe Schools/Healthy Students applicants must also demonstrate the existence of effective community partnerships, and use of activities that have a solid base of research demonstrating their effectiveness.

We are also implementing a number of other important youth violence prevention initiatives, including:

• In conjunction with the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, we developed and disseminated the "Early Warning Guide" to schools across the country. The guide provides information to teachers, school personnel, and students about the warning signs that help identify students who need help and support to avoid choices that can harm them and their classmates. We are following up The Early Warning Guide this fall with a new "took kit" that will provide additional resources to help school personnel recognize and assist troubled students.
• We established an expert panel to identify exemplary and promising school-based drug and violence prevention programs, as well as a recognition program, designed to identify schools that are implementing research-based drug and violence prevention programs in comprehensive community-wide contexts.
• We are engaged in a number of activities designed to improve the nature, quality, and accessibility of data about school violence to school personnel and the public. For example, in conjunction with the Department of Justice, we developed and released the first Annual Report on School Safety released in 1998. This document summarizes data about important indicators concerning school safety, and also includes information about research-based strategies. The second Annual Report is scheduled for release in October. We have also provided grants to States to help them develop or improve State-level data collection activities related to youth drug use and violence and, in conjunction with the National Center for Education Statistics, developed an agenda for more regular collection of information about school violence. And, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, we are studying school-associated violent deaths for the past several school years to improve our understanding of the circumstances surrounding those deaths.
• We recently awarded grants to support the hiring of school safety and drug prevention coordinators at middle schools around the country with the most serious drug and violence prevention problems. These coordinators will help middle schools assess the nature and extent of their drug and violence prevention problem, select and implement research-based prevention strategies, work with community-based entities to create safe, disciplined, and drug-free learning environments, and evaluate progress toward reducing drug use and violence. We will also be providing training to each of the coordinators hired as part of this initiative to ensure that they have accurate, up-to-date information about violence and drug prevention.
• We have established "Principles of Effectiveness" to govern the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) State Grants program. These principles require local school districts and other recipients of SDFSCA funds to use objective data to assess their drug and violence problem; establish measurable goals for their prevention programming; implement effective, research-based programs; and evaluate their progress toward preventing school violence and student drug use.

I have included a more detailed list of current initiatives with my statement for the record.

Future Plans

While we plan to continue many of our existing initiatives, we also look forward to improving the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program to ensure that school districts develop more comprehensive and effective responses to school safety, and to providing support in other important areas.

The President transmitted to Congress has plans for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act (ESEA), including Title IV, the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) in the spring. The proposal for the SDFSCA contains several changes, which if adopted, will help strengthen the program. Proposed changes include:

• Emphasizing the implementation of high-quality, research based programs that are consistent with the "Principles of Effectiveness."
• Targeting funds to districts with high need by awarding funds to school districts that have significant need and are able to develop high quality programming.
• Strengthening program accountability by requiring State and local recipients of SDFSCA funds to adopt performance indicators for their programs, and to develop comprehensive safe schools plans.

The reauthorized program would also change the way we deal with students who bring firearms to school. While we believe that students who bring firearms to schools must be removed from the regular classroom, we continue to be concerned about what happens to those troubled students who are expelled from school. Our reauthorization proposal requires that students who bring firearms to school be evaluated to determine if they pose an imminent threat of harm to themselves or others and need appropriate mental health services before they can be readmitted to schools.

In order to keep those students and others who are suspended or expelled for serious violations of student conduct codes connected to school, our reauthorization proposal also requires that States adopt a discipline policy that requires local educational agencies to adopt sound discipline policies including providing appropriate supervision, counseling, and educational services to suspended or expelled students. We also plan to award grants to local educational agencies to help them develop and implement alternative schools or placements. This is one area where we expect that collaboration with the Departments of Labor and Justice on their efforts to place out-of-school youth and youth offenders in alternative learning environments will be particularly useful.

Another provision in the reauthorization proposal would help local educational agencies (LEAs) respond to violent or traumatic crises by establishing the "School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV)." This program would authorize the Secretary to provide rapid assistance to school districts that have experienced violent or traumatic crises. Assistance would take the form of both short-term and long-term mental health crisis counseling, added security services, and training. I would also like to note that we have requested funds ($12 million) for this initiative in the President's FY 2000 budget request. I hope you give it serious consideration.

Finally, I would like to note some of the other provisions of the ESEA proposal would address issues related to school safety and use violence. These include a requirement that data concerning school safety be included in annual state report cards and that States provide information to ED on school-associated violent deaths. Other proposals, including the high school reform initiative, are likely to impact school safety concerns by reshaping the learning environments in our nation's high schools to create smaller, more personal settings.

We also look forward to expanding related activities implemented jointly with other agencies. In conjunction with the Department of Justice, we plan to award grants to support mentoring programs. And we will be joining with the Department of Justice in disseminating a publication that provides technical assistance to schools about removing weapons from school settings.

Subcommittee's Draft Youth Violence Prevention Initiative

I applaud the Subcommittee for its interest in this very important topic, and look forward to working with the members of the Subcommittee to provide our schools and communities with the resources they need to create safe, disciplined, and drug-free learning environments where students and teachers can focus on achieving academic success.

As you know, your interest in this important topic is shared by the Administration. The Administration is considering ways for agencies to come together and improve the Federal response to youth violence, and we are looking to elevate this critical function to the White House. I think this mechanism would be an excellent way to build on the significant progress we have made in collaboration on this issue throughout the Executive Branch, and I look forward to participating fully. Given your interest and leadership on issues of youth violence, I hope that you and other interested members of Congress will provide us with your input and suggestions as we proceed.

I appreciate your including me in your hearing this morning, and look forward to working with members of the Subcommittee on this and other important education issues. I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

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