PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Charter schools in the neighborhood have much higher reported rates of bullying than their non-charter counterparts, analysis of state data by DNAinfo New York found, reflecting a citywide trend showing a similar discrepancy between charters and traditional public schools.
Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School, located inside P.S. 9 on Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights, had the most reported cases of bullying in the area with 43 incidents documented by the school during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the most recently available data collected by the state Department of Education.
All schools are required to report bullying to the DOE through two systems: Violent and Disruptive Incident Reporting (VADIR) and Dignity for All Students Act, implemented in 2012.
The Prospect Heights charter school was among the top 10 schools citywide with the most reported bullying incidents according to the VADIR database. Additionally, 89 percent of its students reported bullying happens most or all the time at the school, according to a DOE survey on bullying given to sixth through 12th graders.
Comparatively, at the co-located elementary school in the same building, P.S. 9, zero cases of bullying were reported in either database, though that isn't so rare citywide. Only 30 percent of the city’s 1,700 schools reported one or more bullying cases in the 2013-2014 school year, according to the state's data.
Check the reported bullying incidents and survey data at your neighborhood school in the below interactive map from DNAinfo New York. STORY CONTINUES BELOW MAP:
An inquiry to the Brooklyn East Collegiate school about the bullying data was not immediately returned Wednesday.
Similar discrepancies exist nearby in Crown Heights. At Achievement First Crown Heights, 18 incidents were reported to the state in total during the 2013-2014 academic year. During the same period, New Heights Middle School — co-located with Achievement First — reported four incidents.
Similarly, the KIPP AMP elementary and middle schools, located at the Maggie L. Walker campus in Crown Heights, reported 15 incidents to the state in 2013-2014. Two public middle schools co-located with KIPP AMP — the Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence and the School of Integrated Learning — reported one and zero incidents, respectively.
Lopsided bullying rates between charter schools and traditional public schools are not unique to Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.
Under the Dignity Act, 10 schools in the city accounted for 20 percent of about 2,000 total bullying incidents reported in the 2013-2014 school year. Of the top 10, eight schools are charters.
Experts said those schools may not have a particularly acute bullying problem, but could just be better at reporting cases.
"Nine out of 10 educators do not understand there are two reports [VADIR and the Dignity Act] and they don't have a good incentive to report well. It's not like you'll get an infusion of support or training if you report,” said Johanna Miller, advocacy director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, who was on a task force charged with implementing the Dignity Act.
For a complete breakdown of the state bullying data, check out DNAinfo’s citywide analysis here.
