CHICAGO — With the amount of shootings, murders and overall violence spiking this year, the city is pointing to some statistics showing that it may be safer for kids attending Chicago Public Schools.
During the 2015-2016 school year, 162 CPS students were shot, a 33 percent drop compared with 2011-2012.
The data only covers the period during which CPS is in session, so summertime shootings aren't included in the analysis.
Crime along Safe Passage routes — a program instituted after the 2013 school closures to make students' walks to and from school safer — during school hours also dropped 33 percent over the same period.
A 2015 DNAinfo analysis of crime incidents along Safe Passage routes found similar results.
Calls to Chicago Police regarding incidents in schools dropped 38 percent during that period. During the course of the 2011-2012 school year, police were called to CPS school at a rate of 1.82 times per 100 students. Last year, that rate dropped to 1.13.
The city attributes these drops to a series of new initiatives at CPS schools including training in-school officers on relationship building and de-escalation, working with a police "gang school safety team" and adding new mentorship programs.
"These strategies have resulted in outcomes that show that these efforts are taking us in the right direction," CPS Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson said in a statement.
Since Sept. 6, the first day of the current school year, 17 people under the age of 18 have been shot in Chicago.
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