We are fighting crime across America. For more information about our work in your state use the drop down menu below.

21st Century Community Learning Centers reauthorization letter

March 30, 2007

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the over 3,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and victims of violence of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, thank you for your support of investments in kids that prevent crime. Research and experience show that targeted investments in quality programs that give kids a good start in life will prevent children from engaging in later crime and violence.Such investments include after-school programs, as well as programs that help troubled kids get back on track. The pending reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act presents a significant opportunity to implement several of these effective, research-based approaches that are proven to save money and make our communities safer.

After-school:

Programs that connect children to caring adults and provide constructive activities, especially during the after-school hours of 3:00pm to 6:00pm—the “prime time for juvenile crime” on school days—are among our most powerful tools for preventing crime.  For example, a study compared five housing projects without Boys & Girls Clubs to five receiving new clubs.  At the beginning, drug activity and vandalism were the same.  But by the time the study ended, the projects without the programs had 50 percent more vandalism and scored 37 percent worse on drug activity.  Despite these proven benefits, more than 14 million children nationwide still lack adult supervision after school. We urge Congress to reauthorize and substantially increase the funding authorization for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers in order to improve quality and expand access to the program (see Attachment 1, Section 1), and authorize at least an additional $500 million for at-risk middle and high school students who now experience the greatest unmet need—and are at greatest risk of perpetrating or being victims of crime.  The investment in after-school programs for middle and high school students could be accomplished utilizing the suggestions from the Afterschool Alliance-led coalition (see Attachment 2).  

Mentoring:

Like after-school programs, quality mentoring programs can reduce crime and help youth to become contributing citizens.  A study of Big Brothers Big Sisters found that young people who were randomly assigned to a Big Brother or Big Sister mentor were about half as likely to begin illegal drug use and nearly one third less likely to hit someone compared to those who were assigned to a waiting list.  The previously appropriated level for the program was $50 million. We urge Congress to reauthorize the Mentoring program within Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and specify an annual funding authorization of $100 million.

Bullying Prevention:

The widespread problem of bullying affects one out of every three American children in sixth through tenth grade and can lead to more serious consequences, including violent crime and death.  The most serious bullies are seven times more likely than other kids to carry a weapon to school, and one study demonstrated that four out of every ten boys who bullied others as kids had three or more convictions by the time they turned 24.  In addition, victims of bullying may be at risk of future crime.  A study by the U.S. Secret Service, conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, examined school shootings in the U.S. since 1974, analyzing 37 incidents involving 41 student attackers.  The study found that almost three-quarters of the school shooters had previously been bullied or injured by fellow students.  Fortunately, there are cost-effective, evidence-based programs that can prevent bullying and reduce later crime and violence. 

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, for example, produced a 50 percent reduction of bullying in Norway and a 20 percent reduction when it was replicated in South Carolina. The program enlists the whole school, from principal to bus drivers, in an effort to communicate clearly to all students that bullying is not accepted, and works directly with the children who are victims or perpetrators along with their parents to stop further bullying.

Currently, not enough is being done to address the problem of bullying in our schools.  Fight Crime: Invest in Kids urges Congress to address the problem of bullying in our nation’s schools, as part of the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, by amending the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Act to facilitate the implementation of these important evidence-based bullying prevention program components in every school district across the nation.  A coalition proposal amending the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program (see Attachment 3), requires school rules prohibiting bullying and harassment, gives parents and students annual notice of these rules, and collects and reports information on the prevalence of bullying.  It would also allow schools to use funding to train teachers, administrators, and counselors to prevent bullying, as well as to teach students about the consequences of bullying.  Further provisions could be added to strengthen the proposal.  For example, under allowable use of funds, there should be adequate supervision of outdoor areas, hallways, lunchrooms and other specific areas where bullying is likely to take place.  Additionally, after an incident of bullying has occurred, there should be an appropriate and immediate response that includes school personnel meetings with the bully and the parents of the bully, and with the bullied child and his/her parents.

Another Way to Make Safe and Drug-Free Schools More Evidence-Based:

There are a number of proven-effective, school-based approaches to reducing drug use and violence.  For example, Life Skills Training is a three-year intervention that targets all middle/junior high school students in 6th or 7th grade, with booster sessions in the two subsequent years. It is aimed at preventing gateway drug use: tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. Teachers deliver the 45-minute sessions: 15 in year one, 10 in year two, and 5 in year three. The programs seek to provide teens with the information and skills needed to develop anti-drug attitudes and norms, and to resist peer and media pressure to use drugs.  More than one and a half decades of research with the LST program have consistently shown that participation in the program can cut drug use in half.

Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers, LIFT, shows that long-term results are possible from a ten-week anti-aggression program that was tested with first graders and fifth graders. LIFT instructors offer classroom-based training in social and problem-solving skills to students, and also train their parents, and then reward the children individually and in groups on the playground for practicing their new aggression-avoidance skills. The program dramatically reduced scores that measured aggressive behavior among the first graders three years later. For fifth graders, compared to LIFT participants, students in schools that did not receive the program were by eighth grade 59 percent more likely to drink alcohol regularly. The fifth graders left out were also two times more likely to have been arrested during middle school than those who received the program.

The Good Behavior Game is simple, can be used for young children or teenagers, and produces long-term results. Children or youth in classrooms are divided into two or more groups (with equal numbers of misbehaving children) and compete to behave well. Teachers make check marks for the children in each group who act out, and the winning group is given simple rewards such as getting to line up first for the playground. Two long-term randomized control studies in Baltimore were conducted with first graders. In one study, by the end of sixth grade, 10 percent of the children not in the program had conduct disorders (a mental health diagnosis of children who are aggressive and have trouble accepting authority), compared to only 4 percent of the children in the program. By age 13, 7 percent of the children not in the program had tried cocaine, crack or heroin, compared to 3 percent of the Good Behavior children. Another randomized study of Baltimore first-graders followed the children to age 19-21 and found a 50 percent lower dependence on drugs - 19 percent vs. 38 percent.

The Safe and Drug-Free Schools program currently supports many school-based drug-use and violence reduction approaches—some of which are effective, and some of which are not.  An Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention ratings system has been developed by Delbert Elliott, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado, which is designed to assist practioners and communities in implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs.  The Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program can be strengthened by incorporating, by reference in statute, the OJJDP ratings system, and by funding only those programs that:  A) are deemed “effective,” B) are deemed exemplary” or C) are part of a scientific evaluation of a “promising” program.  In addition, though appropriations have been reduced in recent years for Safe and Drug-Free Schools, funding authorization levels through No Child Left Behind reauthorization should be expanded to support these evidence-based approaches.

Graduation Rate Measurement and Accountability:

We all know that too many kids drop out of school.  In just one year, 5 percent of the nation’s high school students dropped out without completing high school—that’s one-half million of the nation’s ten million high schoolers dropping out in just one year.  The consequences of these high dropout rates are dire both for individuals and for the community.  Research demonstrates that dropouts are dramatically more likely than high school graduates to engage in criminal activities. High school dropouts are three and one-half times more likely than high-school graduates to be arrested.  More than 70% of America’s prison population consists of high-school dropouts. A one-year increase in average years of schooling reduces murder and assault by almost 30 percent, motor vehicle theft by 20 percent, arson by 13 percent and burglary and larceny by about 6 percent. Reducing the drop out rate not only reduces crime, it saves money.  Since 1990, society has lost between $1,170-$2,100 per year in costs of crime for each male non-graduate from that year. 

While No Child Left Behind technically includes graduation rate accountability as part of “adequate yearly progress,” measurement of graduation rates has been inadequate and no meaningful improvement has been required.  Without statutory improvements, emphasis on academic testing may exacerbate the dropout problem, since the easiest and fastest way for a school to raise its average test scores is to allow—or even encourage—low-performing students to drop out of school.  Thus, No Child Left Behind reauthorization should ensure that graduation rates are calculated consistently and accurately, are disaggregated, and increase annually (including for each subgroup, e.g., racial groups, socio-economically disadvantaged, etc.) as part of adequate yearly progress.  We support the recommendations of the coalition of advocates, researchers and practioners led by the Alliance for Excellent Education, who are about to release a joint statement and recommendations that build on the National Governors Association’s Graduation Rate Compact, signed in 2005 by all fifty of the nation’s governors.

Suspension/Expulsion Data:

Dropping out of school is not the only reason kids may be on the streets.  Sometimes, they are not in school because of school discipline measures such as suspension or expulsion.  While school safety must be maintained and truly dangerous students removed as appropriate, giving a kid who’s acting out an extended vacation from school and from all responsibility is soft on offenders and dangerous for everyone else.  It gives those kids who most need adult supervision the unsupervised time to rob, become addicted to drugs, and get their hands on guns to threaten students and others after the school bell rings.  Currently, there is no accurate and comprehensive data on kids suspended and/or expelled from elementary and secondary schools. The following requirement should be incorporated into Safe and Drug-Free Schools: “Each local and state educational agency shall collect and report publicly and to the Secretary the disaggregated school discipline data at the state and district level for all students, including those not identified as having a disability, by all the discipline categories required by 20 U.S.C. Section 1418.”

In conclusion, the question is not whether we can afford as a nation to implement these policies and make these investments—the question is whether we can afford not to: for each high-risk juvenile prevented from adopting a life of crime, the country could save between $1.7 million and $2.3 million. We look forward to working with you and other members of the Committee to enable the strongest possible NCLB legislation to move forward to enactment.  The result will be generations of disadvantaged children progressing toward school success and graduation rather than later arrest and incarceration.

Sincerely,
                                                
 David S. Kass                                                 Miriam A. Rollin

     President                                           Vice President