The Transparency and Monitoring of the Dignity for All Students Act
Date
2019
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Abstract
This study examines the relative effectiveness of New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) reporting system, as well as the quantitative patterns of reported incidents of harassment and discrimination made by schools in New York State. Qualitative analyses were conducted on 5 years of DASA data submitted by NYS schools to the New York State Education Department (NYSED). Specifically, trends were examined to see if differences appeared for school reports of incidents according to school type, grade level organization, level of need/resource, and discrimination/harassment category. Reports made by Rest of State schools indicated higher number of harassment reports made over time, while New York City schools reported fewer incidents over time. Both regions reported that harassment occurs most frequently in secondary schools (primarily the middle/junior high grades). NYS schools in Large Cities reported more incidents of harassment, compared to other economic groups/locale. There has been some concern expressed by the NYS Commissioner regarding the relatively low number of incidents reported overall by the state. Recommendations for reporting were made to schools in August 2016. Data were examined and no significant differences were observed in reports made by schools before and after the Letter to Colleague (August, 2016) was released to NYS schools. Harassment reports for NYS schools were compared to national reports of student survey data on bullying and hate crimes. While statistical analyses were not conducted, it was observed that students in secondary grades reported more incidents of harassment, similar to NYS. A number of unanswered questions remain as to the effectiveness of the DASA system in NYS. While great efforts have been made to understand the harassment taking place in schools, this remains a reactive approach to bullying assessment, and perhaps a more preventative or proactive system should be considered to reduce the numbers of incidents reported by schools.
Description
Dissertation completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Psychology degree in School Psychology at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.
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Dissertation
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Keywords
Middle school education, Education, Education policy