Legislative Republicans announced Tuesday a new bill to track crime and student safety in public schools statewide, as part of a larger effort to hold institutions accountable for violence on their campuses.
The Student Safety Incident Tracking Bill, authored by state Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, and state Rep. Ken Skowronski, R-Franklin, will track safety incidents in an urban, suburban and rural school for the 2016-’17 school year.
Lazich said she hopes to provide the Department of Public Instruction and local school districts with better methods for interpreting and recording data in elementary and middle schools.
“Wisconsin lacks the necessary data to track and confront problems, putting students and teachers at risk,” Lazich said in a statement.
Current data from the 2011-’12 school year show 11.3 percent of Wisconsin teachers reported being physically attacked by their students and 13.7 percent reported threats from students regarding physical injury.
The authors said these reports are largely anecdotal, one of the main reasons concrete data is needed to ensure the safety of students and teachers.
“I am proud to join Senator Lazich in authoring legislation that gives parents a better understanding of incidents that take place at school and helps develop a safer learning environment for students,” Skowronski said in the statement.
The program would resemble how the federal government collects data from colleges and universities.
The new bill comes after state Rep. John Jagler, R-Watertown, proposed a measure last month to require statistics on violence in schools be displayed on school report cards.
