Report 2012-108 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2012-108: School Safety and Nondiscrimination Laws: Most Local Educational Agencies Do Not Evaluate the Effectiveness of Their Programs, and the State Should Exercise Stronger Leadership (Release Date: August 2013)

Recommendation #3 To: Los Angeles Unified School District

To ensure that it is effectively preventing and addressing incidents of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying in its schools, Los Angeles Unified should monitor school sites to ensure that they implement school safety programs.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2014

- The District submits Exhibit 1, samples of completed biannual Rubric of Implementation, a monitoring tool to ensure that schools implement and assess school safety programs. The Rubric of Implementation was revised to identify the school administrator and school operations coordinators who review the plan for effectiveness.

- The District submits Exhibit 2, the School Operations iSTAR Evidence of Monitoring and Resolution report. This document memorializes the process by which iSTAR bullying reports are reviewed for school site compliance with the 30-day requirement for action and updates, and the 90-day requirement for resolution. The report is shared with the Operations Coordinators at the ESC levels who support the individual schools.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

- Will continue to use the biannual Rubric of Implementation, a monitoring tool to ensure that schools implement school safety programs. The ROI was revised to identify the school administrator and school operations coordinators who review the plan (Exhibit 1Ar).

- Will generate monthly iSTAR reports specific to bullying incidents for distribution to the ESC leadership beginning 2014/15 school year(Exhibit 1B).

- Is instating six (6) district-wide restorative justice coordinators and 25 school-site restorative justice advisers to support positive school climates. The restorative justice coordinators and advisers report to the central office.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

Los Angeles Unified did not respond to our requests for additional information to substantiate its status of "fully implemented."

6-Month Agency Response

The Rubric of Implementation (Exhibit 1A) is a guided assessment tool used to assess a schools level of implementation of the Discipline Foundation Policy. The Administrator of Operations assesses the school biannually and utilizes the Rubric of Implementation as a monitoring tool to determine the extent to which School Safety Plans are being implemented. Specifically, the school is scored on eight measures that give an in-depth analysis as to the extent to which the school safety is ensured. The Rubric of Implementation is an electronic document, allowing increased transparency and consistent data monitoring at the school, ESC and LEA levels.

Will continue to utilize the Rubric of Implementation as a monitoring tool to ensure that schools implement school safety programs.

Will generate quarterly iSTAR reports specific to bullying incidents and provide them to the ESC leadership. These reports will assist the ESC staff with determining the effectiveness of the schools efforts to prevent and/or respond appropriately to bullying incidents.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Revise Safe School Plan Volume 1 to require schools to provide more detailed assessment of the schools' anti-bullying

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2012-108

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.