Education System
Model Domestic Violence Policy for Counties

• Primary and Secondary Education
• Post Secondary Education
  
  

As national data readily confirm, there is a significant correlation between partner violence and child abuse and neglect, with domestic violence surfacing as one of the leading risk factors with regard to the physical and emotional safety of children.(38) In addition, children exposed to domestic violence in their homes often suffer a range of potentially serious effects including somatic problems such as gastrointestinal distress, headaches, insomnia, bed wetting, behavioral difficulties, and declines in academic performance.(39) Children who witness domestic violence often feel responsible for the violence, and subsequently experience guilt, shame, and self-blame. As teenagers, these children are more likely than other teens to be involved in alcohol and other drug use and criminal activity, and they comprise a disproportionate number of teen parents and homeless youth. For boys, there is the additional risk of engaging in abusive and controlling behavior in their adolescent and adult relationships.(40)

Abuse and violence in dating relationships occurs at alarmingly high rates. Studies of high school and college students conducted during the 1980's have reported rates of violence in dating relationships ranging from 12% to 65%.(41) As with adult partner violence, teen and young adult abusers generally engage in a pattern of repeated violence and coercion that escalates and increases in severity the longer the relationship continues. Teenaged abusers can and do perpetrate assaults that result in serious and life-threatening injury and death. Their abuse may also take the form of sexual harassment and/or date rape.

Efforts to promote the health and well-being of children and families has been a priority goal for New York State's Department of Education based on the simple premise that when children are healthy and safe, they are better learners. Because school, pre-school, and Head Start personnel have continuous contact with children, they have significant opportunities to identify the negative effects on children of violence in the home and to provide information and support. School personnel including administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, nurses, and staff psychologists should be prepared to respond to disclosures by students of domestic violence as well as to participate in creating an environment of zero tolerance for violence in the school community.

The frequency with which abuse and violence occur in dating relationships virtually ensures that this problem will emerge in educational environments, particularly at the junior high, high school, and college levels. Junior high, high school, college, and university personnel should be actively engaged in both prevention and intervention efforts and, therefore, need to be adequately prepared to deal with the problem. In addition, intervention and education efforts at the primary grade levels may prevent interpersonal violence in their young adult and adult relationships.

In addition to incorporating the recommendations outlined in the Guiding Principles and the Employers section into their responses to domestic violence, and being mindful of the potential need for individualized responses based on factors such as socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religious affiliation, physical and mental disabilities, immigration status, and urban vs. rural residency, educational institutions should also integrate the following recommendations specific to the education system.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION SYSTEMS

1. Schools should create a domestic violence response team made up of school personnel with specialized training in conducting in-depth assessments, safety planning, making appropriate community referrals, and facilitating linkages with appropriate services. Alternatively, a school could train existing student support services, family wellness centers, and/or child abuse or crisis teams to fulfill these functions.
   
   

   Response teams can consist of personnel from all levels of the school community, including teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, school nurses, and staff psychologists, as well as local domestic violence service providers. These teams should coordinate with any already existing child abuse or crisis teams, or can be integrated into any existing child abuse or crisis teams. Participants on the team should be screened to ensure their appropriateness for participation.
   

   Response team members should routinely inform students of the limitations to confidentiality as part of conducting assessments and making appropriate referrals. Where referral resources are inadequate to meet the identified needs, the response team should advocate within the school, the school district, and the community for the development of services to meet the needs.

   In addition, response team members should be prepared to advise student victims of their legal rights and collaborate with the student in developing safety plans. Such plans could include appropriate notification to the students' other teachers and parental notification. Response team members should also be prepared to intervene with student abusers and to develop strategies for reinforcing accountability.
   

   Duties of the team should also include conducting active education and outreach efforts to reach students who may be affected by domestic violence and/or teen dating violence.
   

2. School personnel should be prepared to respond appropriately to disclosures of domestic violence and/or violence in teen dating relationships.
   
   

   All school personnel should be prepared to respond to spontaneous disclosures of students by offering support and assisting them in connecting with the school's domestic violence response team.
   

3. Schools should cooperate fully in the enforcement of all court orders, including orders of protection and orders for custody.
   
   

   More than half of the annual 350,000 child abductions occur in the context of domestic violence and 40% of these occur post-separation and divorce.(42) When valid custody orders or orders of protection exist, all relevant school personnel should be informed and prepared to ensure that children are not improperly released to a non-custodial parent and to ensure that a parent against whom an order of protection is issued is not given access to the child(ren). School personnel should actively encourage parents/guardians to provide the school with copies of existing orders to facilitate enforcement. Copies of orders can be kept in students' files.

   Schools should have written authorization from the custodial parent regarding the persons to whom the children can be released in the event of an emergency. This may include having photographs of both the abuser and the persons to whom a child can be released on file with the school.
   

   Schools should also cooperate in maintaining the confidentiality of the address of a victim of domestic violence and should, whenever possible, remove this information from school documents that are accessible to anyone other than the victim.

4. Schools should actively promote a zero tolerance ethic for domestic violence in the school community, including the development of written policies and procedures for reinforcing accountability and imposing consequences on students who perpetrate violence on school grounds.
   
   

   The response to student abusers should be swift, consistent, and commensurate. Appropriate safety-related procedures should be implemented, including necessary school security procedures. These policies should be developed in conjunction with the in-house response team and domestic violence advocacy programs, and should be communicated to parents and to the public at large.

5. Schools should develop written policies and protocols for dealing with a situation in which a student has been a victim of another student's abuse in a dating relationship.
   
   

   Such policies and procedures should be developed for responding to the needs of student victims and reinforcing the accountability of student abusers, whether or not a victim has chosen to pursue or has a current order of protection. While student victims should be consulted regarding the development of a safety plan (see Guiding Principles, 1.d.) and their needs taken into account and responded to, school personnel have a responsibility to provide a safe school environment for all students and should act accordingly. Student victims should be supported in their choices to seek legal assistance and protection, such as pursuing criminal charges or, when the abuser is under age 16, seeking assistance from Family Court.
   

   Clear expectations should be provided to the student abuser regarding any prohibited behavior. All relevant school personnel should be apprised of the situation and required to report any potential violations to the appropriate authority. In addition, school personnel should take actions to limit the abuser's access to the victim including requiring the abuser to change his schedule to avoid shared classes, lunch or free periods, and/or home rooms. Student victims should not be involuntarily penalized in the implementation of safety-related strategies.
   

   School personnel should also integrate parental notification into the policies and procedures should there be a violation of school imposed expectations of the abuser and/or a violation of an order of protection.

6. Schools should develop a plan by which to provide crisis debriefing to students and faculty in the event a domestic violence-related incident occurs on school grounds and/or a fellow student or teacher is harmed in a domestic violence-related incident.

   Most schools have mechanisms in place to provide support to students and faculty when tragedy strikes, such as a student being seriously hurt or killed in a car crash, a student's suicide or suicide attempt, or a student's accidental drug overdose. Schools should make full use of crisis debriefing in response to injury or death of a student or teacher as a result of a domestic violence-related assault. Crisis debriefing teams should be knowledgeable about domestic violence and could include a local domestic violence service provider.

7. Domestic violence and, when age-appropriate, abuse and violence in teen dating relationships should be addressed in classes dealing with health and/or life skills, such as Health Education. Education should include issues related to gender equity, sexual harassment, and safety planning, and should also provide information on the services and support available for affected students and/or their parents. In addition, domestic violence-related information should be integrated into other subjects areas.

   Before raising issues about domestic violence and/or violence in teen dating relationships, teachers should be adequately prepared to respond to the needs of students that may arise and ensure that these opportunities for intervention and the provision of assistance are supportive experiences for the students. Local domestic violence service providers can be a valuable resource to ensure that the information provided in the classroom is accurate and age-appropriate, and/or to provide a guest speaker to conduct the class and/or to co-teach the class.
   

   In all cases, referral information both within and outside of the school community should be provided to students who may be experiencing violence at home or in their own dating relationships. Of particular importance is providing instruction on safety planning to children who are exposed to domestic violence in the home as a strategy to increase their own levels of safety. School personnel should also be prepared to respond to disclosures of child abuse and neglect and to fulfill their mandated reporting responsibilities to the State Central Registry.

8. Resources available through school libraries should include age-appropriate books and other information on domestic violence, violence in teen dating relationships, gender equity, and sexual harassment.
   
   

   Available information should include informational resources, as well as information regarding potential sources of help, both through the school and the larger community.

9. All school personnel should receive comprehensive and ongoing training on domestic violence, including violence in teen dating relationships.
   
   

   Personnel who should receive training include school faculty, nurses, health office assistants, teachers' aides, bus drivers, superintendents, school board members, and employee relations staff. The training program should include indicators of domestic violence, the impact of domestic violence on children, the dynamics of battering, and resources available in the community and in the school. Training should also include guidance in teaching issues related to gender equity and sexual harassment.

   
   
   

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POST SECONDARY EDUCATION SYSTEMS

As mentioned previously, the frequency with which abuse and violence in teen dating relationships occur virtually ensures that this problem will emerge on the college and university campus. College and university personnel should be actively engaged in both prevention and intervention efforts and, therefore, need to be adequately prepared to deal with the problem.

A common obstacle to colleges and universities developing and implementing effective dating violence responses is that they often experience significant internal and external pressure to present the institution's campus as a safe and secure environment. Ironically, institutions that acknowledge dating violence and respond effectively provide much greater safety for students than institutions that create an illusion of safety through denial of the problem and subsequent inaction. In any case, such internal or external pressures should not take priority over victim safety.

1. Colleges and universities should create a domestic violence response team made up of school personnel and students who have received specialized training on domestic violence that prepares them to conduct assessments, assist victims with safety planning, make appropriate referrals to local domestic violence service providers, and facilitate linkages to appropriate services.
   
   

   Response teams should consist of personnel from all levels of the institution including faculty, administrators, student advisors, staff psychologists, housing personnel, health care providers, and student peers. Participants on the team should be screened to ensure appropriateness for participation.
   

   Response team members should routinely inform the student of the limitations to confidentiality as part of conducting assessments and making appropriate referrals. In addition, response team members should be prepared to advise student victims of their legal rights and collaborate with the student in developing a safety plan. When interacting with student abusers, response team members should also be prepared to reinforce abusers' sole responsibility for the violence and coercion they perpetrate.
   

   Responsibilities of the team should also include active campus education and outreach efforts to reach students who may be affected by domestic violence or dating violence.

2. College and university personnel should be prepared to respond appropriately to disclosures of domestic violence and/or violence in dating relationships by students who are victims.
   
   

   All campus personnel should be prepared to respond to spontaneous disclosures by student victims by offering support and making the appropriate community or campus-based referrals. Referrals should include community-based domestic violence services, campus-based dating violence services (if available), and the campus-based domestic violence response team.

3. Colleges and universities, in conjunction with local domestic violence service providers, should develop a written protocol for responding to a victim's need for emergency safety services, including shelter or safe home services and crisis intervention, and maximizing the options available to a student to continue her studies when it is not safe for her to attend class on campus.

   One of the difficulties facing a victim of domestic violence whose abuser lives on the same college or university campus, is the access the abuser has to the victim. This poses a significant risk to student victims, particularly during times of separation and/or if the student victim has reported a domestic incident to the authorities.
   

   Local domestic violence service providers can work in conjunction with institutions to arrange for emergency shelter for student victims in need. Institutions should develop protocols that encourage flexibility for victim students being temporarily housed in an emergency shelter to take a leave of absence, or receive support for continuing their studies off campus until they are able to more safely resume their campus-based activities.

4. Colleges and universities should actively support victims who choose to seek relief from local law enforcement agencies or the local criminal court, and should fully cooperate in the enforcement of orders of protection.
   
   

   Domestic violence is a crime, whether an incident occurs on or off campus. College and university personnel should inform victims of their rights to legal relief and support their choices to pursue legal remedies. Further, campus personnel should cooperate fully in local law enforcement investigations and criminal prosecutions.
   

   Campus security, with the consent of a victim, should have copies of any existing order of protection, a photograph of the abuser, and the students's schedule in order to readily respond to any threat of harm to the student and/or others. Campus security should work closely with local law enforcement agencies to ensure a victim's safety on and off campus and to enforce violations of orders of protection in a swift and appropriate manner. (See also Criminal Justice, Legal, and Judicial Systems.)

5. Colleges and universities should actively promote a zero tolerance ethic for domestic violence on campus, including the development of written policies and procedures for holding student abusers accountable.
   
   

   Most institutions deal with disciplinary actions of students in a closed, on-campus hearing, occasionally resulting in a suspension and, in some cases, expulsion. Such a response is an effective part of discouraging criminal action and preserving the integrity of the institution with regard to its efforts to provide a safe campus environment.
   

   In addition, colleges and universities should adopt the same standard of holding abusers accountable that has been adopted by the criminal justice system in communities across the state. (See Criminal Justice, Legal, and Judicial Systems.) They should work with local domestic violence service providers, students, and representatives from all levels of the institution to develop written policies and procedures for reinforcing accountability and consequences for student abusers of violence in dating relationships. The response to abusers should be swift, consistent, and commensurate. Appropriate response procedures should be developed and implemented, including campus security procedures.
   

   When there is a "stay-away" order of protection and the abuser shares one or more classes with the victim, the responsibility for changing class schedules to limit access should fall on the abuser. A victim should not be involuntarily penalized in the implementation of safety-related strategies.

6. Colleges and universities should ensure that relevant personnel, including infirmary and clinic staff, disciplinary boards, campus security, counseling staff, and the domestic violence response team members, keep thorough and accurate records regarding dating violence incidences.
   
   

   Relevant campus personnel should ensure that interactions and observations of abuser behavior are well-documented, including the results of any disciplinary hearings related to violence in dating relationships. Further, accurate documentation of injuries or other presenting health problems that are determined to be violence-related should be so entered in the medical records of student victims. Future or pending legal proceedings or disciplinary hearings might very well draw on the information recorded in an institution's records. In all cases, victims should be informed of the documentation protocol and how to gain access to the records if needed.

7. Colleges and universities should conduct extensive domestic violence education and outreach to students who may be affected, and should develop on-campus support services to respond to students in need.
   
   

   In conjunction with community-based domestic violence service providers, the domestic violence response teams can be instrumental in developing and implementing student outreach and education strategies, and in fostering the development of on-campus support services for affected students. Services for students can include victim support groups, crisis counseling services, legal advocacy, and assistance in pursuing relief that may be available through the institution. Further, victims should not be discouraged from seeking relief from local law enforcement agencies or the local criminal court. Institutions should be prepared to deal with the media and public awareness of campus-based violence and should use these opportunities to highlight their efforts to respond effectively.
   

   Educational opportunities should be offered to students on the nature and dynamics of domestic violence, signs of a controlling partner, campus domestic violence policies and procedures, what to do if someone you know is being abused, and the availability of community-based and campus-based supportive services.

8. Comprehensive and ongoing domestic violence training should be required for all campus residence staff, counseling staff, medical staff, disciplinary boards, and the domestic violence response team. Training should also be offered to faculty and other professional staff, other campus housing personnel, student advisors, administrators, and students.
   
   

   The training should be developed in conjunction with the local domestic violence program and should include indicators of dating violence, nature and dynamics of dating violence, the impact of domestic violence on victims and the campus community, what to do if you or someone you know is being victimized, how to reinforce accountability for abusers, and what referral resources are available for victims on campus and within the larger community.

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(38) Stark and Flitcraft, "Women and Children at Risk: A Feminist Perspective on Child Abuse," International Journal of Health Services, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1988.

(39) Jaffe, Wolfe and Wilson, Children of Battered Women, 1990.

(40) McCord, J., "Parental Behavior in the Cycle of Aggression," 51 Psychiatry 14, 1988.

(41) Levy, B., "Abusive Teen Dating Relationships: An Emerging Issue for the ?90's," Response, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1990.

(42) Finkelhor, Hotaling and Sedlak, 1990, as cited by B. Hart in Protective Services Quarterly, 1993