Delaware Raises Minimum Reporting Age


Last Updated: July 23, 2010
 

This article appeared in the July 2010 Rural Policy Matters.

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The state of Delaware has made a small but important change in its school crime reporting requirements. Previously, the law required schools to notify law enforcement upon certain actions by all students 9 years-old and older. School officials, and in some cases, law enforcement officers and courts had no discretion in how to handle these offenses, regardless of the circumstances.

The new law moves the mandatory reporting age from nine to twelve years old.

The legislation emerged from a multidisciplinary School Discipline Task Force that also made other recommendations about reducing student exclusion from school. In their January 2010 report, the Task Force also recommended that codes of school conduct be standardized across the state and that all districts create a plan for reducing discipline referrals and suspensions.

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Read more from the July 2010 Rural Policy Matters.