One Word Could Let Missouri Students Leave Unsafe Schools
Editor’s Note: While this article is specific to Missouri, parents in other states should check their state’s policy on this issue.
Last October, the Show-Me-Institute sounded the alarm about a problem with Missouri state policy that impacts the safety of schoolchildren. The Institute’s Director of Research, Susan Pendergrass, and Cory Koedel, director of education, penned an article and created a one-page fact sheet to alert parents and citizens of the danger, and to promote what they show would easily fix the problem.
Following is nearly verbatim the article and fact sheet that the authors reissued on December 18.
Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states must identify unsafe schools and notify families of students who attend them that they have the right to move their child to a safer public school. This requirement is called the Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO). In Missouri, it isn’t working. The problem comes down to one word in state policy.
Right now, Missouri only classifies a school as unsafe if it has a high rate of violence and a high number of expulsions for three years in a row. Because expulsions almost never happen, these conditions are almost impossible to meet. As a result, no school is ever designated as unsafe, and families aren’t allowed to transfer out.
Changing one word, from “AND” to “OR,” would finally make the rule work the way federal law intended.
What doesn’t work
Since the law passed, there have been nearly 19,000 violent incidents in Missouri schools and over 4,000 weapons violations. In 2024, more than 12,200 Missouri students attended schools that had at least one violent incident in each of three consecutive years, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Even with these numbers, the state has not identified a single school as unsafe.
Missouri schools expelled zero students in 2024 and only five students in 2023. With so few expulsions, the Unsafe School Choice Option almost never applies, even in schools with serious safety problems.
The simple fix: change one word
In places like Poplar Bluff, University City, and the City of St. Louis, students face serious safety problems each year, yet their families have never been told about their rights.
Missouri should replace the word and with or. A school should be designated unsafe if it has serious violence, or a high expulsion rate, or weapons violations.
This one change would help families learn when a school is unsafe and allow them to use the transfer option that federal law gives them.
The following explains how Missouri’s overly narrow definition leaves families without the protections ESSA guarantees and outlines steps policymakers can take to fix it.
The USCO (Unsafe School Choice Option)
The Policy
Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in 2015, every state must define what makes a school unsafe and any student attending an unsafe school must be allowed to exercise their legal right to transfer to a safer one. This is called the Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO). The burden is placed on states to identify schools that are persistently dangerous and to notify families in those schools of their right to transfer to a safe public school (including charter schools).
Missouri Today
Incredibly, in the ten years since the USCO was put into federal law, Missouri has yet to identify a single persistently dangerous school, even though the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has reported that over 26,000 violent incidents and 11,000 weapons violations occurred during that time. This leaves families without the transfer option the law intends.
Missouri’s rule sets a very high bar for declaring a school dangerous. A school must show violent incidents or weapons violations every year for three years and exceed expulsion thresholds in at least two of those years. In practice, schools very rarely meet those expulsion thresholds, which makes it almost impossible for any school to qualify. In 2024, not one student in the state was expelled and in 2023, just five were. No school has ever met this combined test.
What Missouri Should Do
The State of Missouri should:
- Revise the definition of a “persistently dangerous school” using clear, annual criteria that reflect real risks to student safety.
- Base decisions on actual incidents, including law-enforcement referrals and weapons reports, with expulsions being a secondary condition. In other words, change the definition from violence and expulsions to violence or expulsions.
- Provide timely, plain-language notice to parents and guarantee real transfer options, including charter schools and cross-district agreements.
Bottom Line
We cannot expect children to learn if they’re worried about their personal safety. This federal law must be enforced with integrity.
Examples of Incidents in Missouri Schools
Poplar Bluff High School
According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, there were 12 violent incidents at this school in 2022, 19 in 2023, and 10 in 2024. In that same three-year period, there were 266 out-of-school suspensions. A violent incident in a Missouri school is when a student uses physical force with the intent to cause serious bodily harm to another person. It is hard to believe that a school with this level of violence feels safe to students.
University City Senior High
From 2022 to 2024 there were 51 violent incidents and 21 weapons violations. Families had no transfer option under USCO.
Vashon High, St. Louis
Teachers petitioned the district about unsafe conditions, and one teacher had to use pepper spray to stop a crowd of students.
Action is Needed
The Unsafe School Choice Option was designed to give families an emergency exit from these situations. Missouri leaders must stop ignoring this law and start empowering parents to protect their children.
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