Pennsylvania has a Problem with Dangerous Schools

A sweeping new analysis by the Commonwealth Foundation reveals that Pennsylvania’s approach to identifying and responding to dangerous conditions in public schools falls short and may jeopardize both student safety and federal funding.

State and federal law mandates that students attending persistently dangerous schools must be offered the option to transfer to safer schools—either within their district, a neighboring district, or a charter school.

However, Pennsylvania has failed to enforce these provisions due to a narrow and outdated definition of “persistently dangerous.” As of August 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has not designated a single school as persistently dangerous, effectively denying students the legally mandated opportunity to move to safer educational environments.

The report finds that the PDE has ignored data to skirt this responsibility. The commonwealth defines dangerous schools solely based on arrest counts. Meanwhile, the broader legal definition—incidents, such as assaults, bomb threats, arson, theft, and weapon possession—go unreported.

“Calculating danger based only on arrests exploits a loophole,” the foundation report states. ‘Districts can avoid being labeled violent if only a few incidents result in arrests.”

The report contends that this legal loophole obscures the true nature of the problem. Using data from a 24-year longitudinal study by a Carnegie Mellon University professor, the report shows that more than one-third—37 percent—of Pennsylvania’s public schools would qualify as persistently dangerous when calculating total incidents, not arrests.

These disparities are especially stark in urban school districts. In Philadelphia, 71 percent of schools qualify as dangerous. In Pittsburgh, the figure jumps to 89 percent.

When considering statewide enrollment, 42 percent of Pennsylvania students attend one of these schools. Nearly half of the Pennsylvania students remain endangered, according to the report.

“This failure has real consequences,” says Rachel Langan, senior education policy analyst for the Commonwealth Foundation. “It leaves hundreds of thousands of children stuck in unsafe schools and denies families the legal options designed to protect students from violence.” 

Federal pressure is mounting. In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Education reminded states of their obligations under the Unsafe School Choice Option provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. New federal guidance also encouraged states to update their definitions of “persistently dangerous” and enforce compliance to avoid penalties.

“Every child deserves to be safe during their commute to, from, and while at school,” says Langan. “Children cannot learn if they do not feel safe.” Furthermore, she warns that the PDE’s continued inaction not only undermines student welfare but could also trigger the loss of “billions of dollars in federal funding.”

As the Commonwealth Foundation argues, redefining “persistently dangerous” to include all violent incidents—not merely those resulting in arrests—is essential to placing student safety at the forefront of policy. Without this shift, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania students may continue to face unsafe educational environments with no legal recourse or alternative available.

The full report is available on the Commonwealth Foundation’s website.