Every year, the state Department of Education releases a list of persistently dangerous schools. Those listed report a high number of arrests for serious incidents for more than one year. The calculation considers enrollment.
Germantown and West Philadelphia High Schools have been on the state's dangerous list for several years.
The department quietly posted the latest list on its Web site this week.
Although a school in the Chester Upland School District was on the list in 2003-04, for the last several years Philadelphia has been the only district in the state to have schools on the list.
Michael Race, an Education Department spokesman, said the fact that a dozen Philadelphia schools were on the new list "is partly a reflection of the fact Philadelphia schools have been diligent in self-reporting violent incidents, as the law requires."
He said the state had notified the listed schools so administrators could inform parents. Parents of students at persistently dangerous schools have the right to apply to transfer their children to another school under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
But Greg Wade, president of Philadelphia's Home and School Council, said that in reality, the chances of parents' being able to transfer children to other Philadelphia schools were slim.
"Because of overcrowding, transferring is virtually impossible," he said. "The fact of the matter is that the schools you could transfer to are booked. They are full to the gills."
James B. Golden, the district's chief safety executive, said yesterday that while the number of serious incidents rose at the 12 schools on the state's list, the safety picture was better across the district as a whole.
