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CEDAR RAPIDS — The number of students in Cedar Rapids schools charged with a crime fell by nearly 50 percent last school year, the result of work by a group violence intervention program that aims to prevent crime.

Janessa Carr, safe and secure learning coordinator for the district, said the improved numbers are the result of the community working together.

A closer partnership during the 2024-25 school year between the school district, families, Foundation 2 Crisis Services, the Cedar Rapids Police Department, and juvenile court has resulted in “possibly 15 to 20 fewer students of color from being charged” with a crime, Carr said.

In total, during the 2024-25 school year, 35 students in the

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