Something is happening in Baltimore — and it's saving lives.

Something is happening in Baltimore — and it's saving lives.

Since 2006, the number of children killed in the city has plunged by 80 percent, and the number of juveniles suspected in killings has dropped by about the same percentage.

Those and other juvenile crime statistics run counter to decades of conventional wisdom that suggests that crime increases during bad economies. So what's going on?

Is it better policing? Stricter gang enforcement? Community-based support networks for at-risk youth?

Indeed, it's probably a little bit of all of those things. But Jane Sundius, director for the Education and Youth Development Program for the Open Society Institute, believes that one thing might be driving down the violent crime rate among Baltimore's youth more than anything else: More kids are staying in school.

While school leaders say they still have a long way to go, Baltimore registered its lowest-ever dropout rate and its highest-ever graduation rate last year. 

"I have no doubt that these are related," Sundium told The Baltimore Sun. "If they're in school, they're not going to be involved in criminal activity."

One major change: City schools have drastically cut suspensions. Five years ago, 26,000 students were suspended. Last year, about 9,700 were.

And while keeping troubled students in school can be resource-intensive effort, Jessica Shiller, education policy director for Advocates for Children and Youth, believes it's a good investment.  

For instance, she told the Sun: The $100 million budgeted for a 230-bed detention facility in Baltimore for juveniles facing adult criminal charges would be better spent by "diverting the funds to the school system to support kids rather than locking them up."

One major part of Baltimore's investment is the Success Academy — which serves both as a dropout recovery program and a curfew center, where kids picked up late at night by police are taken, instead of just being sent home.

More than 1,000 children were brought in by police over the summer.