Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the heads of the sponsoring agencies, Mark Schneider of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Jeffrey L. Sedgwick of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), for supporting this report.

From NCES, we wish to thank Kathryn Chandler, Val Plisko, Marilyn Seastrom, and Bruce Taylor, who served as reviewers. They all provided input that substantially improved the publication. From BJS, we wish to thank Patsy Klaus and Erika Harrell of the Victimization Statistics Unit for their work in verifying data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Outside of NCES and BJS, Nancy Brener, Mark Anderson, and Thomas Simon of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generously provided data and performed a review of data documentation. We also value the review of this report and the continued support provided by Bill Modzeleski and Maria Worthen of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Lisa Bridges of the Institute of Education Sciences provided helpful input on the final draft.

Without the assistance of the following staff, this report could not have been produced: Andrea Livingston, Barbara Kridl, Natesh Daniel, Patricia Gildersleeve, and Alicia Broadway of MPR Associates and Wendy Lin-Kelly from BJS.

Much of the work for this report was performed by staff at the Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI), which is funded by NCES and composed of staff from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and a number of partner organizations. The authors would like to acknowledge the following individuals from ESSI for their assistance with analysis, editorial comments, and guidance: Mary Ann Fox, Paul Guerino, Lynn Bauer, Stacey Bielick, Kristin Flanagan, and Sandy Eyster of AIR; and Kevin Bianco of Macro-Sys Research and Technology.