Table 6. Number and percentage of public schools reporting at least one incident of the distribution, possession, or use of illegal drugs or alcohol at school, or of vandalism at school, the number of incidents reported, and the rate of incidents per 1,000 students, by selected school characteristics: School year 2005

School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)

Publications & Products|SSOCS & SCS Table Library|Staff

Back

Download Excel

(64 KB)

Download SE Excel

(56 KB)

Table 6. Number and percentage of public schools reporting at least one incident of the distribution, possession, or use of illegal drugs or alcohol at school, or of vandalism at school, the number of incidents reported, and the rate of incidents per 1,000 students, by selected school characteristics: School year 2005–06

	Distribution, possession, or use of illegal drugs				Distribution, possession, or use of alcohol							Vandalism¹
School characteristic	Num- ber of schools	Per- cent of schools	Num- ber of incidents	Rate per 1000 students	Num- ber of schools		Per- cent of schools		Num- ber of incidents		Rate per 1000 students	Num- ber of schools	Per- cent of schools	Num- ber of incidents	Rate per 1000 students
All public schools	21,530	26	116,970	2	13,470		16		46,800		1	42,000	50	192,830	4

Level²
Primary	1,650	3	1,960	#	520	!	1	!	830	!	#	19,600	40	66,790	3
Middle	7,590	49	26,750	3	3,300		21		6,650		1	10,460	67	57,510	6
High school	9,320	80	75,560	6	7,080		61		31,410		3	8,660	74	54,680	4
Combined	2,970	40	12,690	4	2,580		35		7,920		3	3,280	44	13,840	4

Enrollment size
Less than 300	3,060	15	8,690	2	2,140		10		5,250		1	7,830	38	27,710	6
300–499	2,920	12	7,690	1	1,970		8		4,950		1	10,500	44	34,070	4
500–999	8,360	29	29,140	1	4,230		14		10,760		1	16,240	55	70,140	4
1,000 or more	7,190	77	71,460	5	5,140		55		25,840		2	7,430	80	60,910	4

Urbanicity
City	5,260	25	38,180	3	2,780		13		12,000		1	12,260	58	71,600	5
Urban fringe	7,070	26	42,540	2	4,490		16		17,540		1	14,990	54	67,570	3
Town	2,540	31	10,380	3	1,270		16		3,870		1	4,180	51	14,760	4
Rural	6,670	25	25,870	3	4,940		19		13,390		1	10,560	40	38,900	4

Crime level where students live³
High	1,910	29	10,660	3	780		12		2,050		1	3,890	60	24,910	6
Moderate	4,400	28	27,630	3	2,440		15		7,880		1	8,940	56	54,060	6
Low	11,640	23	57,340	2	8,170		16		28,990		1	23,540	47	87,170	3
Mixed	3,580	34	21,350	3	2,080		20		7,880		1	5,630	53	26,690	4

Percent minority enrollment⁴
Less than 5 percent	3,790	23	12,710	2	2,680		16		7,800		1	6,820	41	23,370	4
5 to 20 percent	5,080	25	29,130	2	3,700		18		15,570		1	10,040	49	45,130	4
20 to 50 percent	5,230	28	31,520	3	3,380		18		12,090		1	9,840	53	42,810	4
50 percent or more	6,670	26	39,430	2	3,240		13		10,550		1	13,980	55	76,920	5

Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	4,860	25	27,730	2	3,700		19		16,730		1	9,120	47	41,370	3
21–50 percent	8,170	30	48,140	3	5,950		22		20,630		1	15,370	56	65,100	4
More than 50 percent	8,500	23	41,110	2	3,830		11		9,430		1	17,510	48	86,350	5

Percent of students below 15th per- centile on stan- dardized tests
0–5 percent	5,580	19	26,050	2	4,400		15		14,610		1	12,180	41	45,720	3
6–15 percent	9,050	28	51,060	3	5,520		17		20,410		1	17,860	54	79,270	4
More than 15 percent	6,900	33	39,850	3	3,560		17		11,770		1	11,950	57	67,840	5

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	5,800	26	28,450	2	3,120		14		8,220		1	12,380	54	58,200	5
36–60 percent	7,120	29	37,340	3	3,820		15		11,790		1	12,790	51	62,070	4
More than 60 percent	8,610	24	51,180	2	6,530		18		26,790		1	16,830	47	72,560	3

Percent of students who consider academic achieve- ment important
0–25 percent	2,300	40	12,340	4	1,260		22		3,500		1	3,190	55	14,060	5
26–50 percent	4,920	31	22,070	3	2,620		16		6,710		1	9,480	60	40,740	5
51–75 percent	6,730	28	42,400	3	4,350		18		17,190		1	12,800	53	69,330	5
More than 75 percent	7,590	20	40,160	2	5,250		14		19,400		1	16,530	44	68,690	3

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	1,270	23	7,830	3	840		15		3,310		1	2,610	46	10,450	4
45–55 percent	18,450	27	99,190	2	11,960		18		41,410		1	35,450	52	164,610	4
More than 55 percent	1,820	20	9,950	3	670		7		2,070		1	3,940	42	17,770	5

Student-to-FTE ratio⁵
Less than 12 students	8,890	21	33,680	2	5,520		13		16,290		1	18,300	43	72,990	4
12–16 students	8,030	30	48,530	3	4,840		18		16,580		1	14,450	54	67,330	4
More than 16 students	4,610	33	34,760	3	3,110		22		13,930		1	9,250	66	52,510	4

Number of class- room changes⁶
0–3 changes	1,490	7	5,600	1	710		3		2,820		#	9,390	42	34,510	3
4–6 changes	9,530	27	57,120	3	6,380		18		22,930		1	18,170	51	89,250	4
More than 6 changes	10,520	42	54,250	4	6,390		26		21,050		1	14,440	58	69,070	5

Regular use of law enforcement⁷
Regular use	16,190	47	102,970	4	9,830		28		36,840		1	21,320	61	116,120	4
No regular use	5,350	11	14,000	1	3,650		8		9,960		#	20,680	43	76,700	4

Number of serious discipline pro- blems⁸
No problems	10,840	19	53,800	2	7,170		13		24,260		1	23,850	42	88,170	3
1 problem	4,040	31	19,960	2	2,500		19		7,890		1	8,320	63	38,750	5
2 problems	3,070	44	19,780	4	1,640		24		5,780		1	4,830	69	29,840	6
3 or more problems	3,590	53	23,430	4	2,170		32		8,870		2	4,990	73	36,070	7

Transfers as a per- centage of enroll- ment⁹
0 to 6 percent	3,490	22	16,880	2	3,200		20		10,980		1	7,250	46	32,990	4
6 to 11 percent	4,190	23	19,700	2	2,580		14		10,120		1	8,510	48	33,610	3
11 to 21 percent	6,160	28	33,650	3	3,420		15		12,310		1	11,720	52	59,480	5
21 percent or more	7,690	28	46,740	3	4,280		16		13,380		1	14,510	54	66,740	4

Prevalence of school- wide disruptions¹⁰
No disruptions	2,750	50	21,560	5	1,850		34		7,460		2	3,840	70	24,200	5
Any disruptions	18,780	24	95,410	2	11,620		15		39,340		1	38,160	49	168,620	4

Percent of students absent on a daily basis
0–2 percent	1,100	13	4,040	1	880		10		3,030		1	3,500	41	11,980	3
3–5 percent	9,170	21	43,360	2	5,450		13		18,960		1	21,220	49	91,770	4
6–10 percent	8,840	36	52,720	3	5,620		23		19,640		1	13,260	54	68,280	4
More than 10 percent	2,420	37	16,840	4	1,520		23		5,180		1	4,000	62	20,800	5
# Rounds to zero.
! Interpret data with caution. The standard error for this estimate is from 30 percent to 50 percent of the estimate’s value.
¹ Vandalism was defined for respondents as "the willful damage or destruction of school property including bombing, arson, graffiti, and other acts that cause property damage. This includes damage caused by computer hacking."
² Primary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not higher than grade 3 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 8. Middle schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 4 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 9. High schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not lower than grade 9 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 12. Combined schools include all other combinations of grades, including K–12 schools.
³ Respondents were asked, "How would you describe the crime level in the area(s) in which your students live?" Response options included "high level of crime," "moderate level of crime," "low level of crime," and "students come from areas with very different levels of crime."
⁴ Responding schools that did not have race/ethnicity on the sampling frame (2 percent of schools) are excluded from the base.
⁵ Student-to-FTE ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides. The total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers and aides, including special education teachers and aides, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
⁶ Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
⁷ Respondents were asked, "During the 2005–2006 school year, did you have any sworn law enforcement officers, security guards, or security personnel present at your school at least once a week?"
⁸ Serious discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student sexual harassment of other students, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, student acts of disrespect for teachers, gang activities, and cult or extremist group activities. If a respondent reported that any of these problems occurred daily or weekly in their school, each was counted once in the total number of serious discipline problems.
⁹ Transfers as a percentage of enrollment combines the number of students who were transferred to a school and the number of students who were transferred from a school divided by the total number of students enrolled in the school.
¹⁰ Schoolwide disruptions include actions that disrupted school activities such as death threats, bomb threats, and chemical, biological, or radiological threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
NOTE: "At school" was defined for respondents to include activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that hold school-sponsored events or activities. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Data regarding illegal drugs and alcohol are categorized slightly differently in 2006 than they were in previous collections in the SSOCS series; therefore, direct comparisons between the years should not be made. Reponses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about crime and safety issues at the school.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2005–06 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2006.

Back

Download Excel

(64 KB)

Download SE Excel

(56 KB)