Table 31. Percentage of public high schools reporting that their efforts to reduce or prevent crime at school were limited due to specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003

School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)

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Table 31. Percentage of public high schools reporting that their efforts to reduce or prevent crime at school were limited due to specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: School year 2003–04

School characteristic	Inadequate funds	Fear of district or state reprisal	Federal, state, or district policies on disciplining special education students¹	Other federal policies on discipline and safety	Other state or district policies on discipline and safety
All public schools	65	16	67	37	34

Enrollment size
Less than 300	46	10	54	27	20
300–499	59	12	63	30	30
500–999	70	17	66	41	35
1,000 or more	71	19	73	40	39

Urbanicity
City	68	24	71	43	42
Urban fringe	65	14	69	36	34
Town	69	17	65	37	33
Rural	61	12	62	33	28

Crime level where students live²
High	87	51	81	65	67
Moderate	71	23	74	49	47
Low	61	10	62	31	27
Mixed	66	17	69	34	33

Percent minority enrollment³
Less than 5 percent	66	13	68	32	28
5 to 20 percent	60	8	57	31	30
20 to 50 percent	67	18	71	39	34
50 percent or more	67	25	69	44	41

Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	60	10	62	27	26
21–50 percent	70	18	70	40	36
More than 50 percent	65	22	68	45	41

Percent of students below 15^th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	60	11	62	30	27
6–15 percent	65	16	69	37	34
More than 15 percent	71	21	68	42	39

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	65	26	65	42	36
36–60 percent	72	13	68	39	36
More than 60 percent	61	14	66	34	31

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	70	28	76	45	37
26–50 percent	65	21	64	40	37
51–75 percent	72	16	71	38	34
More than 75 percent	59	12	63	32	32

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	56	23	54	35	34
45–55 percent	67	16	69	37	33
More than 55 percent	57	14	55	40	37

Student-to-teacher ratio⁴
Less than 12 students	61	12	59	33	29
12–16 students	65	17	70	39	38
More than 16 students	73	21	75	39	36

Number of classroom changes⁵
0–3 changes	58	23	64	45	34
4–6 changes	68	18	69	39	37
More than 6 changes	63	14	65	33	31

Regular use of law enforcement⁶
Regular use	70	19	70	40	37
No regular use	54	8	59	28	25

Number of serious discipline problems⁷
No problems	59	12	61	33	29
1 problem	74	17	72	41	36
2 problems	71	22	79	38	41
3 or more problems	82	33	78	52	53

Transfers as a percentage of enrollment⁸
0 to 6 percent	60	14	65	36	31
6 to 11 percent	63	13	66	39	33
11 to 21 percent	70	18	64	34	34
21 percent or more	66	18	72	39	38

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions⁹
No disruptions	64	14	66	36	32
Any disruptions	71	26	70	42	43

Percent of students absent on a daily basis
0–2 percent	53	11	55	29	25
3–5 percent	63	14	68	38	34
6–10 percent	70	16	67	36	33
More than 10 percent	60	24	66	38	39

Prevalence of violent incidents¹⁰
No violent incidents	21	15	54	34	22
Any violent incidents	67	16	67	37	34
¹ A special education student was defined for respondents as "a child with a disability, defined as mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities, and who needs special education and related services and receives these under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)."
² 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."
³ These estimates exclude data from Tennessee because schools in this state did not report estimates of student race.
⁴ Student-to-teacher 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.
⁵ Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
⁶ Respondents were asked, "During the 2003–2004 school year, did you have any sworn law enforcement officers, security guards, or security personnel present at your school on a regular basis?"
⁷ 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.
⁸ 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.
⁹ 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.
¹⁰ Violent incidents include rape, sexual battery other than rape, physical attack or fight with or without a weapon, threat of physical attack with or without a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon.
NOTE: Responses 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, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2004.

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