Fast Facts: Violence prevention (54)

Violence prevention

Question:
Do you have information on efforts to prevent violence in our schools?

Response:

Safety and Security Training for Teachers

In 2021–22, most public schools and school districts provided training on school safety and security to classroom teachers and aides:¹

93 percent provided trainings on safety procedures (e.g., how to handle emergencies).
88 percent provided trainings on schoolwide discipline policies and practices related to at least one of the following issues: cyberbullying, bullying, violence, and alcohol and/or drug use.
87 percent provided trainings on recognizing at least one of the types of student behaviors or tendencies related to potential safety or discipline problems.²
81 percent provided trainings on classroom management for teachers.

In addition to these trainings on procedures, policies, and recognizing risks, a majority of schools also reported providing trainings on intervention strategies to help inform teachers about how to appropriately intervene in various safety-related scenarios involving students. Specifically,

84 percent of schools reported providing training on positive behavioral intervention strategies;
74 percent reported providing training on crisis prevention and intervention; and
67 percent reported providing training on intervention and referral strategies for students displaying signs of mental health disorders.³

The percentage of public schools that reported each of these various trainings on school safety and security were lower in 2021–22 than in 2019–20.⁴ For example, 67 percent of schools reported providing training on intervention and referral strategies for students displaying signs of mental health disorders in 2021–22, compared with 72 percent in 2019–20.

For more information about safety and security measures in schools, see the Fast Fact on this topic.

Presence of Security Staff and Officers Carrying Firearms

Schools were asked to report whether they had any security staff—including security officers, security personnel, School Resource Officers (SROs), and sworn law enforcement officers who are not SROs—present at their school at least once a week.⁵ Between 2009–10 and 2019–20, the percentage of public schools that reported having one or more security staff present at school at least once a week increased from 43 to 65 percent, although the percentage in 2021–22 (61 percent) was lower than in 2019–20.

In 2021–22, about 45 percent of public schools reported having sworn law enforcement officers who routinely carried a firearm. This percentage was lower than the percentage in 2019–20 (51 percent).

¹ For general technical notes related to data analysis, data interpretation, rounding, and other considerations, please refer to the Condition of Education Reader’s Guide.
² Includes early warning signs of student violent behavior; physical, social, and verbal bullying behaviors; signs of self-harm or suicidal tendencies; and signs of students using/abusing alcohol and/or drugs.
³ This item on the questionnaire provided the following examples of mental health disorders: depression, mood disorders, and ADHD. The questionnaire defined mental health disorders as “collectively, all diagnosable mental health disorders or health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning.”
⁴ The coronavirus pandemic affected the 2019–20 data collection activities. The change to virtual schooling and the adjusted school year may have impacted the data collected by the School Survey on Crime and Safety. Readers should use caution when comparing 2019–20 estimates with those from other years. For more information, see Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools in 2019–20: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety (NCES 2022-029).
⁵ “Security officers” and “security personnel” do not include law enforcement. SROs include all career law enforcement officers with arrest authority who have specialized training and are assigned to work in collaboration with school organizations.

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics. (2024). Safety and Security Practices at Public Schools. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved July 25, 2024, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/a19.

Numbers in figure titles reflect original numeration from source Condition of Education indicators.

Gun-Free Schools Act

The federal Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA) enacted in 1994 requires U.S. public school systems to report any incident of a student bringing a firearm to school or being in possession of a firearm on school property. The law applies to all states and jurisdictions funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which include the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE); and the insular areas of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Under federal law, states must also enact their own laws that require local education agencies (LEAs) to expel students for firearm offenses for a period of no less than 1 year. School administrators, in compliance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (2004), may modify these expulsions on a case-by-case basis for students with disabilities. State education agencies (SEAs) must submit data to the secretary of education on an annual basis, reporting the number of students who were expelled for firearm offenses under the law during the 12-month reporting period. The GFSA also mandates that states and LEAs enact policies to refer students to the criminal justice system when they are in possession of a firearm on school property.

SOURCE: National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments. (2022). State Report on the Implementation of the Gun-Free Schools Act: U.S. States and Other Jurisdictions 2019–20 School Year. U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/sites/default/files/StateRptImplGFSA-2019-20-508_2022.03.07.pdf.

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