Annual Reports and Information Staff (Annual Reports)

Equitable Access to Supportive School and Classroom Environments Domain

Disparities in School Climate

Last Updated: August 2023 | Suggested Citation

This indicator is examined by two constructs/measures: perceptions of personal safety at school and student reports of bullying including electronic bullying.

Perceptions of Personal Safety at School

In the School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), students ages 12–18 were asked how often¹¹ they had been afraid of attack or harm at school¹² during the school year.¹³ This construct is examined by a measure of perceptions of personal safety at school for 12- to 18-year-olds by race/ethnicity and locale.

In 2019, among 12- to 18-year-olds, higher percentages of students who were of Two or more races (9 percent), Black (7 percent), and Hispanic (7 percent) than of students who were White (3 percent) and Asian (1 percent) reported being afraid of attack or harm at school. The percentage was also higher for White students than for Asian students.

Figure 1. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being afraid of attack or harm during the school year, by location and race/ethnicity: 2019

! Interpret data with caution. The coefficient of variation (CV) for this estimate is between 30 and 50 percent.

‡ Reporting standards not met. Either there are too few cases for a reliable estimate or the coefficient of variation (CV) is 50 percent or greater.

¹ Total includes data for Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native students, which are not separately shown because data at school and away from school for these two groups did not meet reporting standards in 2019. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.

NOTE: “At school” includes in the school building, on school property, on a school bus, and going to and from school. Students were asked if they were “never,” “almost never,” “sometimes,” or “most of the time” afraid that someone would attack or harm them at school or away from school. Students responding “sometimes” or “most of the time” were considered afraid.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 2019. See Digest of Education Statistics 2020, table 230.70.

In 2019, a higher percentage of students ages 12–18 enrolled in schools in cities than of students enrolled in schools in rural areas reported being afraid of attack or harm at school during the school year (6 percent vs 3 percent).

Student Reports of Bullying

The School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey collected data on bullying¹⁴ by asking students ages 12–18 if they had been bullied at school¹⁵ during the school year. The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) also collected data on students in grades 9–12 who reported being bullied on school property¹⁶ or electronically bullied¹⁷ during the previous 12 months. This indicator discusses reports of bullying and electronic bullying by sex, race/ethnicity, locale, and sexual identity.
The total percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being bullied at school during the school year was lower in 2019 than in 2009 (22 vs. 28 percent).

A higher percentage of female students than of male students reported being bullied at school during the school year (25 vs. 19 percent).
Lower percentages of students reported being bullied at school in 2019 than in 2009 for both male students (19 vs. 27 percent) and female students (25 vs. 29 percent).

The percentage of students who reported being bullied at school during the school year was higher for students of Two or more races (37 percent) than for White students (25 percent) and Black students (22 percent); each of these percentages were in turn higher than the percentage of Asian students (13 percent).
Higher percentages of students of Two or more races and White students than of Hispanic students (18 percent) reported being bullied at school during the school year.
Lower percentages of students reported being bullied at school in 2019 than in 2009 for the following subgroups: White students (25 vs. 29 percent); Black students (22 vs. 29 percent); Hispanic students (18 vs. 26 percent).¹⁸

The percentage of students who reported being bullied at school during the school year was higher for students enrolled in schools in rural areas (28 percent) than for students enrolled in schools in other locales (22 percent each for those enrolled in schools in cities and in towns, and 21 percent for those enrolled in schools in suburban areas).
The percentage of students enrolled in schools in rural areas who reported being bullied at school during the school year was higher in 2019 than in 2015 (28 vs. 20 percent).¹⁹
For school locales other than rural, there were no measurable differences between 2015 and 2019 in students’ reports of being bullied at school.

Figure 2. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being bullied at school during the school year, by selected student and school characteristics: 2019

¹ Total includes race categories not separately shown.

² Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Data for Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native students did not meet reporting standards in 2019; therefore, data for these two groups are not shown.

³ Excludes students with missing information about the school characteristic.

NOTE: "At school" includes in the school building, on school property, on a school bus, and going to and from school. Although rounded numbers are displayed, the figures are based on unrounded data.

Student Reports of Electronic Bullying

The percentage of students who reported being electronically bullied was higher for female students than for male students (20 vs. 11 percent).

The percentages of students who reported being electronically bullied were higher for students of Two or more races and White students (19 percent each) than for Hispanic (13 percent) and Asian (12 percent) students; each of these percentages were higher than the percentage of Black students who reported being electronically bullied in 2019 (9 percent).

Additionally, the percentage of students who reported being electronically bullied was higher for gay, lesbian, or bisexual students (27 percent) than for students who were not sure about their sexual identity (19 percent), which was in turn higher than the percentage for heterosexual students (14 percent).²⁰

Figure 3. Percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported having been electronically bullied during the previous 12 months, by selected student characteristics: 2019

! Interpret data with caution. The coefficient of variation (CV) for this estimate is between 30 and 50 percent.

¹ Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.

² Students were asked which of the following—"heterosexual (straight)," "gay or lesbian," "bisexual," or "not sure"—best described them.

NOTE: Electronic bullying includes "being bullied through texting, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media."

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), 2019. See Digest of Education Statistics 2020, table 230.55.

Findings in this indicator come from Students’ Perceptions of Personal Safety at School and Away From School and Bullying at School and Electronic Bullying in the Condition of Education in the Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2019. For more information see tables 230.40, 230.55, and 230.70 from the Digest of Education Statistics 2020.

¹¹ Students were asked if they were “never,” “almost never,” “sometimes,” or “most of the time” afraid that someone would attack or harm them at school or away from school. Students responding “sometimes” or “most of the time” were considered afraid.

¹² “At school” includes in the school building, on school property, on a school bus, and going to and from school.

¹³ Although Figure 1 presents data on perceptions of safety away from school, they are not discussed here because Monitoring Educational Equity focused on student experience in the school setting.

¹⁴ “Bullying” includes students who reported that another student had made fun of them, called them names, or insulted them; spread rumors about them; threatened them with harm; tried to make them do something they did not want to do; excluded them from activities on purpose; destroyed their property on purpose; or pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on them. In the total for students bullied at school, students who reported more than one type of bullying were counted only once.

¹⁵ “At school” includes in the school building, on school property, on a school bus, and going to and from school.

¹⁶ In the YRBSS, bullying was defined for respondents as “when one or more students tease, threaten, spread rumors about, hit, shove, or hurt another student over and over again.” “On school property” was not defined for respondents.

¹⁷ Being electronically bullied includes “being bullied through e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, or texting” for 2011 through 2015 and “being bullied through texting, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media” for 2017 and 2019.

¹⁸ Although Figure 2 presents data by grade level, they are not discussed here because grade level is not an “equity dimension.”

¹⁹ Comparable data for locales have only been available since 2015. For 2013 and prior years, the four-category school locale information (city, suburban, town, and rural) was not available.

²⁰ Since 2015, the YRBSS has included a question on students’ sexual identity by asking students in grades 9–12 which of the following best described them— “heterosexual (straight),” “gay or lesbian,” “bisexual,” or “not sure.” In this indicator, students who identified as “gay or lesbian” or “bisexual” are discussed together in the “gay, lesbian, or bisexual” group. Students were not asked whether they identified as transgender (a gender identity as opposed to sexual identity or orientation) in the YRBSS.

Suggested Citation

National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). School Climate. Equity in Education Dashboard. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved [date], from [URL].