Table 27. Percentage of public schools that monitored access to their campus in specified ways and the mean number of policies per school reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999

Crime and Safety Surveys

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Table 27. Percentage of public schools that monitored access to their campus in specified ways and the mean number of policies per school reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000

School characteristic	Percentage							Mean number of these policies ³
School characteristic	Require visitors to sign or check in	Control access to school buildings during school hours ¹	Control access to school grounds during school hours ²	Require students to pass through metal detectors each day	Require visitors to pass through metal detectors	Perform one or more random metal detector checks on students	Close the campus for most students during lunch	Mean number of these policies ³
All public schools	97	75	34	1	1	7	65	2.8

Level
Elementary	97	77	36	‡	‡	4	58	2.7
Middle	97	76	30	2	2	14	81	3.0
Secondary	96	71	35	3	3	15	72	3.0
Combined	91	54	19	#	‡	6	66	2.4

Enrollment size
Less than 300	91	63	21	‡	‡	3	60	2.4
300–499	98	79	32	1	1	5	60	2.7
500–999	99	79	38	1	1	9	68	2.9
1,000 or more	98	76	52	3	4	19	76	3.3

Urbanicity
City	99	83	48	3	3	16	67	3.2
Urban fringe	98	79	38	‡	#	4	64	2.8
Town	95	72	31	1	1	6	67	2.7
Rural	94	65	20	‡	#	4	63	2.5

Crime level where students live ⁴
High	100	85	53	3	3	17	60	3.2
Moderate	98	74	42	1	2	10	66	2.9
Low	96	73	27	#	#	4	65	2.7
Mixed	99	77	46	3	2	15	66	3.1

Percent minority enrollment⁴
0–5 percent	93	73	20	#	#	2	66	2.5
6–20 percent	99	78	30	‡	‡	4	62	2.7
21–50 percent	97	71	34	#	#	8	67	2.8
More than 50 percent	98	77	53	3	3	16	63	3.1

Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	97	79	32	‡	#	3	62	2.7
21–50 percent	96	71	25	1	1	7	69	2.7
More than 50 percent	97	75	44	2	2	11	62	2.9

Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	94	72	27	#	#	4	63	2.6
6–15 percent	97	76	32	#	1	6	65	2.8
More than 15 percent	98	76	43	2	2	12	66	3.0

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	98	74	39	1	1	11	63	2.9
36–60 percent	96	73	32	1	1	7	65	2.7
More than 60 percent	95	77	31	1	1	5	66	2.7

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	97	67	33	1	1	13	59	2.7
26–50 percent	98	71	31	2	1	9	71	2.8
51–75 percent	96	76	36	1	1	8	66	2.9
More than 75 percent	96	77	33	#	#	4	61	2.7

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	94	75	32	1	2	11	62	2.8
45–55 percent	97	75	33	1	1	7	66	2.8
More than 55 percent	97	75	37	1	1	5	60	2.8

Student/teacher ratio⁴,⁵
Less than 12	94	70	28	#	1	5	63	2.6
12–16	98	81	33	1	1	8	67	2.9
More than 16	98	73	41	1	1	8	67	2.9

Number of classroom changes⁴
0–3 changes	96	76	42	#	‡	5	53	2.7
4–6 changes	97	76	35	1	1	9	68	2.9
More than 6 changes	96	70	26	1	1	7	69	2.7

Use of paid law enforcement ⁶
Regular use	98	79	40	2	2	12	70	3.0
No regular use	95	70	27	‡	‡	2	58	2.5

Number of serious discipline problems ⁷
No problems	96	73	31	#	1	4	61	2.7
1 problem	97	80	35	2	1	9	68	2.9
2 problems	96	75	37	1	2	9	73	2.9
3 or more problems	98	74	38	2	2	15	67	3.0

Transfers as percentage of enrollment⁴,⁸
0 to 6 percent	95	73	33	1	1	7	59	2.7
6 to 11 percent	97	76	32	1	1	5	63	2.8
11 to 21 percent	98	74	33	1	#	8	68	2.8
21 percent or more	97	74	34	1	1	8	67	2.8

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions⁴,⁹
No disruptions	96	75	33	1	1	6	63	2.7
Any disruptions	99	81	40	2	3	16	76	3.2

Percent of students absent without excuses
None	94	73	24	‡	‡	2	62	2.5
1–2 percent	96	73	34	‡	1	5	63	2.7
3–5 percent	98	76	34	1	1	8	66	2.8
6–10 percent	98	76	43	2	2	15	69	3.0
More than 10 percent	100	82	47	7	6	18	65	3.3

Prevalence of violent incidents⁴,¹⁰
No violent incidents	94	75	36	‡	‡	3	53	2.6
Any violent incidents	98	75	33	1	1	9	69	2.9
# Rounds to zero.
‡ Reporting standards not met.
¹ For example, locked or monitored doors.
² For example, locked or monitored gates.
³ Data represents the mean number of "yes" responses to the policies listed.
⁴ Some schools are omitted from these categories because of missing data on their school characteristics. For this reason, the detailed results do not sum to the totals. See appendix J of 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Detailed Data Documentation (NCES 2004-307) for further information.
⁵ Student/teacher ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time equivalent teachers. The total number of full-time equivalent teachers is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers, including special education teachers, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
⁶ Schools were included as regularly using paid law enforcement if they reported the use of paid law enforcement during any of the following times: at any time during school hours, while students were arriving or leaving, at selected school activities, (e.g., athletic and social events, open houses, science fairs), or at any other time that the respondent specified.
⁷ Serious discipline problems is a count of discipline problems reported by principals. These discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, and student acts of disrespect for teachers. If a principal 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. Undesirable gang activities and undesirable cult or extremist group activities were also counted once as a problem if the principal reported that these events occurred at all in their school.
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 bomb threats or anthrax 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: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. "At school/at your school" was defined for respondents as including activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that are holding school-sponsored events or activities. Respondents were instructed to, unless the survey specified otherwise, only respond for those times that were during normal school hours or when school activities/events were in session. A gang was defined for respondents as, "an ongoing loosely organized association of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, that has a common name, signs, symbols or colors, whose members engage, either individually or collectively, in violent or other forms of illegal behavior." Elementary 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. Secondary 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.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

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