Table 32. Percentage of public schools reporting their efforts to reduce or prevent crime were limited by specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: 1999

School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)

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Table 32. Percentage of public schools reporting their efforts to reduce or prevent crime were limited by specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000

School characteristic	Teacher contracts	Inadequate funds	Fear of district or state reprisal	Federal policies on disciplining disabled students	Other federal policies on discipline and safety	State or district policies on discipline and safety	Percent of schools that did not feel they were limited in any way
All public schools	28	62	19	60	39	36	12

Level
Elementary	30	60	19	56	37	34	14
Middle	28	63	18	66	41	38	9
Secondary	26	66	20	64	41	38	8
Combined	16	60	19	61	44	40	11

Enrollment size
Less than 300	26	58	16	54	37	34	17
300–499	28	63	19	62	39	34	11
500–999	29	63	21	59	39	38	10
1,000 or more	30	65	19	65	38	37	9

Urbanicity
City	36	66	27	63	47	45	8
Urban fringe	28	59	15	58	34	31	14
Town	27	61	16	61	40	36	10
Rural	22	62	18	59	36	34	13

Crime level where students live ¹
High	37	73	39	74	52	54	4
Moderate	31	66	25	64	44	41	7
Low	26	58	16	56	35	32	14
Mixed	31	69	17	64	39	38	11

Percent minority enrollment¹
0–5 percent	27	62	18	59	39	34	15
6–20 percent	27	61	17	62	35	33	12
21–50 percent	26	59	14	61	37	36	12
More than 50 percent	32	64	26	57	41	40	9

Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	26	53	15	57	32	31	16
21–50 percent	28	68	17	62	40	35	9
More than 50 percent	30	63	23	60	42	40	12

Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	25	54	17	55	32	28	19
6–15 percent	27	63	17	62	39	36	10
More than 15 percent	32	69	25	61	44	44	7

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	28	67	22	62	44	40	8
36–60 percent	30	62	20	61	40	36	12
More than 60 percent	25	58	16	56	33	32	16

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	36	72	25	76	55	50	4
26–50 percent	30	72	23	63	41	39	7
51–75 percent	29	62	21	63	40	36	10
More than 75 percent	24	54	14	51	32	30	18

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	32	70	26	58	44	40	12
45–55 percent	28	62	19	62	40	36	12
More than 55 percent	24	53	15	48	27	28	14

Student/teacher ratio¹,²
Less than 12	23	56	18	58	38	36	17
12–16	30	65	18	63	39	34	8
More than 16	32	65	22	60	39	38	10

Number of classroom changes¹
0–3 changes	30	63	20	51	39	37	15
4–6 changes	27	61	18	62	37	32	12
More than 6 changes	29	61	21	63	40	39	8

Use of paid law enforcement ³
Regular use	31	65	23	63	43	40	8
No regular use	25	58	15	55	34	31	16

Number of serious discipline problems ⁴
No problems	24	54	14	51	33	30	17
1 problem	29	69	21	66	43	38	8
2 problems	27	67	23	68	39	36	7
3 or more problems	42	77	33	77	55	55	2

Transfers as percentage of enrollment¹,⁵
0 to 6 percent	27	56	20	51	35	33	14
6 to 11 percent	30	62	17	57	40	36	13
11 to 21 percent	31	65	24	66	40	38	11
21 percent or more	25	65	16	64	39	35	10

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions¹,⁶
No disruptions	26	60	18	59	37	36	13
Any disruptions	34	73	24	63	46	41	4

Percent of students absent without excuses
None	19	50	11	51	28	26	20
1–2 percent	27	62	18	60	39	37	11
3–5 percent	33	65	24	63	42	37	9
6–10 percent	32	68	26	64	44	44	10
More than 10 percent	39	77	22	56	48	40	7

Prevalence of violent incidents¹,⁷
No violent incidents	26	52	16	45	30	28	21
Any violent incidents	29	66	20	65	42	39	8
¹ 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.
² 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.
³ 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.
⁴ 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.
⁵ 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.
⁶ 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.
⁷ 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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