Table 1.  Number and percentage of public elementary schools reporting violent and other incidents of crime with the number of incidents reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000


School characteristic  Total  Violent incidents1    Serious violent incidents2    Theft3    Other incidents4 
Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
  Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
  Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
  Num-
ber of schools
Per-
cent of schools
Num-
ber of incidents
All public elementary schools                                 
49,896 30,285 61 715,735   7,193 14 22,978   15,111 30 42,179   30,915 62 167,264
                                 
Enrollment size                                 
Less than 300  12,999 6,962 54 57,995   699 5 1,302   2,620 20 5,294   6,985 54 20,295
300–499  16,414 9,731 60 216,479   2,118 13 5,098   5,031 31 12,539   9,389 57 56,388
500–999  18,854 12,487 66 410,216   4,082 22 15,703   7,043 37 22,191   13,383 71 82,288
1,000 or more  1,629 1,105 68 31,044   293 18 875   416 27 2,156   1,158 71 8,294
                                 
Urbanicity                                 
City  13,263 9,300 70 270,367   2,948 22 8,724   5,652 43 16,748   9,825 74 63,645
Urban fringe  16,679 8,890 54 158,771   2,653 16 6,875   4,490 27 11,577   9,021 54 47,281
Town  5,570 3,215 60 122,793   918 16 4,339   1,559 28 5,622   3,545 64 16,999
Rural  14,384 8,880 62 163,804   673 5 3,041   3,410 24 8,232   8,524 59 39,338
                                 
Crime level where students live5                                 
                               
High  4,208 3,345 80 233,118   1,347 32 4,942   2,454 58 8,722   3,147 75 32,431
Moderate  9,372 5,999 64 209,012   1,623 17 6,940   3,506 37 11,325   6,680 71 50,257
Low  32,186 18,205 57 237,132   3,639 11 8,784   7,737 24 18,460   17,928 56 72,886
Mixed  4,056 2,663 66 34,639   583 14 2,312   1,414 35 3,673   3,087 76 11,616
                                 
Percent minority enrollment5                                 
                               
0–5 percent  14,013 8,379 60 123,906   1,138 8 2,410   3,656 26 9,064   8,161 58 36,940
6–20 percent  10,754 5,844 55 121,542   1,673 16 6,523   2,413 22 7,179   5,623 52 30,121
21–50 percent  9,765 5,657 58 146,665   1,471 15 6,481   2,568 27 5,901   6,659 68 38,529
More than 50 percent  14,704 9,810 67 314,729   2,911 20 7,564   6,182 42 19,080   10,051 68 60,075
                                 
Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch                                 
                               
                               
0–20 percent  12,373 6,311 51 100,079   1,195 10 2,625   2,758 22 6,005   6,242 50 25,382
21–50 percent  15,820 9,038 57 178,558   1,875 12 3,974   4,632 29 12,248   9,483 60 46,563
More than 50 percent  21,703 14,936 69 437,098   4,123 19 16,380   7,721 36 23,926   15,189 70 95,319
                                 
Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests                                
                               
                               
0–5 percent  15,645 8,266 53 113,555   1,717 11 2,865   3,467 22 7,325   8,442 54 29,728
6–15 percent  18,986 11,623 62 213,943   2,138 11 7,407   5,185 27 12,905   11,761 62 64,769
More than 15 percent  15,265 10,396 69 388,236   3,337 22 12,707   6,459 42 21,950   10,712 70 72,767
                                 
Percent of students likely to attend college                                 
                               
0–35 percent  16,448 11,570 70 356,986   3,157 19 11,144   6,343 39 18,115   11,535 70 78,079
36–60 percent  18,178 11,296 63 278,440   2,475 14 9,320   5,436 30 15,586   12,059 66 59,984
More than 60 percent  15,269 7,419 49 80,309   1,561 10 2,513   3,333 22 8,478   7,321 48 29,201
                                 
Percent of students who consider academic achievement important                                
                               
                               
                               
                               
0–25 percent  3,508 2,646 75 73,750   514 15 1,874   1,743 50 4,840   2,913 83 15,542
26–50 percent  11,170 8,853 79 185,729   2,621 23 9,857   4,959 44 17,427   8,158 73 58,536
51–75 percent  15,307 8,705 57 252,608   1,726 11 3,667   4,127 27 9,696   9,731 64 49,082
More than 75 percent  19,911 10,081 51 203,648   2,332 12 7,581   4,283 22 10,216   10,131 51 44,105
                                 
Percent male enrollment                                 
0–44 percent  6,232 3,797 62 110,807   480 8 2,046   2,339 38 4,230   3,450 55 18,814
45–55 percent  37,017 23,037 62 546,976   6,080 16 18,428   11,129 30 33,124   23,883 65 132,597
More than 55 percent  6,647 3,451 53 57,952   633 10 2,504   1,643 25 4,825   3,582 54 15,852
                                 
Student/teacher ratio5,6                                 
Less than 12  16,417 9,379 57 191,577   1,852 11 6,277   4,344 26 11,325   10,671 65 56,422
12–16  16,083 9,433 59 240,645   2,412 15 9,176   5,524 34 15,648   9,068 56 55,749
More than 16  14,946 10,582 71 270,416   2,810 19 7,407   4,959 34 14,923   10,406 70 52,345
                                 
Number of classroom changes5                                 
                               
0–3 changes  20,257 11,257 56 231,525   2,604 13 9,256   5,719 28 14,042   12,007 59 50,355
4–6 changes  22,726 14,229 63 389,672   3,707 16 10,859   6,792 30 20,292   13,900 61 87,447
More than 6 changes  5,977 4,254 71 86,270   822 14 2,803   2,290 38 7,226   4,524 76 24,485
                                 
Use of paid law enforcement7                                 
                               
Regular use  18,418 11,874 65 417,857   3,356 18 12,401   7,286 40 24,459   12,863 70 90,801
No regular use  31,478 18,411 58 297,878   3,837 12 10,577   7,825 25 17,721   18,052 57 76,463
                                 
Number of serious discipline problems8                                 
                               
No problems  32,716 17,891 55 215,283   3,525 11 5,797   8,135 25 17,171   18,314 56 66,905
1 problem  8,738 5,824 67 139,087   1,140 13 3,747   2,641 30 7,046   5,474 63 25,784
2 problems  4,251 3,081 73 165,167   1,103 26 6,221   1,983 47 7,868   3,526 83 29,404
3 or more problems  4,190 3,489 83 196,198   1,425 34 7,213   2,352 56 10,095   3,601 86 45,171
                                 
Transfers as percentage of enrollment5,9                                 
                               
0 to 6 percent  10,015 5,168 52 66,576   1,312 13 5,295   2,962 30 9,232   4,780 48 25,599
6 to 11 percent  10,843 5,801 53 76,167   1,234 11 3,311   3,252 30 7,093   6,278 58 26,200
11 to 21 percent  11,579 7,449 65 125,591   1,888 16 4,547   3,110 27 9,973   7,346 63 34,571
21 percent or more  15,546 10,806 70 403,950   2,623 17 9,581   5,497 36 15,420   11,160 72 73,424
                                 
Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions5,10                                
                               
                               
No disruptions  44,064 26,784 61 629,353   6,382 15 19,158   13,295 30 35,884   27,159 62 146,881
Any disruptions  2,274 1,912 84 41,791   515 23 3,456   777 34 3,514   1,740 77 10,668
                                 
Percent of students
absent without excuses
                               
                               
None  10,367 4,791 46 72,753   991 10 1,909   1,831 18 4,329   4,587 44 16,602
1–2 percent  21,169 13,708 65 254,495   2,818 13 10,527   5,772 27 14,307   13,682 65 66,463
3–5 percent  13,048 8,208 64 244,769   2,003 15 4,908   5,180 40 14,024   9,003 69 54,141
6–10 percent  3,293 2,309 70 99,200   1,021 31 4,080   1,683 51 7,389   2,640 81 17,163
More than 10 percent  2,020 1,270 63 44,517   359 18 1,554   645 32 2,130   1,004 50 12,895
1 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.
2 Serious violent incidents include rape, sexual battery other than rape, physical attack or fight with a weapon, threat of physical attack with a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon.
3 Theft/larceny (taking things over $10 without personal confrontation) was defined for respondents as, "the unlawful taking of another person's property without personal confrontation, threat, violence, or bodily harm. Included are pocket picking, stealing purse or backpack (if left unattended or no force was used to take it from owner), theft from a building, theft from a motor vehicle or motor vehicle parts or accessories, theft of bicycles, theft from vending machines, and all other types of thefts."
4 Other incidents include possession of a firearm or explosive device, possession of a knife or sharp object, distribution of illegal drugs, possession or use of alcohol or illegal drugs, sexual harassment, or vandalism.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
8 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.
9 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.
10 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.
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. 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.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.