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Table 27.  Percentage of public elementary 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 policies3
Require visitors to sign or check in Control access to school buildings during school hours1 Control access to school grounds during school hours2 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
All public elementary schools 97 77 36 ‡ ‡ 4 58 2.7
                 
Enrollment size                
Less than 300 93 70 24 # # ‡ 57 2.4
300–499 98 81 33 ‡ # 3 53 2.7
500–999 99 79 44 # ‡ 5 61 2.9
1,000 or more100 78 71 # # ‡ 64 3.2
                 
Urbanicity                
City 99 86 48 ‡ ‡ 9 61 3.0
Urban fringe 98 79 40 # # 1 54 2.7
Town 94 73 34 # # ‡ 60 2.6
Rural 95 69 21 # # 2 57 2.4
                 
Crime level where students live4                
High 100 86 52 # # 12 53 3.1
Moderate 98 73 42 # ‡ 4 58 2.7
Low 96 77 30 # # 2 59 2.6
Mixed 100 82 56 ‡ # 7 54 3.0
                 
Percent minority enrollment4                
0–5 percent 94 75 22 # # ‡ 59 2.5
6–20 percent 98 81 32 # # 3 51 2.7
21–50 percent 97 73 35 # # ‡ 59 2.7
More than 50 percent 99 79 54 ‡ ‡ 8 58 3.0
                 
Percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunch                
0–20 percent 98 82 34 # # 1 50 2.7
21–50 percent 96 73 27 # # 2 64 2.6
More than 50 percent 98 77 44 ‡ ‡ 6 57 2.8
                 
Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests                
0–5 percent 94 72 28 # # 1 56 2.5
6–15 percent 98 80 36 # ‡ 2 57 2.7
More than 15 percent 99 78 43 ‡ # 8 60 2.9
                 
Percent of students likely to attend college                
0–35 percent 99 78 41 # # 5 57 2.8
36–60 percent 97 74 35 ‡ ‡ 4 58 2.7
More than 60 percent 95 81 32 # # 1 58 2.7
                 
Percent of students who consider academic achievement important                
0–25 percent 100 75 33 # # 6 50 2.6
26–50 percent 98 73 30 ‡ # 5 64 2.7
51–75 percent 96 79 43 # # 4 60 2.8
More than 75 percent 96 79 35 # ‡ 2 53 2.6
                 
Percent male enrollment                
0–44 percent 93 75 30 # # 4 55 2.6
45–55 percent 98 78 36 ‡ ‡ 4 59 2.7
More than 55 percent 98 78 42 # # ‡ 54 2.7
                 
Student/teacher ratio4,5                
Less than 12 96 75 32 # # 3 57 2.6
12–16 97 82 35 ‡ ‡ 4 58 2.8
More than 16 99 76 42 # # 4 61 2.8
                 
Number of classroom changes4                
0–3 changes 97 78 43 # ‡ 5 51 2.7
4–6 changes 97 79 34 ‡ # 3 65 2.8
More than 6 changes 98 66 24 # # ‡ 53 2.4
                 
Use of paid law enforcement6                
Regular use 98 85 47 ‡ ‡ 7 60 3.0
No regular use 96 73 30 # # 2 56 2.6
                 
Number of serious discipline problems7                
No problems 97 75 33 # # 2 57 2.6
1 problem 96 86 38 # # 5 60 2.9
2 problems 96 79 44 # ‡ ‡ 67 2.9
3 or more problems 100 75 45 ‡ # 10 49 2.8
                 
Transfers as percentage of enrollment4,8                
0 to 6 percent 96 76 35 # # 3 49 2.6
6 to 11 percent 97 79 33 # ‡ 2 58 2.7
11 to 21 percent 98 78 37 ‡ # 5 62 2.8
21 percent or more 97 75 36 # # 4 60 2.7
                 
Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions4,9                
No disruptions 97 78 35 ‡ ‡ 3 56 2.7
Any disruptions 100 88 40 # # ‡ 69 3.1
                 
Percent of students absent without excuses                
None 95 79 27 # # ‡ 56 2.6
1–2 percent 96 75 37 # ‡ 3 58 2.7
3–5 percent 99 77 35 ‡ # 5 59 2.7
6–10 percent 100 84 54 # # 8 56 3.0
More than 10 percent 100 83 45 # # ‡ 52 2.9
                 
Prevalence of violent incidents4,10                
No violent incidents 95 77 38 # # 3 49 2.6
Any violent incidents 98 78 35 ‡ ‡ 4 63 2.8
# 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.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.

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