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Table 24.  Percentage of public high schools that drilled students on a written plan for at least one crisis situation, and the percentage of schools that drilled students on a written plan for a specific crisis situation, by selected school characteristics: School year 2009–10

 
      Percentage of schools that drilled students on specified written crisis plans
School characteristic Percentage of schools that drilled students on a written plan for at least one crisis situation   School Shootings   Natural disasters1   Hostages   Bomb threats or incidents   Chemical, biological, or radiological threats or incidents2  
All public high schools 90.0 57.1 76.3 39.3 60.2 30.8  
   
Enrollment size  
Less than 300 85.0 49.3 69.9 34.3 55.1 24.1  
300–499 85.8 48.2 74.0 29.9 51.3 28.1  
500–999 92.3 56.6 76.9 35.9 62.2 26.5  
1,000 or more 92.3 63.6 79.3 46.4 64.3 36.7  
   
Urbanicity  
City 87.6 56.4 74.7 42.7 61.0 38.8  
Suburb 90.0 63.5 75.3 43.0 65.9 33.8  
Town 89.7 55.3 76.0 34.8 51.1 24.1  
Rural 92.0 53.3 78.3 36.0 59.9 25.7  
                         
Crime level where students live3                        
High 82.6 50.1 63.3 38.8 55.8 37.4  
Moderate 91.3 57.9 77.9 37.7 63.8 30.7  
Low 91.0 58.0 77.9 40.0 59.5 29.4  
Mixed 89.2 56.5 75.8 38.9 61.1 31.8  
                         
Percent of combined Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native students                         
Less than 5 percent 93.7 53.4 83.3 33.3 53.5 27.5  
5 to less than 20 percent 84.7 58.4 71.0 38.5 56.7 26.4  
20 to less than 50 percent 91.7 60.4 78.5 41.6 66.8 31.8  
50 percent or more 90.9 55.4 75.2 41.0 61.3 34.8  
                         
Percent of students eligible for
free or reduced-price lunch
                       
0–20 percent 88.1 57.5 72.1 43.5 59.9 29.6  
21–50 percent 91.7 59.1 81.7 37.3 57.5 28.9  
More than 50 percent 89.1 54.6 72.4 39.3 63.4 33.4  
                         
Percent of students below 15th
percentile on standardized tests
                       
0–5 percent 88.9 60.4 72.2 41.1 61.5 32.3  
6–15 percent 92.2 56.4 79.6 37.1 57.1 28.3  
More than 15 percent 88.1 53.6 76.8 40.0 63.2 32.4  
                         
Percent of students likely
to attend college
                       
0–35 percent 90.4 51.7 76.9 30.5 63.6 31.4  
36–60 percent 90.6 50.8 76.5 37.9 57.1 28.3  
More than 60 percent 89.6   61.6   76.0   42.7   60.5   31.7  
                         
Percent of students who consider
academic achievement important
                       
0–25 percent 88.2 49.7 74.9 33.3 55.8 29.7  
26–50 percent 92.3 50.3 75.4 30.8 57.9 24.4  
51–75 percent 88.1 53.4 75.6 35.0 63.0 31.9  
More than 75 percent 90.5 63.4 77.3 46.4 60.2 32.9  
   
Percent male enrollment  
0–44 percent 91.2 48.7 77.2 37.0 65.4 32.6  
45–55 percent 91.1 57.8 77.4 38.2 58.7 29.4  
More than 55 percent 78.7 61.2 64.1 51.8 66.8 40.4  
   
Student-to-FTE ratio4  
Less than 12 students 88.0 53.9 67.8 44.1 65.4 28.8  
12–16 students 90.5 56.0 72.2 37.1 58.9 30.4  
More than 16 students 90.2 58.7 81.5 39.5 59.7 31.5  
                         
Number of classroom changes 5                        
0–3 changes 84.4 57.0 71.4 33.9 59.5 35.9  
4–6 changes 89.5 56.3 77.0 40.1 59.9 30.2  
More than 6 changes 91.3 57.8 76.1 39.1 60.7 30.7  
                         
Regular use of law enforcement6                        
Regular use 91.6 58.2 77.2 40.0 63.1 31.8  
No regular use 84.9 53.2 73.1 37.0 50.9 27.4  
                         
Number of serious discipline problems7                        
No problems 89.9 56.3 78.1 39.2 60.7 30.9  
1 problem 89.2 57.5 73.7 39.5 61.4 32.0  
2 problems 92.2 63.4 74.9 43.7 63.9 34.4  
3 or more problems 90.3 57.5 66.5 35.5 49.9 22.9  
   
Transfers as a percentage of enrollment8  
Less than 6 percent 89.3 55.5 78.0 42.3 59.3 30.2  
6 to less than 11 percent 88.5 57.2 73.6 39.6 54.6 32.5  
11 to less than 21 percent 90.8 58.3 78.9 42.1 63.3 31.7  
21 percent or more 91.2 56.8 73.5 31.4 62.8 28.1  
                         
Prevalence of schoolwide
disruptions9
                       
No disruptions 89.5 57.2 76.0 39.5 59.0 30.4  
Any disruptions 96.3   55.6   78.9   36.5   74.0   34.3  
                         
Percent of students
absent on a daily basis 
                       
0–2 percent 96.6 59.5 85.2 41.3 72.3 36.8  
3–5 percent 91.0 59.2 79.7 39.1 56.5 28.7  
6–10 percent 90.6 58.0 75.7 41.2 62.4 32.0  
More than 10 percent 82.4 46.7 64.8 32.1 58.2 29.8  
   
Prevalence of violent
incidents10
 
No violent incidents 86.4 44.1 77.6 34.2 55.5 27.4  
Any violent incidents 90.4   58.4   76.1   39.8   60.7   31.1  
1Examples of natural disasters provided to respondents were earthquakes or tornadoes.
2Examples of chemical, biological, or radiological threats or incidents provided to respondents were the release of mustard gas, anthrax, smallpox, or radioactive materials.
3Respondents were asked, "How would you describe the crime level in the area(s) in which your students live?" Response options included "high level of crime," "moderate level of crime," "low level of crime," and "students come from areas with very different levels of crime."
4Student-to-FTE ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides. The total number of full-time-equivalent teachers and aides is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers and aides, including special education teachers and aides, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
5Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
6Respondents were asked, "During the 2009–10 school year, did you have any security guards, security personnel, or sworn law enforcement officers present at your school at least once a week?"
7Serious discipline problems include student racial/ethnic tensions, student bullying, student sexual harassment of other students, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, student acts of disrespect for teachers other than verbal abuse, gang activities, and cult or extremist group activities. If a respondent 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.
8Transfers 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.
9Schoolwide disruptions include actions that disrupted school activities such as death threats, bomb threats, and chemical, biological, or radiological threats. Respondents were instructed to exclude all fire alarms, including false alarms.
10Violent incidents include rape or attempted 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: Respondents were not asked if they drilled students on the following crisis situations: suicide threat or incident; the U.S. national threat level is changed to red (severe risk of terrorist attack) by the Department of Homeland Security; and pandemic flu. Respondents were included as having drilled students on a written plan for responding to at least one crisis situation if they reported that they drilled students on any of the following: school shootings; natural disasters; hostages; bomb threats or incidents; or chemical, biological, or radiological threats or incidents. Detail may not sum to totals because schools may have reported more than one of the practices. Responses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about crime and safety issues at the school. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2009–10 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS).