Table 31. Percentage of public high schools reporting that their efforts to reduce or prevent crime at school were limited in a major or minor way due to specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: School year 2009

Crime and Safety Surveys

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Table 31. Percentage of public high schools reporting that their efforts to reduce or prevent crime at school were limited in a major or minor way due to specified non-school-level factors, by selected school characteristics: School year 2009–10


School characteristic	Inadequate funds	Fear of district or state reprisal		Federal, state, or district policies on disciplining special education students¹	Federal policies on discipline and safety other than those for special education students¹		State or district policies on discipline and safety other than those for special education students¹
All public high schools	70.3	20.5		58.5	36.7		38.4

Enrollment size
Less than 300	64.8	17.9		41.5	27.2		28.5
300–499	72.7	21.0		54.9	36.4		37.8
500–999	74.9	17.5		62.7	38.9		41.0
1,000 or more	69.4	23.1		64.6	39.5		41.3

Urbanicity
City	74.8	27.9		65.8	45.7		46.3
Suburb	67.0	15.8		60.1	35.5		35.9
Town	73.2	18.8		55.8	33.4		37.0
Rural	68.2	19.5		53.2	32.5		35.0

Crime level where students live²
High	74.9	31.3		72.6	53.6		51.7
Moderate	76.4	32.2		68.3	46.6		44.8
Low	67.7	17.0		54.4	34.1		36.9
Mixed	70.2	13.3		53.9	25.0		28.8

Percent of combined Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and American Indian/ Alaska Native students
Less than 5 percent	75.4	19.8		59.4	39.8		38.2
5 to less than 20 percent	71.5	12.9		56.2	33.2		33.5
20 to less than 50 percent	66.4	19.5		55.6	29.7		34.5
50 percent or more	69.9	27.3		62.0	42.7		44.9

Percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch
0–20 percent	68.0	14.8		52.4	32.0		31.4
21–50 percent	71.2	17.8		60.1	38.0		40.5
More than 50 percent	70.6	26.5		59.9	37.6		39.7

Percent of students below 15th percentile on standardized tests
0–5 percent	68.4	18.9		51.3	29.7		31.4
6–15 percent	70.4	17.4		62.1	36.9		37.4
More than 15 percent	72.8	27.4		62.9	45.6		49.1

Percent of students likely to attend college
0–35 percent	77.2	23.8		55.4	41.1		40.8
36–60 percent	72.5	26.3		67.0	40.9		42.5
More than 60 percent	67.2	16.8		55.7	33.3		35.7

Percent of students who consider academic achievement important
0–25 percent	75.0	16.7	!	66.0	47.6		48.7
26–50 percent	70.6	26.0		58.7	42.0		42.1
51–75 percent	72.6	20.1		60.0	35.9		36.8
More than 75 percent	68.1	19.1		56.3	33.2		36.1

Percent male enrollment
0–44 percent	60.5	22.6		53.4	33.4		39.1
45–55 percent	70.4	20.9		59.7	36.0		37.5
More than 55 percent	82.8	14.1	!	54.7	47.4		45.1

Student-to-FTE ratio^³
Less than 12 students	56.6	13.5		45.6	27.8		27.6
12–16 students	71.4	24.7		61.8	40.1		40.5
More than 16 students	73.4	19.4		59.8	36.7		39.9

Number of classroom changes⁴
0–3 changes	82.8	11.8	!	57.7	38.0		44.4
4–6 changes	71.7	20.6		57.5	37.8		39.5
More than 6 changes	67.4	21.5		59.7	35.4		36.4

Regular use of law enforcement⁵
Regular use	70.9	22.8		59.9	38.6		41.0
No regular use	68.6	13.2		54.2	30.5		29.9

Number of serious discipline problems⁶
No problems	65.1	14.1		50.6	29.8		30.9
1 problem	77.7	25.4		71.1	47.4		49.8
2 problems	83.5	47.2		78.2	54.1		58.5
3 or more problems	89.2	42.5		83.5	57.9		60.8

Transfers as a percentage of enrollment⁷
Less than 6 percent	67.2	15.4		51.2	35.2		35.7
6 to less than 11 percent	68.4	18.2		52.2	37.0		35.9
11 to less than 21 percent	71.7	22.0		61.7	35.4		35.6
21 percent or more	73.8	26.2		68.5	39.6		48.0

Prevalence of schoolwide disruptions⁸
No disruptions	69.3	21.0		58.0	35.9		38.1
Any disruptions	82.9	15.3		64.3	46.1		41.7

Percent of students absent on a daily basis
0–2 percent	56.7	14.6	!	33.6	22.4		21.2
3–5 percent	68.6	17.9		57.0	34.6		36.4
6–10 percent	71.0	22.1		61.5	36.8		39.0
More than 10 percent	78.3	24.5		62.0	47.7		48.4

Prevalence of violent incidents⁹
No violent incidents	59.7	11.1	!	30.7	20.4	!	21.8	!
Any violent incidents	71.4	21.4		61.3	38.3		40.0
!Interpret data with caution. The standard error for this estimate is from 30 percent to 50 percent of the estimate's value.
¹A special education student was defined for respondents as "a child with a disability, defined as mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities, and who needs special education and related services and receives these under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)."
²Respondents 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."
³Student-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.
⁴Respondents were asked, "How many classroom changes do most students make in a typical day?" Responses exclude morning arrival and afternoon departure.
⁵Respondents 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?"
⁶Serious 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.
⁷Transfers 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.
⁸Schoolwide 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.
⁹Violent 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 asked to rate the level of limitation in their school's efforts to reduce or prevent crime for each factor. Survey response options included "limits in major way," "limits in minor way," or "does not limit." The estimates in this table represent only those schools that reported limitations in a major or minor way. 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).

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