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Table 35.  Number and percentage of public primary schools reporting the absence of security staff at school at least once a week, by type of security staff and selected school characteristics: School year 2015–16

        No security guards or security personnel1   No school resource officers1   No sworn law enforcement officers1   School does not have any security staff present at least once a week2, 3  
School characteristic   Total Number of schools   Number of schools   Percent of schools   Number of schools   Percent of schools   Number of schools   Percent of schools   Number of
schools
  Percent of
schools
 
All public primary schools   49,100   42,200   86.0   34,100   69.6   44,600   91.0   26,800   54.6  
                                       
Enrollment size                                      
Less than 300   10,300   9,400   91.0   8,400   81.1   9,500   91.9   7,100   69.3  
300–499   18,000   15,700   87.5   12,500   69.5   16,200   90.0   10,000   55.9  
500–999   19,700   16,300   82.7   12,500   63.5   18,000   91.4   9,100   46.3  
1,000 or more   1,000   800   73.6   800   72.5   900   91.4   400 ! 42.0  
                                       
Urbancity                                      
City   14,700   10,700   72.4   11,200   76.2   13,600   92.6   7,600   51.3  
Suburb   17,200   15,500   90.2   11,800   68.5   15,300   89.3   9,700   56.3  
Town   5,600   5,400   95.0   3,300   59.3   4,700   83.2   2,500   44.6  
Rural   11,500   10,700   92.6   7,800   67.8   11,000   95.3   7,000   61.0  
! Interpret data with caution. The standard error for this estimate is from 30 percent to 50 percent of the estimate's value.
1Estimates presented here include both schools that responded "zero" to the number of specified security staff present at their school at least once a week and schools that were not offered the questionnaire item because they reported that their school did not have any security staff present at school at least once a week. Respondents were asked to record both the number of full-time and part-time security staff.
2Estimates presented here include only schools that were not offered the questionnaire items because they reported that their school did not have any security staff present at school at least once a week.
3Security staff includes security guards, security personnel, or sworn law enforcement officers.
NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. "At school" was defined for respondents to include activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that hold school-sponsored events or activities. Primary 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. Responses were provided by the principal or the person most knowledgeable about crime and safety issues at the school.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2015–16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2016.