Indicators of School Crime and Safety Report Release

WASHINGTON (July 25, 2024) — The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical center within the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), released today the 26th edition of the Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety (ISCS). This report, with contributions from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), presents findings on active shooter incidents and deaths, student victimization, bullying, students carrying weapons, mental health services offered in schools, safety and security measures, and on-campus criminal incidents at postsecondary institutions, including hate crimes. These findings draw on the most recent national data available at the time the report was produced, generally 2021 or 2022.

“This report highlights the complexity of trends in school crime and safety, and provide policymakers, families, educators, and the public at large with useful data about the current challenges faced by the education community,” said NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr. “During the first year of the pandemic, in-person learning was disrupted, and the total criminal victimization rate decreased at schools. Following this decline, the latest available data show that criminal victimization of 12- to 18-year-olds increased in schools in 2022. Similarly, the crime rate on college campuses increased in 2021. However, neither rate exceeded 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Compared to a decade before, the total criminal victimization rate at schools remained lower, with some exceptions for specific types of crimes such as forcible sex offenses on college campuses.”

These indicators, part of NCES’s Condition of Education system, leverage data from various sources, including national surveys of students, teachers, and educational institutions as well as administrative data sources.

Gun Violence in Schools

• From 2000 through 2022, at elementary and secondary schools, there were a total of 50 active shooter incidents, with the annual number ranging from 0 to 6 incidents. In 2022, there were 4 active shooter incidents documented at elementary and secondary schools. These resulted in 52 casualties, which was the second highest number in any year since 2000, following 2018 (81 casualties).

Weapons and Firearms

• The percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported carrying a weapon on school property at least 1 day during the previous 30 days decreased from 5 percent in 2011 to 3 percent in 2021.
• During the 2021–22 school year, public schools reported 10 firearm possessions per 100,000 students from prekindergarten through grade 12, which was higher than in any school year over the previous decade (ranging from 2 to 7 possessions per 100,000 students).
• The percentage of public schools that reported having sworn law enforcement officers who routinely carried a firearm was lower in 2021–22 than in 2019–20 (45 vs. 51 percent).

Nonfatal Student Victimization

Incidents of nonfatal victimization, reports of student bullying, and reports of some unfavorable conditions at school have become less prevalent in elementary and secondary schools:

• At school, the nonfatal criminal victimization rate (including theft and violent victimization) for students ages 12–18 decreased between 2012 and 2022 (from 52 to 22 victimizations per 1,000 students).
• The percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being bullied during school was lower in 2021–22 than in 2010–11 (19 vs. 28 percent).
• Lower percentages of students ages 12–18 in 2021–22 than in 2010–11 reported the following unfavorable conditions at their school: gang presence (6 vs. 18 percent), being called hate-related words (7 vs. 9 percent), or seeing hate-related graffiti (23 vs. 28 percent).
• The percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported having been in a physical fight on school property in the previous 12 months was lower in 2021 than in 2011 (6 vs. 12 percent).

Mental Health

• Lower percentages of public schools in 2021–22 than in 2019–20 provided diagnostic mental health services to evaluate students for mental health disorders (49 vs. 55 percent); and treatment services to students for mental health disorders (38 vs. 42 percent).
• Ninety percent of public schools reported providing increased social and emotional supports for students in 2021–22, and 78 percent reported doing so for staff.

Postsecondary

At the postsecondary level, crimes were generally less prevalent in 2021 than a decade earlier:

• The overall rate of crimes reported on campuses of postsecondary institutions per 10,000 full-time-equivalent students enrolled was 16 percent lower in 2021 (16.9) than in 2011 (20.0) but showed no consistent trend for this period.
• The number of reported on-campus hate crimes was 12 percent lower in 2021 (667 incidents) than in 2011 (761 incidents). In 2021, race, sexual orientation, and religion were the three most commonly reported categories of bias motivating these hate crimes, accounting for 81 percent of all reported hate crimes.
• Despite the lower overall rate of crime in 2021 than in 2011 at the postsecondary level, the rate of forcible sex offenses increased between 2011 and 2021 (from 2.2 to 7.5 per 10,000 students). Forcible sex offenses accounted for 44 percent of all criminal incidents reported on campus in 2021.
• From 2000 through 2022, a total of 18 active shooter incidents were documented at postsecondary institutions, with the annual number ranging from 0 to 2. These incidents resulted in 157 casualties (75 killed and 82 wounded). There were no active shooter incidents documented at postsecondary institutions in 2022.

In addition to today’s release of indicators (linked in the first paragraph above), the summary report includes selected findings from supplemental tables, which are available through the Digest of Education Statistics:

• Table 228.30. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported criminal victimization at school during the previous 6 months, by type of victimization and selected student and school characteristics: Selected years, 1995 through 2022
• Table 228.40. Percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least one time during the previous 12 months, by selected student characteristics: Selected years, 1993 through 2021
• Table 229.30. Percentage of public schools recording incidents of crime at school, number of incidents, and rate per 1,000 students, by type of crime and selected school characteristics: School year 2021–22
• Table 230.20. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported that gangs were present at school during the school year, by selected student and school characteristics: Selected school years, 2000-01 through 2021–22
• Table 230.35. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being called hate-related words at school, by type of hate-related word and selected student and school characteristics: School year 2021–22
• Table 230.70. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being afraid of attack or harm, by location and selected student and school characteristics: Selected school years, 1994–95 through 2021–22
• Table 230.80. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported avoiding one or more places in school or avoiding school activities or classes because of fear of attack or harm, by selected student and school characteristics: Selected school years, 1994–95 through 2021–22
• Table 231.10. Percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported having been in a physical fight at least one time during the previous 12 months, by location and selected student characteristics: Selected years, 1993 through 2021
• Table 233.80. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported various security measures at school: Selected school years, 1998–99 through 2021–22

In all indicators, reference tables are linked at the end in the Supplemental Information section.

The Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety is a compilation of statistical information collected and assembled from other statistical products. For more information on the data sources, please visit https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/sources.

In 2020 and 2021, in particular, schools across the country suspended or modified in-person classes to mitigate the risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic. Students may have spent less time at school and had less in-person interaction with their teachers and other students than in previous years due to these modified procedures. Readers are encouraged to interpret data since 2020 in the context of these pandemic-related modifications.

Active shooter incident: An active shooter incident is an incident in which “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.” Because the situation is active, law enforcement and citizens involved in the incident have the potential to affect the outcome.

Casualties (during active shooter incidents): Casualties include both the number killed and the number wounded. Number of casualties excludes active shooters and may include casualties that occurred as part of the same incident but at different locations.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, is the statistical center of the U.S. Department of Education and the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States and other nations. NCES fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition and progress of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

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The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the independent and nonpartisan statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. Its mission is to provide scientific evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to share this information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public.