17,000 official reports of sex assaults by students over a four-year period

Relying on state education records, supplemented by federal crime data, a yearlong investigation by The Associated Press uncovered roughly 17,000 official reports of sex assaults by students over a four-year period, from fall 2011 to spring 2015.

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Fondling is the most frequent type of sex assault reported at school — nearly 80 percent of all school sexual assault cases between students are incidents of unwanted fondling. The remaining 20 percent are cases of sodomy, other penetration and rape, reports of which spike in the teen years. AP analyzed the most recent publicly available federal crime data.

More than 2,800 cases of sexual assault, involving more than 3,300 victims, were reported at elementary and secondary schools during 2013 and 2014. Victims of sexual assault in school are most often pre-teens or young teens. Boys are more than 40 percent of the youngest victims, but as students age, girls are much more likely to be sexually assaulted at school. AP analyzed the most recent available federal crime data.