Schools with Violent Incidents and Hate Crimes

Today, the National Center for Education Statistics released a new Data Point, U.S. Public School Students Enrolled in Schools with Violent Incidents and Hate Crimes. This report estimates the number and percentage of U.S. public school students who were enrolled in schools where specific violent incidents and hate crimes occurred during the 2007–08 and 2017–18 school years.

Findings include the following:

• In 2017–18, some 78 percent of U.S. public school students were enrolled in a school where a violent incident occurred.
• Higher percentages of students were enrolled in a school where a threat of physical attack with a weapon (16 percent) or a sexual assault (8 percent) occurred at school in school year 2017–18 than in 2007–08 (11 and 4 percent, respectively).
• In 2017–18, about 4 percent of students were enrolled in a school that had a sworn law enforcement officer present at school at least once a week were in a school where a hate crime occurred, compared with 2 percent of students enrolled in schools without an officer present.

This report draws from the School Survey on Crime and Safety, a nationally representative survey of public schools that collects detailed information from the schools’ perspective on the incidence, frequency, seriousness, and nature of violence affecting students and school personnel, as well as on the practices and programs schools have implemented to promote school safety.