New Data on Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools

A new National Center for Education Statistics report, Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools in 2019–20: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety, examines a range of issues dealing with school crime and safety, including the frequency of school crime and violence, disciplinary actions, the presence and activities of school security staff, and school practices related to maintaining a safe school environment. Key findings include the following: An estimated 939,000 violent incidents and 487,000 nonviolent incidents occurred in U.S. public schools during the 2019–20 school year. Seventy percent of schools reported having at least one violent incident, and 62 percent reported having at least one nonviolent incident. Fity-two percent of schools had a written plan for procedures in the event of a pandemic disease. Some of the most commonly reported plans were for natural disasters (96 percent), active shooters (96 percent), and bomb threats or incidents (93 percent). About 51 percent of traditional public schools had a school resource officer present at school at least once a week. This percentage was about twice the rate (25 percent) of charter schools. Threat assessment teams were more common in suburban (71 percent) and city (67 percent) schools than in town (57 percent) and rural schools (55 percent). Bullying at school at least once a week was reported at a higher rate for middle schools (25 percent) than for high/secondary schools (16 percent) or elementary schools (11 percent). Cyberbullying at school or away from school at least once a week was reported by 33 percent of middle schools and 29 percent of high/secondary schools. This compared to 7 percent of elementary schools.