College of Education

Welcome to School Safety

The Center for School Safety, School Climate and Classroom Management is an interdisciplinary research center that promotes basic and applied research and facilitates educational and outreach efforts. The Center consists of faculty members representing a broad span of academic orientations including education, psychology, law, social work, criminal justice, nursing, and policy development.

The Center, which was initially formed in 2000, is focused on both research and outreach/service projects involving school safety, school violence prevention, school climate, classroom management, and related issues. The Center seeks to provide a structure through which schools and community agencies can learn to anticipate behavioral/violence problems, train educators in classroom and school management and build a curriculum that prepares new educators who are knowledgeable and skilled to deal with such problems.

School Violence Statistics

The 2007 Indicators of School Crime and Safety Report documents the following statistics:

• In the 2005–06 school year, an estimated 54.8 million students were enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 12 (U.S. Department of Education 2007). 

• Preliminary data show that among youth ages 5–18, there were 17 school-associated violent deaths from July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006 (14 homicides and 3 suicides).

• In 2005, among students ages 12–18, there were about 1.5 million victims of nonfatal crimes at school, including 868,100 thefts and 628,200 violent crimes (simple assault and serious violent crime). There is some evidence that student safety has improved. The victimization rate of students ages 12–18 at school declined between 1992 and 2005. However, violence, theft, drugs, and weapons continue to pose problems in schools. During the 2005–06 school year, 86 percent of public schools reported that at least one violent crime, theft, or other crime occurred at their school.

• In 2005, 8 percent of students in grades 9–12 reported being threatened or injured with a weapon in the previous 12 months, and 25 percent reported that drugs were made available to them on school property. In the same year, 28 percent of students ages 12–18 reported having been bullied at school during the previous 6 months.