Understanding School Safety Trends

Photo by Yuliia Kaveshnikova/Getty Images

Rates of gun violence at schools across the United States reached an all-time high in 2023 of 349 incidents.⁠^[1] Between January 2023 and January 2024, schools around the country experienced more than 750 distinct swatting incidents, in which someone calls police making a false report of violence to trigger a rapid and disruptive police response.⁠^[2] Each incident creates chaos and fear. Schools also face much more-common threats of violence, including bomb threats phoned in to school offices and posts on social media warning of an impending attack on a school.⁠^[3]

Although events like these underscore the critical issue of school safety, they do not represent the full picture. Bullying, cyberbullying, mental health crises, and even hate crimes are among the challenges educators and communities face every day.⁠^[4] This report provides a snapshot of what is known—and what the data reveal—about the state of school safety across the United States, according to the results of RAND surveys of thousands of educators who have participated in RAND Survey Panels in recent years.⁠^[5]

Our analysis draws from nationally representative samples of educators surveyed through the American Teacher Panel (ATP) and the American School Leader Panel (ASLP) as part of the RAND American Educator Panels (AEP). The AEP are nationally representative samples of teachers, school leaders, and district leaders across the country. The panels are a proud member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research's Transparency Initiative. In the past three school years (beginning with the 2022–2023 school year), we have surveyed around 1,000 K–12 public school teachers annually about a variety of school safety topics. In addition, in the fall of the 2024–2025 school year, we surveyed nearly 1,000 school principals. RAND Survey Panels have allowed us to ask teachers and administrators at U.S. schools what they think about school safety and understand whether their perceptions have changed over time.

How Safe Do School Staff Feel at Work?

Our surveys offer a look at what teachers and administrators think about their own safety at school and whether they work in schools where they or their colleagues have received threats of violence. The results are somewhat concerning. Slightly more than one in five teachers (21 percent) and 15 percent of principals indicated that they were worried about being attacked or harmed while at school during the 2024–2025 school year. And just over one-quarter of those surveyed work in schools where teachers or administrators have received direct threats of violence in response to decisions made about instruction, academic issues, or school policies.

Teachers and principals are even more worried about their students' safety: During the 2024–2025 school year, almost 50 percent of teachers and principals expressed concern about students being attacked or harmed at their schools. This is a 12–percentage point increase from 2022, when we first asked teachers this question. Educators working in urban schools, large schools, and schools serving primarily students of color all expressed heightened concern about the safety of their students at school.⁠^[6]

What Worries Educators Most?

Bullying and cyberbullying have consistently emerged as educators' top safety concerns in the past three school years (2022–2023, 2023–2024, and 2024–2025) (see Figure 1). Roughly half of surveyed teachers consistently ranked these forms of peer victimization above other safety issues, including weapons, drugs, and violence against teachers. Despite the intense media coverage that active-shooter incidents at schools receive, only 5 to 6 percent of teachers identified active shooters as their largest safety concern.

The y-axis represents the percentage of teacher from 0 to 50. The x-axis covers years 2022, 2023 and 2024. The graph tracks five concerns:

1. Bullying and cyberbullying ranked the highest: 2022=49%, 2023=46%, 2024=49%
2. Student fights: 2022=12%, 2023=13%, 2024=15%
3. Drugs: 2022=11%, 2023=11%, 2024=11%
4. Violence against teachers and other school staff: 2022=6%, 2023=9%, 2024=9%
5. Active shooters ranked the lowest: 2022=5%, 2023=6%, 2024=5%

NOTE: This figure depicts ATP response data from the following survey question: "Which of the following do you think currently poses the largest safety concern at your school?" (n = 973 in fall 2022; n = 1,006 in fall 2023; n = 960 in fall 2024.

Mental health also continues to be a critical factor in school safety. Twenty-eight percent of principals reported that their schools had experienced at least one student or staff suicide in the preceding five years. Concerns about mental health appear more pronounced in secondary schools, which reflects nationwide trends of poor mental health among adolescents.⁠^[7]

Because of the ubiquity of social media use among U.S. youth—mostly teens—social media is also aggravating safety concerns at schools.⁠^[8] Most of the threats that schools received in the past two school years (2023–2024 and 2024–2025) were posted to social media. Middle and high schools were likelier than elementary schools were to be targeted, with 51 percent of middle school principals and 40 percent of high school principals reporting at least one social media threat.

Although rare by comparison, hate crimes have become more reported in schools in recent years. Federal data show that the percentage of schools experiencing hate crimes increased from 1 percent in the 2015–2016 school year to 3.5 percent by the 2021–2022 school year. In fact, K–12 schools are the fourth most common location for such crimes in the United States—more than 2,500 were reported in 2023 alone.⁠^[9] RAND survey data suggest that schools are still experiencing these types of incidents, with secondary schools and those located in suburban areas reporting higher rates of hate crimes than rates in elementary and rural schools.

What Are Schools Doing to Keep Their Communities Safe?

Many schools are relying on physical security measures to keep their campuses and communities safe. According to RAND survey data, nearly all public schools have implemented some form of security infrastructure, such as visitor sign-in systems (used by 98 percent of schools) and procedures to keep exterior doors locked during school hours (adopted by 96 percent) (see Figure 2). Other measures, such as interior door locks, security cameras, and staff ID badges, are also common, according to principals' survey responses.

Level	CCTV, inside or outside buildings	Visitor sign-in and identification procedures	Student and/or staff ID badges	Procedures to keep exterior doors locked during school hours	Locks or other measures for interior doors (including classroom doors)	"Smart badges" or key fobs for staff to unlock doors	Duress alarms or other direct communication links to police	Metal detectors or magnetometers at school entrances
Elementary	77	99	84	97	84	60	52	6
Middle	82	99	87	97	91*	54	59	8
High	82	96	75*	92*	83	52	49	8

NOTE: CCTV = closed-circuit television. This figure depicts ASLP response data from the following survey question: "What physical security measures are in place at your school?" (n = 971). Principals were instructed to select all that apply. An asterisk (*) indicates that the percentage of secondary (middle or high school) principals who indicated that their schools had a specific physical security measure in place is statistically significantly different from the percentage of elementary school principals who responded similarly.

Furthermore, almost three-quarters of schools reported using some kind of security staff, such as school resource officers (SROs) or security guards, to keep their communities safe. Schools are also turning to newer technologies, such as tip lines and software to monitor student activity for threats. In fall 2024, three-quarters of schools around the country maintained tip lines for reporting threats, and two-thirds were using software to scan documents, web searches, or social media activity on school-owned devices, such as laptop computers. Many are also implementing cell phone bans, though mostly to address issues unrelated to school safety.⁠^[10]

Given concerns that some security measures might have unintended, adverse effects on feelings of safety at school or infringe on student privacy and other rights, we also asked educators what they thought about the impact that these measures have on school climate.⁠^[11] The results were largely encouraging: Most principals indicated that the physical security measures in place at their schools were having a positive impact on school climate, even after taking into account such factors as enrollment size, grade level, locale, poverty status, and student racial and ethnic composition. When we asked teachers a similar question in fall 2022, they were a bit more skeptical: Slightly more than half said that physical security measures were having a positive impact on school climate, and 40 percent reported that they had no impact at all.

RAND survey data also suggest that an overwhelming majority of school leaders across the country think that their dedicated security staff—including school police—are having a positive effect on school climate; less than 1 percent said that these staff were negatively affecting school climate. This is an interesting finding in light of the ongoing debate about the merits of having police in schools, and it might actually track with results of surveys of students showing that many think having SROs in schools is a good idea and that they feel comfortable approaching SROs with a problem.⁠^[12]

Looking Ahead

Although improving preparedness for rare but catastrophic events in schools is essential, addressing day-to-day interactions and social dynamics is critical to school safety. The lingering impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on student mental well-being and the evolving challenges fueled by the growing role of technology are critically important concerns for schools.

School safety is a shared responsibility that requires the active participation of educators, families, policymakers, and students. The rise in threats, mental health concerns, and incidents of gun violence underscores the importance of targeted, multifaceted interventions. Despite this concerning trend, there is also room for optimism: The ATP, ASLP, and similarly focused surveys are giving educators the opportunity to identify their most-pressing safety concerns and to express whether they think safety strategies at their schools are working to create safer, more-positive environments. With the availability of more-comprehensive national-level data on school safety issues, stakeholders have more tools to develop effective strategies that prioritize student and staff well-being. Achieving safe and healthy educational spaces will demand continued partnership and sustained commitment.

Acknowledgments

We are extremely grateful to the educators who have agreed to participate in the panels. Their time and willingness to share their experiences are invaluable for this effort and for helping us understand how to better support their hard work in schools. We thank Lisa Wagner and Brian Kim for assisting with survey management; Gerald P. Hunter and Ruolin Lu for data management; and Tim R. Colvin, Roberto Guevara, and Julie Newell for programming the survey. Thanks also go to Claude Messan Setodji and Dorothy Seaman for producing the sampling and weighting for these analyses. We greatly appreciate the administrative support provided by Tina Petrossian and AEP management provided by David Grant. We also thank Meagan E. Cahill and Aaron C. Davenport for their review and feedback, which helped improve our work. Finally, we are grateful for Cindy Lyons' efforts in overseeing the publication of this report.

Notes

1. David Riedman, "How Many School Shootings? All Incidents from 1966–Present," K–12 School Shooting Database, undated, https://k12ssdb.org/all-shootings. Return to content ⤴
2. K–12 School Shooting Database, "Number of Swatting Hoaxes at Schools from 2023–2024," webpage, undated, https://k12ssdb.org/swatting. Return to content ⤴
3. Pauline Moore, Brian A. Jackson, Jennifer T. Leschitz, Nazia Wolters, Thomas Goode, Melissa Kay Diliberti, and Phoebe Felicia Pham, Developing Practical Responses to Social Media Threats Against K–12 Schools: An Overview of Trends, Challenges, and Current Approaches, RAND Corporation, RR-A1077-5, 2024, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1077-5.html. Return to content ⤴
4. SchoolSafety.gov, "Bullying and Cyberbullying," webpage, undated, https://www.schoolsafety.gov/bullying-and-cyberbullying; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Schools," Mental Health Action Guide, December 3, 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/mental-health-action-guide/about/index.html; Jacqueline M. Nowicki, K–12 Education: Students' Experiences with Bullying, Hate Speech, Hate Crimes, and Victimization in Schools—Report to the Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-22-104341, November 2021, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104341. Return to content ⤴
5. RAND Corporation, "RAND Survey Panels," webpage, undated, https://www.rand.org/education-employment-infrastructure/survey-panels.html. Return to content ⤴
6. The National Center for Education Statistics categorizes a school in which more than half of students are Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, or of two or more races as having majority students of color; the remaining schools are categorized as having majority White students. Return to content ⤴
7. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "Mental Health," webpage, November 29, 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-youth/mental-health/index.html. Return to content ⤴
8. Michelle Faverio and Olivia Sidoti, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024, Pew Research Center, December 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/12/12/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024/. Return to content ⤴
9. U.S. Department of Justice, "FBI Releases 2024 Hate Crime Statistics," webpage, updated August 11, 2025, https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/hate-crime-statistics. Return to content ⤴
10. Melissa Kay Diliberti, Heather L. Schwartz, Pauline Moore, and Brian A. Jackson, Principals See Many Benefits of Cell Phone Policies, but Youth Remain Skeptical: Selected Findings from the American School Leader Panel and the American Youth Panel, RAND Corporation, RR-A3988-2, forthcoming. Return to content ⤴
11. Kim Nguyen, Yue Yuan, and Susan McNeeley, "School Security Measures, School Environment, and Avoidance Behaviors," Victims and Offenders, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2020, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15564886.2019.1679307; Mark Keierleber, "Exclusive Data: An Inside Look at the Spy Tech That Followed Kids Home for Remote Learning—and Now Won't Leave," The 74, September 14, 2021, https://www.the74million.org/article/gaggle-spy-tech-minneapolis-students-remote-learning/. Return to content ⤴
12. Eesha Pendharkar, "Advocates Agree: Police Shouldn't Handle Routine Discipline in Schools," Education Week, June 29, 2023, https://www.edweek.org/leadership/advocates-agree-police-shouldnt-handle-routine-discipline-in-schools/2023/06; Michelle Jancaric, Patricia Jewett, and Iris W. Borowsky, "Students' Perspectives and Utilization of School Resource Officers After Experiences with School Discipline or Law Enforcement," Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 61, No. 11, November 2024, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pits.23280. Return to content ⤴

Topics

• Child Well-Being
• Educator Well-Being
• Elementary Education
• School Safety
• Title I (Elementary and Secondary Education Act)