In 2022, there were 4 active shooter incidents documented at elementary and secondary schools. These resulted in 52 casualties, which was the second highest number in any year since 2000, following 2018 (81 casualties). Also, during the 2021–22 school year, public schools reported 10 firearm possessions per 100,000 students from prekindergarten through grade 12, which was higher than in any school year over the previous decade (ranging from 2 to 7 possessions per 100,000 students).
Yet the proportion of students ages 12–18 who reported being bullied during school was lower in 2021–22 than in 2010–11 (19 vs. 28 percent). The proportion of high school students who were in a physical fight on school property also decreased, from 12 percent in 2011 to 6 percent in 2021.
Those stats come from the Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2023, released this week by The Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics. The report summarizes statistics about crime and safety in schools, including findings on active shooter incidents and deaths, student victimization, bullying, students carrying weapons, mental health services offered in schools, safety and security measures, and on-campus criminal incidents at postsecondary institutions, including hate crimes.
This year’s report draws on the most recent national data available at the time the report was produced, which for most findings is data from 2021 or 2022, the first year back at school after the pandemic shutdown.
During the first year of the pandemic, when many children were learning remotely from home, the criminal victimization rate decreased at schools. Then there was an uptick. “The latest available data show that criminal victimization of 12- to 18-year-olds increased in schools in 2022. Similarly, the crime rate on college campuses increased in 2021,” said NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr. “However, neither rate exceeded 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Compared to a decade before, the total criminal victimization rate at schools remained lower, with some exceptions for specific types of crimes such as forcible sex offenses on college campuses.”
At the postsecondary level too, crimes were generally less prevalent in 2021 than a decade earlier.
Along with the lower school crime came a slight drop in mental-health services. But supports increased in other ways. In the 2021-22 school year, 49% of public schools provided mental-health services to students, down from 55% in 2019. But 90% of public schools reported providing increased social and emotional supports for students in 2021–22; 8 percent also reported doing for staff.
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