Zero tolerance as an approach to school safety has been around for almost 3 decades. Despite widespread criticisms of zero tolerance policies, few empirical studies have investigated the relationship of zero tolerance with school safety. More generally, the Government Accountability Office report on school shootings noted the need for research on…

School resource officers' (SROs) presence (e.g., engagement in patrol, carrying firearms, etc.) and prevention (e.g., mentoring, teaching) roles have not been distinguished in investigations of SROs' association with student outcomes. A model predicting nonviolent incidents and serious violent incidents reported to police from SRO presence and…

Across time, frameworks for assessing school safety have failed to acknowledge the harm that institutional racism in school inflicts upon Black students. Such frameworks coupled with disparate outcomes resulting from policies meant to increase safety in schools have long begged the questions, "What does school safety look like for Black…

School climate has received considerable attention in the literature and educational policy as a potential target for school improvement and school safety efforts. This paper provides a critical review and synthesis of the literature on school climate, with a particular focus on topics related to measurement, data collection, analysis, as well as…

Nationally, school-based mental health (SBMH) is seen as an avenue to increase access to children's mental health services and promote mental health awareness. The current article describes the implementation of a statewide SBMH program focusing on partnerships between community-based providers and local school systems, with providers embedded…

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school outreach to families about student behavior and its relationship with student school behavior, conduct problems, emotional symptoms, prosocial behavior, as well as school safety. In addition, the role of school implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) was…

Peer bullying occurs frequently among middle school youth, negatively impacting students and the broader school climate. However, during these years there is a gap in translating empirically supported prevention science into school-based practices. This paper describes how the evidence-based Free2B bullying prevention multimedia assembly was…

There are known cultural variations in correlates of and symptoms related to suicide-related thoughts and behaviors; however, the majority of research that informs suicide prevention in school systems has focused on research based on Euro-American/White students. By exploring school-related risk and protective factors in ethnic-racial minoritized…

School psychologists are frequently called upon to assess students who have made verbal or behavioral threats of violence against others, a practice commonly known as threat assessment. One critical issue is whether the outcomes of a threat assessment generate the kind of racial disparities widely observed in school disciplinary practices. In…

Previous research has suggested that school climate is an important predictor of school safety and disorder. This study builds on this line of research by examining racial and ethnic differences in the relationship between school climate and disorder in a sample of high school students. The data for this study came from a larger longitudinal study…

In this commentary, Cornell and Bradshaw report decades of research in school psychology have brought attention to the culture of peer bullying and harassment that was a largely neglected problem in most schools. At the same time, research on the school environment has brought recognition to the importance of a safe and supportive school climate.…

Previous studies have linked teacher burnout with job performance, satisfaction, and retention; however, there has been limited exploration of potential individual and school contextual factors that may influence burnout. The current study examined high school staff members' reports of burnout as they relate to staff demographics and perceptions…

In this article, we report the results from a randomized evaluation of the Safe and Civil Schools (SCS) model for school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. Thirty-two elementary schools in a large urban school district were randomly assigned to an initial training cohort or a wait-list control group. Results suggested that SCS…

The collection of articles in this special issue on relational aggression gives a glimpse into the complex social networks, first, of children's relational aggression and, second, of the collaborators who develop and validate children's prevention programs. The programs described in this special section are among the first to address relational…

This study examined the extent to which three approaches to violence prevention and response were associated with the incidence of school crime and disruption after accounting for the influence of demographic variables. Secondary data analyses were conducted with four subsets of the sample of principals who completed the National Center for…