Adopting school resource officers (SROs) is a popular response to school shootings. Using the advocacy coalition and multiple streams frameworks, we explore how school districts in one county formed a coalition with the Sheriff's Department, adopting SROs in elementary schools following the Sandy Hook shooting. We describe how this coalition was…

Threat assessment has been proposed as a method for schools to respond to student threats of violence that does not rely on exclusionary discipline practices (e.g., suspension, transfer, expulsion, arrest). The present study compared disciplinary consequences for 657 students in 260 schools using the Comprehensive Student Threat Assessment…

This case study focuses on a 2008 incident where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vans appeared near a K-5 elementary school. It was the first time school personnel experienced the impact of federal immigration agents policing illegality in their school community, and the event set off a chain of decision-making choices as to how…

High profile school shootings have served as pivotal events for developing policies to promote student safety. Although previous studies indicate that exposure to violence is associated with feeling unsafe at school and poorer academic and psychosocial outcomes, research on the relationship between widely publicized acts of school violence and…

This report provides a comprehensive review of the literature on restorative justice in U.S. schools. The review captures key issues, describes models of restorative justice, and summarizes results from studies conducted in the field. The review was conducted on research reports and other relevant literature published, or made publicly available,…

Madison Elementary School, a K-6 school of 335 students in Marshfield, Wisconsin, recognizes the value of student feedback and strives to learn more through monthly student meetings, whole-class sit-downs, and student exit interviews. As the principal of Madison Elementary School, the author meets with a group of students for half an hour during…

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…

Bullying in schools is often discussed, but sexual harassment in schools, and how it differs from bullying is often overlooked. In fact, though, sexual harassment (committed both by fellow students and school personnel) is more common and yet more easily and quickly dismissed by those involved, though its consequences for the victim can be…

Since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting school administrators have been tasked with creating positive education environments while also maximizing the safety of the students and staff. However, limited resources require school administrators to only employ safety policies which are actually effective in reducing crime. In order to help…

Schools in England are legally required to have an anti-bullying policy, but the little research so far suggests that they may lack coverage in important areas. An analysis of 142 school anti-bullying policies, from 115 primary schools and 27 secondary schools in one county was undertaken. A 31-item scoring scheme was devised to assess policy.…

This report summarizes evaluation results for AISD's federally-funded Title IV safe and drug-free schools program activities for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years.