This guide from the National Gang Center is designed to provide schools and law enforcement with sound practices and collaborative techniques to identify, assess, and address gang activity in the school setting. [The National Gang Center (NGC) is managed by the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR).]

School safety is a priority for school administrators and policy makers as they seek strategies to provide an environment conducive to learning. Beyond preventing crime, schools must contend with social disturbances that may not rise to the level of criminal activity, but can negatively affect students, teachers, and the school environment. One…

In addition to the potential loss of life, school shootings can evoke feelings of profound fear and anxiety that disturb a community's sense of safety and security. Questions have been raised about whether schools' approaches to addressing student behavior are a factor in school shootings. These approaches include discipline that removes the…

Gang affiliation is not something that students leave behind when they come to school. Gang members do not leave their behaviors, attitudes, and conflicts outside the school environment. Gangs, unchecked and unidentified in a school setting, often engage in threat and intimidation; physical and cyber bullying; fighting; recruiting; and criminal…

Violence is a problem that affects the family structure, schools, and communities. Although some violence takes place behind closed doors, the effects are devastating to society and the community. The overwhelming results are seen with the increase of visits to abuse shelters and emergency rooms. Domestic violence in households tends to continue…

Teaching in a democracy is challenging and filled with dilemmas that have no easy answers. For example, how do educators meet their responsibilities of teaching civic norms and dispositions while remaining nonpartisan? "Democratic Discord in Schools" features eight normative cases of complex dilemmas drawn from real events designed to…

Austin Community Collaboration to Enhance Student Success (ACCESS) funded prevention and intervention efforts to law-enforcement gang suppression work. Since 2007-2008, students' reports of gang activity at both middle schools and high schools have declined, reversing a trend of increased reports of gang activity in the years preceding the…

This report presents information reported by New Jersey public schools on incidents of violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse offenses. It also includes information on harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB) for the 2013-14 school year. The information is presented annually by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) to the…

The Commissioner's annual report provides the Governor and Legislature with information reported by school districts concerning incidents of serious student misconduct grouped into the following five major reporting categories: violence; vandalism; harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB); weapons; and substance abuse. An analysis of trends…

This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2007-08 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2008). SSOCS provides information about school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools by asking school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and…

A report issued by the U.S. Department of Education (Chandler et al., 1998) analyzed the findings of the 1989 and 1995 School Crime Supplements to the National Crime Victim Survey, each of which was distributed to approximately 10,000 students. Findings of these surveys and other data sources show that gangs are very prevalent in schools, with 37%…

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.

This publication identifies five levels of gang activity in middle and high schools and presents corresponding strategies for dealing with troublesome situations. The five levels of involvement include: (1) no known gang activity; (2) limited gang activity; (3) emerging gang activity; (4) community in crisis; and (5) gang-controlled community. A…

This article offers suggestions to school boards for conducting school-security assessments and for developing a policy on school safety. It first describes the five major threats to safety: an increase in general youth violence, gangs, drugs, weapons, and outside offenders. School boards should establish policy that recognizes school safety as a…

This document presents public testimony given at the town hall meeting held by California State Senator Teresa P. Hughes in Hawthorne, California in the state's 25th senatorial district on September 23, 1996. The meeting examined school safety programs that had been successful. A panel of elected officials, policy makers, researchers, and…