Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the heads of the sponsoring agencies, Mark Schneider of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Jeffrey L. Sedgwick of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), for supporting this report.

From NCES, we wish to thank Kathryn Chandler, Val Plisko, Marilyn Seastrom, and Bruce Taylor, who served as reviewers. They all provided input that substantially improved the publication. From BJS, we wish to thank Katrina Baum, Allen Beck, Doris James, and Michael Rand who served as reviewers and Patsy Klaus and Erika Harrell who verified data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Outside of NCES and BJS, Nancy Brener, Mark Anderson, Jeffrey Hall, and Latasha Butler of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generously provided data and performed a review of data documentation. We also value the review of this report and the continued support provided by Bill Modzeleski and Deborah Rudy of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

Several staff members at the Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI) contributed to this report. ESSI is funded by NCES and composed of staff from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and a number of partner organizations. Mary Ann Fox of ESSIAIR provided overall guidance, research support, and statistical analysis. Elizabeth Jacinto (ESSI-AIR), Qingshu Xie (ESSI-Macrosys), and Paul Guerino (ESSI-AIR) gave programming and data support. Lauren Drake (ESSI-MacroSys), Jana Kemp (ESSI-Child Trends), and Kevin Bianco (ESSI-Macrosys) provided research and formatting support. Tom Nachazel (ESSI-AIR) copyedited updates to this year's report. Barbara Kridl, Natesh Daniel, Alicia Broadway, and Patricia Gildersleeve of MPR Associates worked on the cover design and report layout.

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007 has received extensive reviews by several people, both within and outside of the Department of Education. We would like to thank them for their time and expert advice: Kristin Flanagan and Sandy Eyster, both of ESSI-AIR; Alexandra Henning of ESSI-Quality Information Partners; Xiaolie Wang of ESSI-National Institute of Statistical Sciences; Shijie Chen of ESSI-Research Triangle Institute; Siri Warkentien of ESSI-Child Trends; and Kevin Bromer and Hannah Dodd of ESSI-AIR.