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School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS)

Table 7.  Number and percentage of public elementary schools reporting disruptions for bomb or anthrax threats with the number of incidents reported, by selected school characteristics: 1999–2000


School characteristic Number of schools Percent of schools Number of incidents
All public elementary schools 2,274 5 3,612
       
Enrollment size       
Less than 300  463 4 679
300–499  886 5 1,038
500–999  868 5 1,781
1,000 or more 
       
Urbanicity       
City  936 7 1,296
Urban fringe  304 2 851
Town 
Rural  854 6 1,213
       
Crime level where students live1       
High 
Moderate  542 6 700
Low  1,334 4 2,366
Mixed  263 6 333
       
Percent minority enrollment1       
0–5 percent  668 5 1,478
6–20 percent  497 5 581
21–50 percent  493 5 635
More than 50 percent  617 4 917
       
Percent of students eligible
for free/reduced-price lunch 
     
0–20 percent 
21–50 percent  1,099 7 1,776
More than 50 percent  969 4 1,489
       
Percent of students below 15th
percentile on standardized tests 
     
     
0–5 percent  312 2 693
6–15 percent  1,002 5 1,443
More than 15 percent  960 6 1,476
       
Percent of students likely to attend college       
     
0–35 percent  933 6 1,368
36–60 percent  654 4 950
More than 60 percent  688 5 1,294
       
Percent of students who consider
academic achievement important 
     
     
0–25 percent  262 7 464
26–50 percent  748 7 1,277
51–75 percent  532 3 672
More than 75 percent  733 4 1,199
       
Percent male enrollment       
0–44 percent 
45–55 percent  1,887 5 3,081
More than 55 percent  244 4 244
       
Student/teacher ratio1,2       
Less than 12  867 5 1,406
12–16  588 4 934
More than 16  819 5 1,271
       
Number of classroom changes1       
0–3 changes  1,117 6 1,701
4–6 changes  1,018 4 1,712
More than 6 changes 
       
Use of paid law enforcement3       
Regular use  847 5 1,432
No regular use  1,427 5 2,180
       
Number of serious discipline problems4       
     
No problems  1,413 4 2,149
1 problem  481 5 708
2 problems 
3 or more problems  380 9 614
       
Transfers as percentage of enrollment1,5       
     
0 to 6 percent  352 4 492
6 to 11 percent  596 5 941
11 to 21 percent  257 2 330
21 percent or more  860 6 1,314
       
Percent of students absent without excuses       
     
None 
1–2 percent  1,104 5 1,232
3–5 percent  424 3 882
6–10 percent  511 16 868
More than 10 percent 
       
Prevalence of violent incidents       
No violent incidents  363 2 772
Any violent incidents  1,912 6 2,840
‡ Reporting standards not met.
1 Some schools are omitted from these categories because of missing data on their school characteristics. For this reason, the detailed results do not sum to the totals. See appendix J of 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) Detailed Data Documentation (NCES 2004-307) for further information.
2 Student/teacher ratio was calculated by dividing the total number of students enrolled in the school by the total number of full-time equivalent teachers. The total number of full-time equivalent teachers is a combination of the full-time and part-time teachers, including special education teachers, with an adjustment to compensate for the part-time status.
3 Schools were included as regularly using paid law enforcement if they reported the use of paid law enforcement during any of the following times: at any time during school hours, while students were arriving or leaving, at selected school activities (e.g., athletic and social events, open houses, science fairs), or at any other time that the respondent specified.
4 Serious discipline problems is a count of discipline problems reported by principals. These discipline problems include student racial tensions, student bullying, student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms, and student acts of disrespect for teachers. If a principal reported that any of these problems occurred daily or weekly in their school, each was counted once in the total number of serious discipline problems. Undesirable gang activities and undesirable cult or extremist group activities were also counted once as a problem if the principal reported that these events occurred at all in their school.
5 Transfers as a percentage of enrollment combines the number of students who were transferred to a school and the number of students who were transferred from a school, divided by the total number of students enrolled in the school.
NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. "At school/at your school" was defined for respondents as including activities happening in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses, and at places that are holding school-sponsored events or activities. Respondents were instructed to, unless the survey specified otherwise, only respond for those times that were during normal school hours or when school activities/events were in session. Bomb or anthrax threats were defined for respondents as bomb scares, anthrax scares, or comparable school wide threats (not including fire). Elementary schools are defined as schools in which the lowest grade is not higher than grade 3 and the highest grade is not higher than grade 8.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2000.


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