The authors wish to thank the heads of the sponsoring agencies, Val Plisko of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Lawrence Greenfeld of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), for supporting this report. From BJS, we wish to thank Cathy Maston of the Victimization Statistics Branch for her work in verifying data from the NCVS and Tom Hester for his continued contribution to the report. From NCES, we wish to thank Bruce Taylor, Shelley Burns, Marilyn Seastrom, and Kathryn Chandler, who served as reviewers. They all provided input that substantially improved the publication. Outside of NCES and BJS, Mark Anderson, Nancy Brener, and Dionne White of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generously provided and verified data and performed reviews of data documentation. We also value the review of this report and the continued support provided by Bill Modzeleski of the Office of Safe and Drug-free Schools (OSDFS). Kristen Hayes and Maria Worthen of the OSDFS provided valuable comments and continue to be supportive of this report. Reviews from various offices in the Department of Education were provided by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, the Office of Special Education Programs, the Office for Civil Rights, the Policy and Program Studies Service, the Office of the Deputy Secretary, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

In addition, school crime experts who reviewed the report were Allison Payne of the College of New Jersey and Richard Lawrence of St. Cloud State University. Their advice was gratefully accepted. We particularly appreciated their willingness to review the report under very strict time constraints. Without the assistance of the following staff at the Education Statistics Services Institute and MPR Associates, this report could not have been produced: Margaret Noonan, Sandy Eyster, Barbara Kridl, Wes Nations, Francesca Tussing, Andrea Livingston, and Leslie Retallick. They provided invaluable analytical, editorial, graphic, and production assistance.