Provides a user-friendly guide for what to do and how to communicate about the harmful effects of illicit drugs and alcohol to children from elementary through high school. Organized in 6 major sections: 1) How This Book Will Help You? 2) What Substances Do Kids Use? 3) Why Do Kids Use Drugs? 4) How Do I Teach My Child About Drugs? 5) What If I Think My Child is Using Drugs? 6) Resources. 

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Developed for those working in school settings and provides an overview of human trafficking, how it affects schools, tips for identifying victims, and steps for reporting human trafficking.

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Describes a number of landmark reports that contain recommendations for addressing alcohol and other drug use by college students, emphasizing the importance of implementing policies on campus and in surrounding communities to change the culture of student drinking through environmental management and enforcement.

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Provides a blueprint for reducing illicit drug use and its harmful consequences in America that includes effforts to be undertaken by Federal agencies in partnership with state, local, tribal, and international counterparts to prevent illicit drug use in our communities; intervene early
in the health care system; strengthen drug treatment services and support the millions of Americans in recovery; break the cycle of drug use, crime, and incarceration; disrupt domestic drug production and trafficking; strengthen international partnerships; and improve drug-related information systems.

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Helps practitioners conduct fast, effective alcohol screens and interventions with patients, even during brief, acute care visits. Offers empirically derived tools, tips, and resources and outlines different levels of intervention with tips for topics to cover. 

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Describes issues related to alcohol and other drug use among students at the 36 federally recognized Tribal Colleges and Universities in the United States, which enroll approximately 30,000 full-and part-time students.

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Helps program staff identify causes, types, and effects of peer conflict and aggressive behaviors, provides information on how to assess the prevalence of such behaviors, and discusses ways to promote positive peer conflict resolution techniques.

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Discusses, according to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, under what emergency situations it is acceptable, for safety reasons, that a school override the "written consent" requirement.

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Promotes 13 recommendations for a broader approach to student alcohol abuse, reflecting a more complete understanding of how societal conditions drive alcohol use and the magnitude of alcohol-related problems.

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Looks at the effectiveness of specific violence prevention practices in four key areas: parents and families; home visiting; social and conflict resolution skills; and mentoring; documents the science behind each best practice and offers a comprehensive directory of resources for more information about programs that have used these practices.

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Provides guidance on how communities can best address an existing or emerging youth gang problem. 

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Points out that bullying can be verbal (name-calling, teasing), social (spreading rumors, leaving people out on purpose, breaking up friendships), physical (hitting, punching, shoving), and cyberbullying (using the Internet, mobile telephones, or other digital technologies to harm others) and describes prevention interventions.

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Describes how a bystander approach gives community members specific roles that they can use in preventing sexual violence, including naming and stopping situations before they happen, stepping in during an incident, and speaking out against ideas and behaviors that support sexual violence. This approach develops skills to be an effective and supportive ally to survivors after an assault has taken place.

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Discusses the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), which measured the exposure to violence for children across several major categories: conventional crime, child maltreatment, victimization by peers and siblings, sexual victimization, witnessing and indirect victimization (including exposure to community violence and family violence), school violence and threats, and Internet victimization.

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Offers a foundation for understanding child maltreatment and the roles and responsibilities of various practitioners in its prevention, identification, investigation, and treatment.

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Helps school and community leaders, parents, and students develop a strategy to ensure safe schools in their communities with action steps for schools, parents, students, and community and business groups; information briefs on specific issues affecting school safety; and research and evaluation findings, a list of resources, and additional readings. 

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Offers lesson plans to assist young people in, first, understanding the negative impact of homophobia and transphobia on GLBTQ youth and, second, in taking a stand for social justice.

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Presents statistics about the prevalence of dating abuse among adolescents, information on the associated health risks, and issues to consider in helping teens cultivate healthy relationships.

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Provides information on how to identify, respond to, and provide services to drug endangered children; includes a compilation of related resources and a toolkit of promising practices to assist States, local, and tribal governments in identifying, responding to, and providing services for drug endangered children.

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Offers research-based practices designed to assist school communities identify these warning signs early and develop prevention, intervention and crisis response plans.

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Presents findings from a literature review that investigated how underage drinking can affect a youth’s physical, emotional, and neurological health. Discusses the personal, legal, and economic consequences of underage drinking. 

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Summarizes what is known about young people and electronic aggression and discusses the implications of these findings for school staff, educational policy makers, and caregivers.

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Provides an overview of OJJDP’s Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws program, which supports and enhances efforts by States and local jurisdictions to reduce the availability of alcohol to minors. 

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Provides a report of a Roundtable on Community College Health and Safety: Preventing Substance Abuse and Violence where  community college representatives discussed alcohol, other drug, and violence problems at community colleges.

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This reports examines three spheres of action for environmental change: campus task force, campus and community coalition, and associations of higher education officials, especially college presidents.

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This Prevention Update provides alcohol and other drug (AOD) prevention staff and administrators with a quick introduction to the Center's environmental management approach to AOD prevention.

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Reviews and synthesizes information gained from site visits to identify the characteristics that are common to model programs that can be adapted for other campuses. 

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Features the Strengthening Families Program, reflecting research that indicates that the most effective interventions build parent, child, and family skills.

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Describes the federal services, programs, publications, and training sessions that address child sexual exploitation issues, child pornography, child abduction, Internet crime, and missing children cases.

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Describes the experiences of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 model program grantees and includes lessons learned assist campuses develop effective prevention programs.

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Offers brief, practical, and easy-to-read information that is useful in planning and delivering prevention strategies.

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Presents an overview of gang research and programs in the United States and examines how gangs form and why youth join them.

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Provides an overview of the research literature regarding gender-base violence prevention and provides examples from campuses on specific interventions.

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Examines rising trends in girls’ delinquency in the 1990s. 

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Describes how the debate on whether guns should be permitted at colleges and universities has intensified. Dozens of states have considered proposals to lift bans on concealed weapons at colleges and universities, but so far none have been successful. 

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Offers information on what human trafficking is and how it can affect schools.  It also provides a list of indicators one can you use to identify a vicitim of sex trafficking, as well as tips on how to report it.

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Describes research on the nature and extent of mental  and emotional disorders among colleges students and students and gives examples of campus-based programs to integrate mental health and substance abuse services.

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Describes three basic prevention strategies and ways they can be applied in the home, the school, and the community, and offers effective, practical strategies for communities that have decided to take action to prevent underage drinking, especially among children and young adolescents.

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Discusses skills parents and caregivers can use to prevent illicit drug use among teens. Describes problems caused by marijuana, alcohol, and other substances; signs of drug use; and ways to enforce rules, give advice, and deal with teens caught using drugs.

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Discusses skills African American parents and caregivers can use to prevent illicit drug use among teens. Discusses negative effects caused by marijuana, alcohol, and other substances; signs of drug use; and ways to get help from others to keep teens healthy.

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Lists the negative effects of smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, and taking other drugs, especially for teens. Offers a resource guide and suggestions to parents about setting rules geared toward substance abuse prevention and parenting techniques to discourage drug use.

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Includes a complete workshop module, handouts and instructions, as well as real-life scenarios and information about warning signs and symptoms, common myths about teen prescription drug abuse, brochures and sample promotional materials.

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Provides a series of resources for reducing school bus-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities through both behavioral programs and vehicle regulations; offers suggestions for working to educate school bus drivers, students, and other motorists about safe behavior that reduces the risk of being involved in a school bus-related crash.

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Gives tips and checklists to increase awareness and help parents guide their teens to a healthy life. Discusses setting expectations and rules, monitoring teens, and being a good role model to prevent problems such as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use.

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Describes how using social media technology for alcohol, drug abuse, and violence prevention is a means of communicating in a very different way, which poses a challenge for people in the college prevention field who have relied on one-way social marketing or substance interaction to communicate prevention messages.

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Reports on the prevalence of past year nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers among young adults aged 18 to 25 and how they obtained the prescription pain relievers they used most recently for nonmedical purposes.

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Reviews parental influence on a child’s alcohol use and suggests strategies for parents to employ in helping their children develop healthy attitudes toward drinking while minimizing its risk.

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Explains that, under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act , once a student is 18 years old, rights to view educational records are under the student’s discretion, but identifies special situations when parents may still gain access to records once the student is 18 years old, such as when safety or legal matters are at hand.

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Summarizes results from three large-scale reviews of research on the impact of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on elementary and middle-school students.

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Gives schools, districts, and communities the critical concepts and components of good crisis planning, stimulates thinking about the crisis preparedness process, and provides examples of promising practices.

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Examines in detail the epidemiology, health effects, and causes of tobacco use among youth ages 12 through 17 and young adults ages 18 through 25. Also highlights the efficacy of strategies to prevent young people from using tobacco. Has an accompanying consumer booklet with practical steps and information for addressing youth tobacco use and fact sheet that provides an overview of key findings from the report. 

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Reviews the scope of campus violence problems, describes  factors that cause and contribute to violence, outlines a comprehensive approach to reducing violence and promoting safety on campus, and lists specific recommendations

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Provides police with information about bullying in schools and its extent and causes, and enables police help schools avoid strategies that have proved ineffective, helping schools develop strategies that work.

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Describes a number of studies regarding alcohol and other drug use and problems among military students and gives examples of campus-based interventions.

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Offers resources for those working with children in the wake of disaster. Discusses theories of child development as applied to a youth experiencing the fear, anxiety, and trauma of disaster. Offers practical suggestions, case studies, and a resource guide.

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Presents an overview of the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), the most comprehensive nationwide survey to date of the incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to violence. Outlines the survey’s objectives and key features, how exposure to violence was measured, and plans for followup surveys and publications.

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Provides a road map for schools and districts that are launching or adding social, emotional, and academic learning programs and reviews 80 multiyear, sequenced SEL programs designed for use in general education classrooms.

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Helps senior administrators, faculty, staff, students, community leaders, enforcement agencies, and campus and community coalitions in choosing prevention strategies appropriate to their campus and their community to address driving under the influence of alcohol by students of all ages and alcohol use by students under the legal drinking age.

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Provides a comprehensive model that can lead to safer schools and information about technical assistance centers and evidence-based resources that schools can draw upon to develop a comprehensive plan that addresses the particular safety needs of their schools and communities.

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Provides thoughts from an assembled group of prevention education practitioners and experts on the biggest questions facing prevention educators today.

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Presents guidelines for screening and assessing teens for alcohol abuse and drug abuse problems; discusses assessment for referral and treatment, confidentiality laws, screening and assessment in juvenile justice settings, and screening and assessment tools.

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Illustrates the relationship between social and emotional factors and bullying; explains how an SEL framework can be extended to include bullying prevention; and provides suggested resources for doing so.

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Describes ways to promote and sustain statewide and regional initiatives to support college alcohol, other drug, and violence prevention efforts, including the formation of campus and community coalitions with a focus on changing the broader environmental conditions that encourage student substance use.

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Provides examples of student-led crime prevention, outlines its variations, and describes key steps for bringing it to schools.

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Offers resources and practical information about dealing with substance use issues in the school setting, such as ATOD policies and procedures, signs and symptoms of use, Student Assistance Programs, drug testing, early intervention and treatment services, and confidentiality issues.

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Policymakers and other stakeholders can use cost-benefit analysis as an informative tool for decisionmaking for substance abuse prevention. This report reveals the importance of supporting effective prevention programs as part of a comprehensive substance abuse prevention strategy.

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Examines the relationship between suicide and bullying among children and adolescents, with special attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. Also explores strategies for preventing these problems.

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Provides an overview of electronic aggression, any type of harassment or bullying that occurs through e-mail, a chat room, instant messaging, a website (including blogs), or text messaging and provides parents and caregivers with strategies for protecting children from this type of violence.

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Warns parents about the dangers of teens misusing prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs. Lists prevention tips, signs that teens are misusing prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs, and facts about the names and sources of abused drugs.

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Provides critical information and resources to help schools in creating safe and healthy environments for students. It is a publication of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students.

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Introduces a broad range of strategies for addressing alcohol- and other drug-related problems off campus,

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Presents national estimates from a variety of sources on the school environment of adolescents in the areas of health, safety, social support, academics, and civic engagement.

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Details a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may pose a threat of targeted violence in schools; includes suggestions for developing a threat assessment team within a school or school district, steps to take when a threat or other information of concern comes to light, consideration about when to involve law enforcement personnel, issues of information sharing, and ideas for creating safe school climates.

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Provides practical information for parents and students who are coping with the aftermath of a natural disaster, as well as teachers, coaches, school administrators and others who are helping those affected.

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Helps parents and teachers recognize and address problems in children and teens affected by trauma after an act of violence; describes signs of stress reactions that are common in young trauma survivors at different ages, and offers tips on how to help.

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Informs teens about the dangers of drug use, including short- and long-term health risks and ways the drug affects the brain. Details signs of use, statistics about teen use of drug, and answers questions about common myths of drug and use of that drug. Lists slang terms for drug.

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Describes a wide range of measures, including alliances between colleges and universities and law enforcement agencies, to get unruly house parties in student neighborhoods under control.

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Discusses factors in treatment placement; successful treatment components; approaches used in 12-Step programs, therapeutic communities, and family therapy; teens with distinct needs; and legal issues.

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Estimates the costs that are incurred by states as a direct result of underage alcohol consumption.

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Provides a working definition of bullying; reviews it's status as a public health issue and the effect bullying has on mental health. Also provides prevention tips, CDC's approach to bullying prevention, and related resources.

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Presents statistics on consultants (e.g., parent, friend, sibling) that teens talk to about serious problems, including substance use; examines if cigarette, alcohol, and drug use varies with choice of consultant and if the choice varies with age and gender.

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Reviews states' bullying laws and model bullying policies and school districts' bullying policies, using the U.S. Department of Education's guidance document, "Anti-Bullying Policies: Examples of Provisions in State Laws," as an organizing framework for the review.

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Examines the prevalence of research-based drug and violence prevention programs in schools and the programs' implementation fidelity.  

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Reports on the health and well-being of children, as well as the factors in the family environment and aspects of the neighborhood that may support or undermine the health of children and their families based on data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health.

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Argues that successful school violence prevention programs should involve a strategy of understanding where and when violence takes place in a particular school and then developing and implementing safety programs adapted to what is found in that school. Provides instruction on how to collect information on when and where violence occurs and how to use information collected to create a strategic violence prevention plan.

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Suggests monitoring school violence from multiple perspectives, using multiple indicators, and comparing the results of national, regional, and state level studies in order to empower decision makers at each of these levels to provide the best solutions to school violence based on a picture showing, in full perspective, what the biggest problem areas are. 

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Identifies the need for monitoring systems of school violence at the national, district, and school level who’s data can be gathered together and compared in order to make decisions on dealing with school violence that are based on both a global perspective and on the needs of independent cases.

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Examines variables that explain how, while typically the level of safety within a school is a reflection of the level of safety in that school's surrounding community, there are some outlier schools with levels of safety that do not correlate with that of the community.

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Determines that school violence often occurs when there is a lack of adult supervision and explores what feasible adaptations could be made to lower school violence rates in light of these findings.

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Provides a summary of the research and research to practice strategies regarding bullying, as well as current research updates and many resources for parents, teachers, and students.

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Provides estimates of criminal incidents that occur at school based on incident-level data obtained from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the nation’s primary source of information on criminal victimization and criminal incidents in the United States.

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Compares teen treatment admissions with co-occurring disorders to those adolescent admissions with a substance abuse problem only; examines gender, race or ethnicity, referral source, primary substance of abuse, service setting, and education.

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Focuses on the association between age at first use of marijuana and past-year serious mental illness (SMI) and includes statistics on lifetime marijuana use, age at first use of marijuana, past-year SMI, and age at first use of marijuana and past-year SMI.

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Presents 41 key indicators in seven domains: family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.

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Presents detailed information on the welfare of children and families including such topics as family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. 

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Provides annual updates on the well-being of children and families in the United States across a range of domains.

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Summarizes studies exploring the connections between bullying in schools, school attendance and engagement, and academic achievement.

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Presents the survey results from the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) regarding authorities' knowledge of victimization incidents involving children and youth, particularly police, school, and medical authorities.

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Explores results from the NatSCEV, the most comprehensive nationwide survey to date of the incidence and prevalence of children’s exposure to violence across all ages, settings, and timeframes, regarding exposure to family violence among children in the United States, including exposure to intimate partner violence, assaults by parents on siblings of children surveyed, and other assaults involving teen and adult household members. Also discusses the implications of the survey data for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

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Examines the prevalence and overlap of substance-related behaviors among youth, making comparisons based on age group, gender, and race/ethnicity. 

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Describes preliminary findings from a three-year study on college alcohol and drug prevention systems by researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Alcohol Epidemiology Program that found that 42 percent of administrators at 106 two-year community and technical colleges across the nation rated student drinking as a “major or moderate problem.”

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Provides data and reports produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on the topic of school crime and safety, organized by survey respondent.

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Presents national-level information about crime and safety in U.S. public schools as reported by school principals, including the frequency of criminal incidents at school, the use of disciplinary actions, and efforts to prevent and reduce crime at school.

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Presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2009–10 School Survey on Crime and Safety. Survey asks public school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and thefts, in their schools; and asks about school programs, disciplinary actions, and the policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools.

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Employs a multi-level experiment to provide high-quality scientific evidence concerning the effectiveness of targeting a young, universal primary prevention audience with classroom-based curricula and school-level interventions around reducing peer-to-peer harassment and dating violence.

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Examines youths' (ages 12-17) past-year major depressive episodes (MDE), past year initiation of alcohol and illicit drug use, and the association between MDE and the initiation of alcohol or other drug use.

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Describes trends in illicit drug use among college students, which has been on the decline for the past 30 years, with some exceptions.

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Summarizes the data, to highlight the research gaps, and to suggest future topics for research to better understand the growing problem of electronic media and youth violence.

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Summarizes results of a 5-year study of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program, revealing that G.R.E.A.T. has modest positive effects on adolescents' attitudes and delinquency risk factors but no effects on their involvement in gangs and actual delinquent behaviors.
 

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Presents findings from an independent evaluation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) Gang Reduction Program—a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to gang reduction.

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Presents an overview of gang research and programs in the United States and examines how gangs form and why youth join them.

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Looks at the factors that lead youth who have committed serious offenses to continue or desist from offending, including individual maturation, life changes, and involvement with the criminal justice system.

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Summarizes findings from the 2006 survey and reports data on the number of gangs, gang members, and gang-related crime. Based on survey results, it is estimated that approximately 26,500 gangs and 785,000 gang members were active in the United States in 2006. 

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Reports findings from the 2007 National Youth Gang Survey. Based on survey results, it is estimated that nearly 3,550 jurisdictions across the United States experienced gang activity in 2007. 

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Reports findings from the 2008 National Youth Gang Survey. Based on survey results, it is estimated that more than 3,330 jurisdictions across the United States experienced gang activity in 2008.

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Summarizes findings from the 2009 National Youth Gang Survey (NYGS), a systematic survey of law enforcement agencies across the United States regarding the presence and characteristics of local gang problems; discusses the prevalence of gangs in the U.S., rates of gang activity and gang homicides, and factors that may influence gang violence.

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Examines buffering influences of positive parental relations and positive school climate on mental health outcomes for high school students who are questioning their sexual orientation.

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Summarizes findings from an impact evaluation of a hybrid model violence prevention intervention that combined a curriculum-based program, Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways, and a whole-school approach, Best Behavior, for middle schools.

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Presents analyses of survey data regarding how students experience social and emotional conditions for learning, and the relationship of these conditions to academic outcomes.

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Provides data on crime and safety at school from the perspective of students, teachers, and principals. Provides crime and safety information for students’ travel to and from school. Highlights the most current detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools and school environments and responses to violence and crime at school. 

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Provides the most current detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools, examining crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school.

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Provides researchers and prevention specialists with a set of tools to assess violence-related beliefs, behaviors, and influences, as well as to evaluate programs to prevent youth violence.

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Reports on perceptions among youths age 12 to 17 about their parents' approval or disapproval of daily alcohol use, drug use, or cigarette smoking; compares youths' perceptions to their reported substance use; and gives statistics on age, race and ethnicity, and gender.

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Explores age and gender trends among adolescents' perceived risk associated with the use of cigarettes, heroin, LSD, cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana.

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Presents the findings of the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), the most comprehensive nationwide survey to date of the incidence and prevalence of children's exposure to violence across all ages, settings, and timeframes. Focuses on polyvictimization, which is defined as having experienced multiple victimization of different kinds, such as sexual abuse, physical abuse, bullying, and exposure to family violence.

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Presents information on drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, as well as drug and alcohol dependence and abuse and treatment, by a variety of demographic, geographic, and other variables, including rates of the behaviors, numbers of persons engaging in these behaviors, and other measures.

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Assesses risk and protective factors associated with gang affiliation among a high-risk youth population to better inform primary prevention strategies.

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Examines the association of school organizational characteristics with school crime and disorder in a nationally representative sample of 254 secondary schools.

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Explores the association between two dimensions of school connectedness – perceived teacher support and social belonging – and participation in adolescent health-risk behaviors.

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Examines the percentage of teens age 12 to 17 who begin using alcohol, marijuana, or cigarettes each month.

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Evaluates the effectiveness of a multi‐level approach (i.e., targeting a young, universal primary prevention audience with classroom‐based curricula and school‐level interventions) to dating violence and harassment (DV/H) prevention programming (in terms of knowledge, attitudes, intended behavior, and behavior of youth participants) for middle school students from a large urban school district.

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Uses data from the 2007 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to show the relationship between bullying and cyber-bullying victimization and other variables of interest such as the reported presence of gangs, guns, drugs, and alcohol at school; select school security measures; student criminal victimization; and personal fear, avoidance behaviors, fighting, and weapon-carrying at school.

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Uses data from the 2009 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to examine student criminal victimization and the characteristics of crime victims and nonvictims. Also provides findings on student reports of the presence of gangs and weapons and the availability of drugs and alcohol at school, student reports of bullying and cyberbullying, and fear and avoidance behaviors of crime victims and nonvictims at school.

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Examines the prevalence and distribution of aggression, victimization, and approval of aggression, both overt (verbally and physically aggressive behavior intended to threaten or harm) and relational (behavior intended to harm someone’s relationships with others).

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Presents some key findings on the link between adolescent substance use and serious offending. Serious/chronic offenders are much more likely than other juvenile offenders to be substance users and have related disorders.

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Provides information on survey responses from youths ages 12 to 17 to questions about whether they had thought seriously about killing themselves or tried to kill themselves during the 12 months before the survey interview.

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Provides a summary of findings from a review of evidence concerning the effectiveness of universal school-based violence prevention programs.

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Provides statistics on teen substance use, drug abuse, and treatment; examines trends regarding cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and nonmedical use of prescription drugs as well as whether adolescents who are addicted to these substances receive treatment.

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Considers how Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), a crime reduction approach that focuses on reducing crime opportunities and on promoting positive social behavior, can be applied to school violence prevention.

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Examines the involvement of girls in violent activity (including whether such activity has increased relative to the increase for boys) and the contexts in which girls engage in violent behavior. 

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Describes key features of the high school alcohol and drug policies in the 100 largest school districts in the United States. 

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Describes trends and patterns in youth violence; data presented can be used by public health officials, researchers, practitioners and the public to understand and describe the need for prevention programs and policies that address risk and protective factors for youth violence, including policies and programs aimed at promoting prosocial behavior, strengthening families, and creating communities in which youth are safe from violence.

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Helps practitioners conduct fast, effective alcohol screens and interventions with patients, even during brief, acute care visits. Offers empirically derived tools, tips, and resources and outlines different levels of intervention with tips for topics to cover. 

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Offers information on what human trafficking is and how it can affect schools.  It also provides a list of indicators one can you use to identify a vicitim of sex trafficking, as well as tips on how to report it.

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Provides researchers, prevention specialists, and health educators with tools to measure a range of bullying experiences: bully perpetration, bully victimization, bully-victim experiences, and bystander experiences.

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Offers a database of scientifically-proven programs that address a range of issues, including substance abuse, mental health, and education programs.

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Simple, concise tool for schools, families, and communities.

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Searchable database that provides access to all the educational resources relevant to school health that are available from CDC, such as curriculum, factsheets, and teacher instructional materials on various topics like alcoholo and drug abuse, mental health, and nutrition.

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Self-assessment and planning tool that enables a school to identify the strengths and weaknesses of its health and safety policies and programs; develop an action plan for improving student health and safety; and involve teachers, parents, students, and the community in improving school services.  

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Explores how and why support groups work so that students can become engaged and succeed in spite of emotional and social protections not available in classrooms. Includes sample activities.

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Discusses prescription drug abuse among youths and provides prevention resources. Describes the role of the school nurse as a prevention agent in schools and how nurses can work with students to increase their understanding of the dangers and consequences of abusing prescription drugs.

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Demonstrates how Olweus Bullying Prevention, Positive Behavior Intervention Supports, Avid, Second Step, and Steps to Respect can be enhanced by a Connected School approach. Acquaints participants with the Connected School ideas and strategies and how to use these ideas and strategies as a unifying force in implementing best practices for creating and maintaining conditions for learning in their school.

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Presents the importance of sustaining a positive school climate, lists tools and initiatives used by schools to improve school climate, discusses challenges to implementing changes and their possible solutions, and finally, makes recommendations for getting started with program implementation.

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Presents Social Marketing as a way of generating schools’ interest in making school climate improvements and recommends strategies for developing a campaign that is appealing and impactful. Examples are provided.

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Identifies two sources of data on school climate variables: “Civil Rights Data Collection” and “Incident Data”. Describes types of data each source offers and explores their potential uses and applications.

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Suggests future approaches to researching school safety, such as working with attention to understanding school violence in context, understanding the interrelationships among types of violence at school, understanding cross-cultural and within-culture, variability in etiology and prevention of school violence, replicating evidence based practice studies to establish greater external validity, and observing and learning from schools that have independently made marked improvements in school safety.

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Introduces the concept of school climate, providing a description of its variables and a picture of its history. Compares national, regional, and local school climate monitoring in terms of advantages and disadvantages and what types of conclusions can be drawn from each. Presents examples of monitoring from schools in Israel and U.S. Military Schools.

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Proposes a comprehensive study of school violence as it appears in cultures across the globe, suggesting that regions could share with one another their proposed theories on school violence, and, share interventions and policies that have been found effective. Discusses inherent challenges in performing a study of this kind and identifies resources and supports needed to accomplish the objectives of such a study.

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Presents evidence and logic for school climate’s positive correlation with academic achievement. Examines evidence for and describes characteristics of the school climate variables of “Safety”, “Support, Care, and Connections”, “Challenge and Engagement”, and “Social Emotional Competency”.

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Documents descriptions and links to a variety of guides, briefs, tools, and websites by the school climate content areas of programmatic intervention, measures, school climate (engagement, environment, and safety), and special populations.

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Cites programs and measurement resources for the content areas of bullying, challenging behavior, character education, health, school climate, school safety, student engagement, and mental health.

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Houses archive of the event called "Creating a Safe and Respectful Environment on Our Nation's School Buses" organized to bring together national and state leaders, representatives of key education organizations, and other federal agencies who want to improve working conditions for our nation’s school bus drivers, to create a safe and respectful environment on our schools buses, and to generate confidence and partnerships in school with administrators, teachers, parents, students and community members.

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Shares how the Highmark Foundation spearheaded the creation of a coalition of experts to implement the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) in the largest statewide bullying prevention initiative in the country and how other stakeholders around the country can replicate this unique, model program.

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Examines the causes and effects of bullying, suicide, and substance use, prevention techniques and programs, screening, treatment options, and legal and ethical issues surrounding these issues. 

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60-minute, interactive training designed to help educators, youth-serving organizations, and others working with teens understand the risk factors and warning signs associated with teen dating violence.

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Discusses justification for schools’ attention to students’ mental health and why school is an ideal setting for mental health work to take place, presents evidence based programs that can be used to improve school mental health, and provides examples of existing school mental health programs that have found success.

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Promotes the mental health and well being of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Offers resources like fact sheets on mental health care considerations for this population and links to cultural competency information for mental health professionals.

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Represents school psychology and supports school psychologists to enhance the learning and mental health of all children and youth.  Houses resources like professional development tools for school psychologists and tools for addressing behavioral and emotional problems in schools.

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Works from a multi-disciplinary approach on the subjects of violence and facilitates, and, the building of bridges between the research community and practitioners and policy makers.  Offers tools and products related to school climate, bullying prevention, and problem behaviors.

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Empowers schools and social service agencies to address violence and destructive behavior, at the point of school entry and beyond, in order to ensure safety and to facilitate the academic achievement and healthy social development of children and youth. Features a learning center and information about trainings.

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Produces and houses safe school assessments, resources, emergency procedures, and handouts, and oversees safe school funding recipients' work for the state of Kentucky under House Bill 330.

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Combines knowledge of child development, expertise in the full range of child traumatic experiences, and attention to cultural perspectives to serve as a national resource for developing and disseminating evidence-based interventions, trauma-informed services, and public and professional education.  Offers resources such as fact sheets and toolkits tailored to all audience groups.

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Leads nation in helping people keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe from crime.  Produces tools that communities can use to learn crime prevention strategies, engage community members, and coordinate with local agencies.

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Features the latest research about gangs; descriptions of evidence-based, anti-gang programs; and links to tools, databases, and other resources to assist in developing and implementing effective community-based gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies.

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Works to improve societal and community responses to domestic violence and, ultimately, prevent its occurrence.  Offers resources like online publications and links to other key resources.

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Provides school communities and their school safety partners with quality information, resources, consultation, and training services.

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Provides support to schools, families, communities and government organizations throughout the state of NY as  a government coordinating agency and information clearinghouse on school safety.  Houses resources like briefs, factsheets, archived webinars, and newsletters.

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Reduces bias-based bullying and violence in schools and helps schools to better meet the needs of sexual minority youth and children with sexual minority parents/guardians  by providing resources to schools (posters, publications), providing skill-based training for educators (administrators and other professional and paraprofessional staff), and more.  Links to resources such as lesson plans, survey tools, and community based support groups.

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Supports cities in developing, implementing and evaluating effective and sustainable prevention efforts and increases awareness of what is needed to prevent violence in the first place. Offers resources like guidebooks and research summaries to meet these ends.

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Houses free products and tools on topic it calls "Safe, Orderly and Healthy Schools" and serves as a membership organization for teachers, providing members a wealth of resources on teaching, including periodicals and videos.

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Houses a resource library with briefs, tools and more related to the prevention of violence and bullying in school.

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Identifies violence and drug prevention programs that meet a high scientific standard of effectiveness. Serves as a resource for governments, foundations, businesses, and other organizations trying to make informed judgments about their investments in violence and drug prevention programs.

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Provides tools and products as State of California resource center for promoting safety and non-violence in schools.

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Provides information on Building State Capacity for Preventing Youth Substance Use and Violence grants that are awarded to state educational agencies (SEAs) to build and sustain capacity to prevent youth substance use and violence and support collaboration between SEAs and other State agencies that are involved in efforts to prevent these problems.

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Works with children and young people across the UK to stop bullying.  Features downloadable resources like lessons plans and posters.

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Helps students and adults become “upstanders” —people who stand up to bullying and become part of the solution to end harmful harassment, teasing, and violence in our nation's schools.  Links to multiple anti-bullying resources including real stories.

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Creates, disseminates and directly facilitates the implementation of information, educational, and training resources to increase awareness of, and enhance the capacity of individuals and organizations to deal effectively with, the issue of bullying in society.

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Works from a multi-disciplinary approach on the subject of violence and facilitates, and, the building of bridges between the research community and the practitioners and policy makers.  Offers tools and products related to school climate, bullying prevention, and problem behaviors.

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Provides advice and resources to help counter cyber-bullying.  Offers resources such as an information sheet on cyber- bullying.

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Serves as a clearinghouse of information concerning the ways adolescents use and misuse technology geared toward parents, educators, law enforcement officers, counselors, and others who work with youth.  Includes figures, and detailed stories from those who have been directly impacted by online aggression and includes numerous resources to help you prevent and respond to cyberbullying incidents.
 

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Provides tools and products as State of Connecticut Governor's Prevention Partnership, including information on mentoring, violence prevention, bullying prevention, and drug-use prevention.

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Promotes awareness and prevention of cyberbullying and suicide through education. Provides readings  and resources to educate and prevent suicide related to cyberbullying.

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Promotes meaningful student involvement, education and service opportunities in efforts to provide safer environments for youth through dissemination of tools and other resources focusing on the subject.

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Provides age-appropriate resources via an electronic workshop designed for children ages 5-17, parents and guardians, educators, and law enforcement to help teach children how to be safer on- and offline.

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Reduces bias-based bullying and violence in schools to help schools better meet the needs of sexual minority youth and children with sexual minority parents/guardians by providing resources to schools (posters, publications), providing skill-based training for educators (administrators and other professional and paraprofessional staff), and more.  Links to resources such as lesson plans, survey tools, and community based support groups.

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Comprehensive multimedia, multicultural public awareness initiative promoting child and youth safety at the community level focusing on six different child/youth safety issues: Youth in Crisis; Impact of Domestic Violence on Youth; Child Sexual Abuse; Teen Dating Violence; Child Abuse & Neglect in a Southeast Asian Community; and Cell Phone Safety for Ages 8 & up.

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Provides resources to help teens quit smoking.

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Provides resources for individuals, children and adolescents, and researchers and scientists on prevention strategies, health consequences, and rates of abuse.
 

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Seeks to empower all kids to take part in helping to bring an end to bullying.  

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Provides online resources, tips, hotline numbers, and a personal call to action tailored for professionals in various fields who work with children who experience or witness violence. 

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National resource center that seeks to broaden the knowledge of and promote community investment in evidence-based strategies for reducing the impact of children's exposure to violence.

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Information resource of the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services serving FYSB grantees and others working with at-risk youth and families. Offers articles, publications, podcasts and other tools on topics like Cultural Competence, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Questioning Youth, Permanent Connections, Positive Youth Development, Relationship Violence and Sexual Exploitation, Runaway and Homeless Youth, and Well-Being.

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Provides content and interaction which seeks to provide developmentally and culturally-appropriate sexuality education and information that reflects the diversity of people and sexuality.

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Provides resources about suicide prevention, information about a national strategy for suicide prevention, data and trends, and youth-specific information.

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Provides states, providers, communities and the public with the best and most up-to-date information about behavioral health issues and prevention/treatment approaches.

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Takes a public health approach to preventing youth violence before it starts by providing communities with knowledge and resources on a wide range of topics related to youth violence, including definition and causes, prevalence and consequences, prevention, help, and news.

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Describes bullying in language friendly to young people, and includes helpful information for kids and for adults; offers educational, animated "webisodes" featuring characters who are involved in bullying and its prevention for "tweens."  Web site available in Spanish.

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Provides students, schools, and communities with federal funding to implement an enhanced, coordinated, and comprehensive plan of activities and services that focus on promoting healthy childhood development and preventing violence and substance abuse.

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Dedicated to creating long-term funding partnerships to support school safety best practices. Offers webinars and information kits about improving school safety legislation and finding long-term funding solutions.

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Provides information on programs, grants, and policies addressing drug and violence prevention, character and civic education, and physical education.

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Offers a searchable online registry of more than 220 interventions supporting mental health promotion, substance abuse prevention, and mental health and substance abuse treatment. Connects members of the public to intervention developers to learn how to implement these approaches in their communities.

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Offers the latest science-based information about the health effects and consequences of drug abuse and addiction and resources for talking with kids about the impact of drug use on health.

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Serves as a resource for information about substance abuse prevention and addiction treatment. Provides both English- and Spanish-speaking information specialists who are skilled at recommending appropriate publications, posters, and videocassettes; conducting customized searches; providing grant and funding information; and referring people to appropriate organizations.

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Provides information about the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs, which are sustained efforts by parents, schools, community leaders and local, state, and federal governments to improve the health and well-being of children by enabling and encouraging them to walk and bicycle to school.

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Provides information about fostering healthy dating attitudes and relationships to prevent teen dating violence.

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Provides information from the CDC on the topics of injury and violence prevention within topic areas and through publications and other resources.

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Provides information and resources on youth engagement; youth development, mental health, safety, transportation, housing and employment.

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Provides information that can help school leaders plan for any emergency, including natural disasters, violent incidents and terrorist acts.

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Provides grants of up to $100,000 to community coalitions that mobilize their communities to prevent youth alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug, and inhalant abuse by strengthening their coordination and prevention efforts, encouraging citizen participation in substance abuse reduction efforts, and disseminating information about effective programs.

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Serves as a comprehensive teen dating violence prevention initiative based on the current evidence about what works in prevention. Focuses on 11 to 14 year olds in high-risk, urban communities and includes preventive strategies for individuals, peers, families, schools, and neighborhoods.

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Examines the causes and effects of bullying, suicide, and substance use, prevention techniques and programs, screening, treatment options, and legal and ethical issues surrounding these issues. 

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Helps adolescents form healthy relationships to prevent dating abuse before it starts; designed to motivate adolescents to challenge harmful beliefs about dating abuse and take steps to form respectful relationships.

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Researches youth violence prevention approaches, collects and analyzes surveillance data, and fosters relationships with local community partners to help develop, implement, and evaluate promising prevention efforts.

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Delivers science-based facts about how drugs affect the brain and body so that adolescents aged 11 through 15 (as well as their parents and teachers) will be armed with better information to make healthy decisions.
 

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Addresses the most fundamental and essential questions about drug abuse, including tracking emerging drug use trends, understanding how drugs work in the brain and body, developing and testing new drug treatment and prevention approaches, and disseminating findings to the general public and special populations.
 

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High-school students whose schools were ranked lower in terms of socioeducational environment during eighth grade had a slightly greater risk of having depressive symptoms in 10th and 11th grades, a study showed. The influence of school environment was slightly more prominent among teenage girls than boys, researchers reported in the journal Pediatrics. 

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Students in an Indiana elementary school have voluntarily agreed to give up violent video games and other media following concerns that such games could lead students to be desensitized to violence. Parents say they support the change, especially following the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. In four days, officials say families turned in 70 violent games that will be recycled. 

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Data compiled by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is drawing attention to what many experts believe is a growing problem. The NIAAA reports that each year, fellow students who have been drinking assault nearly 700,000 students, 400,000 have unprotected sex while drunk, almost 600,000 are injured, and some 1,825 students die due to alcohol poisoning and alcohol related accidents. Read Story

A group of college presidents is joining forces with mayors around the U.S. to advocate for stricter gun control. Through a new organization called College Presidents for Gun Safety, the school officials are collaborating with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of close to 900 city leaders that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has founded to fight gun violence and elect public officials who consider this a priority. Read Story

Students across the nation have faced detention, lengthy suspensions and even expulsion for making firearms out of Legos or bringing cheap, plastic toy pistols to class. A Montgomery County Public Schools student was even suspended recently for pointing his fingers in the shape of a gun, though the suspension was overturned. With much of the nation caught up in a furious debate over guns and Second Amendment rights in the wake of Newtown, school leaders are struggling to walk the line between prudence and hysterical overreaction. Read Story 

Members of the Baltimore County Council on Monday approved spending $3.7 million on school safety equipment, including cameras, improved electronic entry systems and a new visitor ID system. Under the plan, the county will expand the use of cameras in schools, and the video will stream live to police patrol cars, precincts and command staff at police headquarters. School police officers will get mobile tablets to monitor the footage. Read Story

Education Week has released a report that highlights 16 education leaders implementing creative ideas in their own districts. "Leaders to Learn From" highlights strategies undertaken by leaders regarding school climate, curbing dropouts, improving services for students with special needs and improving parent participation. Among the leaders profiled is St. Paul, Minn., superintendent Valeria Silva, who has made major reforms to the district's approach to English-language learners. Read Story

University of Virginia leaders are pushing campus fraternities and sororities to curb drinking after a rash of alcohol-related emergency room visits during rush week, officials said Thursday. Although the numbers are not out of line with what the school has seen in the past, university officials said they took the potentially life-threatening situations seriously. Read Story

According to the "2012 Freshman Norms report," conducted by UCLA's Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) each year since 1966, only 33 percent of college freshman reported drinking beer in 2012, down from 35.4 percent in 2011 and far lower than the 73.7 percent who were knocking back drinks in 1982, when many of their own parents were in college.  

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There are three cost-effective alternatives to arming classroom teachers, writes Charles J. Russo, an adjunct law professor at the University of Dayton, Ohio. Among the suggestions he offers in this commentary are to strengthen counseling and family programs, develop and practice comprehensive school-safety plans and take measures to secure the school building, such as requiring visitors to check into a central location and reinforcing the windows. Read Story

There are plenty of signs that parents are fearful about violence in our society and how it will impact their children—in school, and beyond. As U.S. lawmakers eye policy changes in the wake of the Newtown tragedy, proposals include arming adults in and around schools, a suggestion that has raised several concerns.

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Seven of eight Ivy League universities — Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard — have all rolled out new alcohol-related policies since last August, with a series of major regulation changes occurring at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Administrators and students said they have noticed a shift away from direct disciplinary approaches toward more creative educational programs, but students at four schools said the recent policies have targeted alcohol usage at the expense of Greek life. Read Story

President Barack Obama's comprehensive plan to help the nation avert gun violence lays out a series of new and reinvigorated federal programs aimed at bolstering districts' emergency preparedness; helping schools hire safety personnel, social workers, and psychologists; and training teachers to better identify students with mental illness.

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According to the latest estimates of the global burden of disease study, alcohol is the leading risk factor in most countries of the Americas Region. Implementing effective alcohol policies that would reduce the burden of non communicable diseases, injuries, underage drinking, at the same time that they would make economic sense, remain both a challenge and a priority. Such policies need also to counter balancing the influence of the alcohol industry, which is rapidly expanding in the Region. Jim Mosher’s presentation will focus on preventing underage drinking: alcohol policies shown to be effective, the alcohol industry’s role and economic stake in the policy debate, and community-based implementation strategies. Participate

In his inaugural address Monday, President Barack Obama highlighted his intention to fund additional training for math and science teachers and focus on school safety during his second term. "Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm," Obama said. Read Story

Students at a Massachusetts high school who are suspected of being intoxicated at school or at school events could be asked to take a breathalyzer test under a policy proposed by the school's principal and in partnership with the police department. Read Story

While President Obama said recently that he would be skeptical that more guns would be an answer to school safety, his administration is considering paying to add police to secure schools. Read Story

Two years after one of its students died after a fraternity drinking ritual, Cornell University has withdrawn its recognition of another fraternity after a pledging episode in which prospective members were said to have been served alcohol and stripped naked. Read Story

Children with autism are experiencing high rates of bullying and face significant emotional consequences as a result, a new study finds. Read Story

NDFW is a health observance week for teens that aims to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. Register for local events, learn how to host or sponsor an event, or take the National Drug IQ Challenge. Learn More

Learn the latest strategies to fight substance abuse and hear from nationally known experts and policymakers. SAMHSA's Prevention Day is Monday, February 4, and is free to the public. Learn More

A supportive environment can promote student achievement, and stress can be a hindrance, research and experience show. Read Story

Students' ability to learn depends not just on the quality of their textbooks and teachers, but also on the comfort and safety they feel at school and the strength of their relationships with adults and peers there. Read Story

New SAMHSA report finds approximately 22 million persons nationwide initiating nonmedical pain reliever use since 2002. Read Story

The STOP Act grants aim to strengthen collaboration among the Federal, state, local, and tribal governments and communities to reduce and prevent alcohol use among youth more effectively. Learn More

Preteens who were asked to do three acts of kindness every week for four weeks were happier and more popular among their classmates, according to a study in the journal PLoS One. The findings suggest that performing "positive acts" could even help fight bullying in school. Read Story

Officials in a Pennsylvania district are working with police to place school resource officers in all buildings. The move comes after the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and also follows what turned out to be an unsubstantiated rumor that a violent incident would take place at a local high school. 

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Stiffer fines went into effect as of Christmas Eve for underage drinking and public drunkenness offenses. Now, the $300 fine that underage drinkers had faced has risen to $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for a second offense, a change made largely because of costly, time-consuming alcohol-fueled crime in State College, home to Penn State University.

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In the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., a school district in Pennsylvania has decided to retool a policy on parents and guardians joining students for lunch during the school day. Previously, parents and guardians were permitted at lunch without the clearance required for school volunteers. Now, however, officials say the revised policy will minimize risk and improve safety for students and staff. Read Story

Almost one-quarter of the nation’s high school seniors say they have smoked marijuana in the past month, according to the 2012 Monitoring the Future Survey.  Read Story

Continued high use of marijuana by the nation's eighth, 10th and 12th graders combined with a drop in perceptions of its potential harms was revealed in this year's Monitoring the Future survey, an annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th–graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. The survey also showed that teens' perception of marijuana's harmfulness is down, which can signal future increases in use.

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In the aftermath of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, several prominent voices, including former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, have argued that allowing teachers and principals to carry firearms could prevent such incidents. But allowing school staff members to carry firearms to defend students and themselves could create safety and logistical problems for school authorities and law-enforcement officers, according to a national group representing police officers assigned to schools.

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School districts are required to have detailed plans for crisis prevention and response, but an often-overlooked element in this planning is addressing what to do in the long-term aftermath of tragedy. After a tragedy, everything is in turmoil; it is not the easiest time to make difficult decisions about moving forward. That’s why some decisions should be thought out in advance, writes Carolyn Lunsford Mears.

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U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been tapped—along with other cabinet officials—to serve on a White House task force that will examine gun violence, mental health services, and other policies related to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

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In the wake of the shootings in Newtown, Conn., the American Federation of School Administrators is calling for a national task force specifically on school safety. The task force, the goals of which were outlined in a press release dated Dec. 18, would focus on standards for establishing best practices in school safety, for implementing those best practices, and for determining what resources are needed to establish them.

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The DeKalb police have issued arrest warrants for 22 students after the fraternity hazing-related death of a freshmen student. The arrests amount to one of the largest numbers of people to be criminally charged in a single college hazing episode, reflecting recent efforts by the police and prosecutors around the country to enforce anti-hazing laws more aggressively. But some experts said the message was unlikely to make a lasting change in college drinking culture. Read Story

Days after the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has vetoed legislation that would have allowed some people to carry concealed weapons in schools, day-care centers and other locations. Under the bill, gun owners with additional training would have been permitted to carry the weapons. Snyder said he vetoed the bill because it did not allow for institutions to opt out and ban weapons from their premises. Read Story

Three days after the deadliest K-12 school shooting in American history, state and district education leaders across the country are reviewing security measures, increasing police presence, and grappling with how to answer students’ questions about the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the Newtown, Conn., district.

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Former special educator Jennifer Cerbasi writes in this commentary that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., highlights the need for more resources devoted to the mental and emotional health of students. Often targeted for budget cuts, all schools need full-time counselors and psychologists, she notes. 

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Best Buddies is a “global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-on-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” according to the organizations website. At Bells Mill it really is a bridge between the general education students and the students with autism. Read Story

Months after sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) such as a concussion, the changes in a child's brain still persist even if the child is symptom-free, according to a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

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Two Chico State health researchers have found that 35 percent of Chico State freshmen are predisposed to binge drinking, which is higher than the national average of 22 percent of college freshmen. Dr. Deborah Stewart, the Student Health Service director, and Trisha Seastrom, the Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center program manager, are working on a preliminary plan to address alcohol issues and other substance abuse concerns on the Chico State campus, Stewart said. Read Story

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will hold a press conference on Wednesday, December 19, to announce the results of its 2012 Monitoring the Future survey. The survey, funded by NIDA -- part of the National Institutes of Health -- tracks annual drug abuse trends of 8th, 10th, and 12th-grade students, including attitudes and perceived risk of specific drugs of abuse. The 2012 MTF survey will include use of “bath salts” among students for the first time.

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A sweeping new study has found evidence that long-term brain damage can occur after playing football for just a few years... in high school.

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In a move that has already sparked discussion among educators and civil rights advocates, North Carolina is set to become the first state to make student cyberbullying against educators a crime. The new law, which took effect on Dec. 1, charges students who harass their teachers or other school employees with a misdemeanor offense, with a maximum penalty of either 60 days in jail or a $1,000 fine.

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New Orleans middle-school students cite symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress at much higher rates than typical teenagers, according to data based on interviews collected by a local non-profit organization. Perhaps not surprising in a city with the highest murder rate in the country, the interviews conducted by the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies also showed the New Orleans children had elevated rates of witnessing violence and feeling concerned about their safety.

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A federal appeals court has upheld a $1 million jury award against a small New York state school district found to be deliberately indifferent to persistent racial harassment of a high school student by his peers. In the 2nd District, President Obama's administration filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that a school district may be found liable under the deliberate indifference standard "where its response to known acts of student-on-student harassment is not reasonably calculated to end persistent racial harassment."

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For students with depression, their condition isn't what may cause poor grades in school, a new study published in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior finds. What hurts these students' grades more than the condition itself are the behavior problems, such as issues with attention, delinquency, and substance abuse, that depressed students may also have, said Jane D. McLeod, the study's lead author and a sociology professor and an associate dean at Indiana University.

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The office for civil rights maintains that minority students are disciplined more harshly and more frequently than other students, "resulting in serious, negative educational consequences, particularly when such students are excluded from school." One analysis of data collected by the agency from the 2009-10 school year found that one in six black students was suspended out of school at least once that school year.

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Local bars in Bowling Green, OH try to regulate the amount of sneak-ins, underage drinking and use of fake IDs by patrons and students. One bar not only checks IDs, it uses a stamp system to prevent underage patrons from drinking.

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On December 5, 2012, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. E.D.T., the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will present “Moving From Awareness to Action in Bullying Prevention: Training Resources for the Field.” During this free, 1-hour Webcast, presenters will discuss how communities can use HRSA’s Bullying Prevention Training Module and Community Action Toolkit in the fight against bullying.

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Bullying in all forms, face-to-face or via technology, is unacceptable, but today's school leaders need to arm themselves with new rules and strategies to address aggressive behaviors that hurt students' well-being, their academic performance, and school climates overall. One 2011 report suggests that many schools are not adequately preparing students to be safe in today's digitally connected age. It cites basic online safety and ethics as two areas in which students need more education.

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Hurricane Sandy devastated communities along the east coast, and kept New Jersey and New York students out of school for a week or more. Families went umpteen days without power or heat. In Belmar, N.J., Belmar Elementary School teachers went door-to-door, offering help to their students victimized by the storm. For those who need shelter and hot food, the teachers were able to bring about 50 students to the still powerless school for lunch -- and reading.

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Successful turnarounds of struggling high schools hinge on fostering environments where teachers and students are supported, and parents and community members are engaged, suggests Charles Payne, a University of Chicago professor and affiliate of the university's Urban Education Institute. "You can create all the pockets of good instruction you want, [but] if the organizational environment doesn't support [the change], it is likely to destroy it," he said. Culture change requires a combination of teacher collaboration, community connections, rigorous instruction, supportive leadership and safe environment, he said.

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College students who drink alcohol before going out to a bar, club or sporting event are more likely than their peers who don’t “pre-drink” to experience blackouts, hangovers, alcohol poisoning or absence from work or school, a new study finds. Pre-drinking also leads to an increased risk of unprotected sex and unplanned drug use or injury, according to the Los Angeles Times. Read Story

The Michigan Department of Education will pilot the "think.respect" campaign in 23 schools, in part, to help support students who may be struggling academically because of other issues. Funded by a $24 million U.S. Department of Education grant, the schools will spend the next three years creating programs to engage parents and students, prevent bullying and support students who exhibit behavioral issues. Read Story

The Affton School District is using the CyberBully Hotline program, an offshoot from SchoolReach, an automated, parental notification system that uses e-mail and telephone calls to notify parents of important announcements or changes in a school's schedule. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. CyberBully also will give the district a variety of bully awareness material, posters with telephone numbers, wallet cards and an online resource center.

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Until now, the response to bullying has varied from school to school, with little direction on how to respond. Jefferson County Public Schools is starting to put into place a standard anti-bullying policy for all of its schools. The new policy defines bullying -- both in-person and online -- and sets up a specific process to report, track and respond to such cases.

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Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found that an increase in suicidal thoughts in adolescents appears to be associated with recent victimization, including by peers, a sexual assault, or other maltreatment. In the study, adolescents who had been victimized by peers were more than twice as likely to contemplate suicide than peers. Sexual assault increased these thoughts by more than 300 percent. And those who researchers defined as maltreated were more than four times as likely to experience "suicidal ideation."

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Researchers have found that children who bully are three times as likely to have mental health problems, like anxiety disorders, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder. The researchers looked at data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, which examined 64,000 children. When asked, over 15 percent of parents or guardians reported that their children were bullies.

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National Character Counts Week, held Oct. 21 to 27, is an opportunity for schools and school districts to focus on the promotion of a positive school culture, K-8 technology teacher Mary Beth Hertz writes in this blog post. She suggests registering on Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics website, which offers resources to help students develop online character and promote anti-bullying efforts.

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Nearly one in 11 high school students have reported experiencing some form of dating violence, according to a national study, and some local officials say they're seeing alarming numbers and evidence of abusive relationships among even younger students. One in six seventh-grade students reported being a victim of physical abuse at the hands of a boyfriend or girlfriend, according to a national study conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for Blue Shield of California.

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Louisiana's new anti-bullying law is drawing criticism for the workload it could place on schools once it takes effect in 2013. Michael Faulk, president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, told the state's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday that implementing the new procedures would create an "administrative nightmare" for public schools.

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Researchers at the Society of Neuroscience conference questioned whether it is safe and fair to allow healthy people to boost their brain function chemically, or use drugs to correct environmental factors like poverty or bad instruction that can lead to brain deficits similar to those that characterize medical conditions like attention-deficit disorders.

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Facebook on Thursday launched a Prevent Bullying page that includes resources on the topic in recognition of National Bullying Awareness Month. The company also is working to raise awareness about and combat bullying by working with the Ad Council to create a new public-service announcement. 

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On October 24, 2012, at 2 p.m. E.D.T., the Federal Partners for Bullying Prevention will host the Webinar, “School-Based Health Professionals Respond to Bullying.” Presenters will offer a clinical and youth perspective on best practices for bullying prevention and responses in school settings.

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The Council of School Attorneys’ (COSA) School Law Practice Seminar, held Oct. 11 to 13 in Santa Fe, N.M., will examine issues related to bullying and harassment, discipline, special education, and employee relations. The COSA program also includes sessions on school safety, student discipline, immigration, employment issues, attorney/board member relationships, internet filtering in schools, intellectual property and confidentiality issues, and technology in the classroom.

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Palo Alto youth are emotionally healthier than they were two years ago, according to newly released data from the California Healthy Kids Survey. The percentage of ninth- and 11th-graders who said they had seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months dropped from 18 percent to 11 percent. Percentages also dropped for ninth- and 11th-graders who reported feeling "so sad and hopeless" for at least two weeks that they stopped doing some of their usual activities.

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Bullying and substance use among children and teenagers have shared risk and protective factors.  Effective prevention efforts minimize these risk factors and maximize protective factors in a child’s life.  If a problem has already surfaced, learn to recognize the warning signs of bullying and being bullied, underage alcohol use, and drug use to intervene before the problem becomes worse.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today that among high school students 16 and older, drinking and driving dropped 54 percent from 1991 to 2011, from 22.3 percent of students reporting they drank and drove in 1991 to 10.3 percent in 2011. Graduated driving license systems that restrict teenagers from full driving privileges for several years may have contributed, the CDC said, as may have rising gas prices and economic downturn, which could have cut the miles teens are driving, especially in the last few years.

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Starting Sept. 1, 2014, all public and private K-12 schools in New Jersey must have automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) on site and in an unlocked location. The law also requires schools to create emergency action plans (EAPs) for responding to sudden cardiac events. Schools must list in their EAPs at least five employees who are currently trained in the use of an AED. They also must specify which employee is responsible for which task in the case of a sudden cardiac event (e.g., calling 911, retrieving the AED, etc.).

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On October 2, 2012, at 2 p.m. E.T., the Defending Childhood initiative, in conjunction with OJJDP and Futures Without Violence, will present the 90-minute Webinar, “Bullying Prevention and Intervention: Realistic Strategies To Protect All Students.” The presenter will share current research on bullying and its relationship to other risk factors and outcomes. Participants will learn about the causes and prevalence of bullying, the differences in bullying among racial and ethnic groups, and strategies for prevention and intervention. 

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The 2012 "Great ShakeOut" will be conducted on October 18. This drill, which can be conducted in as little as 90 seconds, provides a timely and relevant opportunity for the entire community to get prepared, practice what to do to be safe ("Drop, Cover, and Hold On"), and learn what emergency plans need to be improved. Schools, colleges, universities, businesses, organizations, and households will all participate.

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On September 26, 2012, at 2 p.m. E.T., the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will cosponsor a 1-hour Web Forum discussion on best practices for responding to victims of cyberbullying. 

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Children in grades as low as middle school are being told that providing a urine sample is required to play sports or participate in extracurricular activities like drama and choir. Such drug testing at the middle school level is confounding students and stirring objections from parents and proponents of civil liberties.

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On September 27, 2012, at 2 p.m. E.T., Reclaiming Futures will present the free, 1-hour Webinar “Implementing Adolescent Recovery Supports and Developing Resources in Our Communities.” The presenter, Michelle Muffett-Lipinski, who is principal of the Northshore Recovery High School in Beverly, MA, and co-founder of the icanhelp project, will outline successes and challenges in developing recovery programming within schools and communities, describe responses to mental health and substance abuse issues in schools, and discuss approaches to identifying and engaging youth in need of support.

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In the wake of recent weapon-related incidents at Baltimore County schools, new superintendent Dr. Dallas Dance has encouraged better communication with the community and increased community involvement. Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services and “expert” in several federal school safety reviews, urges parents and school administrators to develop an understanding that true safety is proactive and begins with what cannot be seen --  increased communication, planning and relationship with the community.

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After years spent trying to shield students from online bullying by their peers, schools are beginning to crack down on Internet postings that disparage teachers. North Carolina has made it a crime for students to post statements via the Internet that "intimidate or torment" faculty. Students convicted under the law could be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished with fines of as much as $1,000 and/or probation. The move is one of the most aggressive yet by states to police students' online activities.

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Annie E. Casey Foundation, It’s My Community Initiative, The Innovation Center and Child Trends is sponsoring a public forum to interact with what is known about relationship education for vulnerable youth, the benefits of said education given the disruptive relationships many youth in the foster care system have encountered, and the importance of setting an informed agenda for research, policy and practice.

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Learn about Healthy People 2020, bullying among adolescents, bullying prevention and systematic policy changes, and populations at risk.

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Students attending some Fresno County, Calif., schools soon will be able to anonymously report bullying and other crimes by using a smartphone application called TipNow. School employees and parents also will be able to use the app. "One of the key things that drew us to this is often times at school, kids won't come to us face-to-face and say anything for fear of retaliation from whomever is bullying them or giving them some trouble," said Washington Colony Unified Superintendent Craig Bowden. 

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In October, the Office of National Drug Control Policy is celebrating National Substance Abuse Prevention Month by commemorating the first National Above the Influence (ATI) Day. This will be an opportunity for youth and local youth-serving partners to demonstrate the power of staying above the negative influences that can lead to substance use. Instructional webinars will be available for those who want to learn more about ATI Day and what you can do in your community.

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Youth ages 13-18 are encouraged to create a 30-60 second public service announcement as a part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention’s Stop Bullying Video Challenge. Video submissions should showcase ways youth are taking actions against bullying and promoting kindness and respect within their communities. Entries must be received by 11:00PM Eastern Time on October 14, 2012.

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On September 13, 2012, at 2 p.m. E.T., the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, in conjunction with the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention, will present the 90-minute Webinar “Strategies to Ensure a Healthy Adolescence.” Presenters will provide an overview of healthy adolescent development, how to identify and implement protective factors, and the importance of pro-social messaging when creating a positive peer culture.  

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A new survey by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network shows that anti-LGBT language at schools has been decreasing over the years and for the first time in the survey's 12-year history, responses show a significant decrease in victimization based on sexual orientation. The survey results, released today, include responses from about 8,600 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

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An openly gay Indianapolis teenager expelled for bringing a stun gun to school to ward off alleged bullies is suing Indianapolis Public Schools, accusing administrators of failing to stop the “relentless, severe harassment” he faced in school. The suit alleges bullies used homophobic slurs, spat at Young and threw rocks and glass bottles at him, but that school administrators blamed Young, who carried his mother’s purses and wore her jewelry to school.

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This school year is the first that Michigan schools must have anti-bullying policies in place. The Calhoun Intermediate School District, in Marshall, Mich., recently held training seminars on creating bully-free schools by involving the community in the process of prevention.

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In August, about 40 area educators gathered at the Calhoun Area Career Center for a two-day training seminar called “Bully-Free Schools: Circle of Support.” The training called for a “systems change” at schools, involving everyone from superintendents to bus drivers to students, parents and neighbors in a new approach to bullying prevention.

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In its "National Report Card on Protecting Children During Disasters," the Wesport, Conn.-based organization found that 33 states and the District of Columbia do not meet at least one of four disaster-preparedness standards, which include having several different plans in the event of an emergency: for evacuating children during an emergency; for assisting children with disabilities, for reuniting families after a disaster, and multi-hazard plans for K-12 schools.

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A national survey was issued this week highlighting findings that drugs are becoming accessible to teens and high schools more now than even before. Results of the survey showed that nearly nine out of 10 high school students, 86 percent of those surveyed, say that some classmates drink, use drugs and smoke during the school day.

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For the past few years, as businesses associated with medical marijuana have proliferated in Western Washington, federal prosecutors have taken mostly a hands-off approach. On Thursday, however, the feds issued the clearest threat yet to 23 medical-cannabis dispensaries in the region: Shut down or else. The issue was their location, within 1,000 feet of an "educational facility or other prohibited area."

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A jury found that administrators in the Wayne County district were deliberately indifferent to evidence that 8th grade male basketball players were harassing their 7th grade counterparts in the locker room, including "lights out" incidents of gyrating on the younger players, and requiring a blindfolded student to perform sit-ups in which his face came into contact with the bare buttocks of an 8th grader. In the most serious incident, 8th grade players restrained a 7th grader, pulled down his pants, and anally inserted a felt marker.

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An increase in parental involvement at Detroit Public Schools is one of the reasons crime has decreased in those schools, according to Schools Police Chief Roderick Grimes. Independent surveys of 3,144 parents demonstrated that parent engagement in school programs increased by 30 percent from the 2010-11 to the 2011-12 school year, a release from DPS indicates. At the same time, overall on-campus incidents were down 10 percent in the district's schools from the 2010-11 to the 2011-12 school year.

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On August 15, 2012 (2:00 - 3:30pm ET), OJJDP will host This webinar will detail current trends in cyberbullying, particularly on how schools, parents, and communities can all work to help prevent this growing problem, including how to create a supportive environment and how to speak to kids about the impact of cyberbullying.

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A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, while cigarette smoking among American middle and high school students has been declining, the use of cigars is rising among some groups of students. Hiking the price of tobacco products, limiting ads, and media campaigns have worked at getting kids to stop smoking or keep them from starting, the CDC said, and those interventions should continue as part of a national comprehensive anti-tobacco program.

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On August 6–7, 2012, OJJDP will join USED and other partnering agencies to present the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit. The focus of this year’s summit will be on improving coordination of antibullying efforts and basing programs on the best available research. Panels will highlight the connection between bullying and suicide and ways to help students who bully others. 

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As policymakers continue to wrestle with the issue of bullying, there's a new emphasis on getting kids who see bullying happen to speak up. At the third Bullying Prevention Summit here, the nonprofit Ad Council today shared a new public service campaign encouraging parents of children who see their peers being bullied to report it.

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New research suggests that cyberbullying "is a low-prevalence phenomenon, which has not increased over time and has not created many 'new' victims and bullies, that is, children and youth who are not also involved in some form of traditional bullying." Researchers recommend that schools focus on counteracting traditional bullying. His research has found that levels of electronic bullying decline along with traditional bullying in these schools.

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Federal officials are sponsoring a new grant competition designed to promote collaboration between charter schools and traditional public schools that want to work together to improve academic achievement and overall educational services. Department officials say many of the strategies for collaboration, such as coordinating lesson planning for schools with similiar populations, examining how school climate could be improved, or arranging regular meetings to share ideas, won't necessarily cost a lot of money.

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The Allentown, Pa., school district will have to take a number of steps to better prevent and address sexual harassment to resolve a federal investigation into how it handled the sexual assaults by a 5th grade student on 6- and 7-year-old schoolmates. Under a proposed agreement between the district and the U.S. Department of Justice, the district must develop new policies to address sexual harassment, agree to fully investigate alleged incidents of sexual harassment, and hire a consultant to oversee changes in the district.

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Google just launched a set of 10 interactive lessons designed to support teachers in educating students on digital citizenship, including cyberbullying.

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To address the challenges families will face in speaking with their children about this tragedy, National PTA offers several supportive resources to assist parents, families, schools, and PTAs.

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Students with physical and intellectual disabilities were among those who participated in a recent anti-bullying workshop sponsored by a New Jersey organization aimed at disability education and support services. The organization sought to empower all students to understand anti-bullying laws and what they mean, especially students with disabilities who have a higher probability of being bullied.

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The Rochester, N.H., school board has unanimously voted to hire a "student safety and behavior support specialist" to deal with bullying and harassment issues at the district's middle school. According to school principal Valerie McKenney, the bullying specialist will concentrate on the school's "red zone" students -- 40 to 50 students who have been identified as consistently involved in bullying incidents.

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New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a bill into law on Tuesday, requiring schools do more to crack down on cyberbullying. Under the measure, schools are required to take additional steps to monitor and report such incidents. Lawmakers initially considered including harsher penalties punishing those who engage in cyberbullying, but that provision was removed. 

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Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to approve funding for states to further anti-bullying efforts. Under the bill, federal grants would be allowed for programs that "may include research-based bullying prevention, cyberbullying prevention and gang prevention programs, as well as intervention programs regarding bullying." The grants would be part of the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant program, which could distribute $40 million a year for the next five years.

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School districts and charter schools requested almost $5 million in reimbursement for the cost of implementing New Jersey’s new anti-bullying law in 2011-12, data provided by the state Department of Education show. But they will receive only 20 percent of that because the state authorized only $1 million for the program, leaving the law open to another legal challenge as an unfunded state mandate.

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A new study looking at over 800 students ages 9 to 16 from nine different schools finds that bullying experiences vary dramatically between special education and general education students. Using school data on student involvement in bullying situations, researchers found that kids enrolled in special education were more likely to both perpetrate and be victims of bullying. They were also more likely to be sent to the school office for disciplinary problems than those in general education.

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The shocking YouTube video of students verbally abusing monitor Karen Klein highlights how difficult it can be to handle bullying in a place where it often happens: the school bus. The good news is that better training is making its way to thousands of bus drivers and monitors across the country – and school administrators may now be more inclined than ever to take seriously drivers’ reports of bullying against kids and adults.

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A study in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior revealed that teen drinkers were more likely to feel like social outcasts than nondrinkers, particularly in schools with tight cliques and fewer students who abuse alcohol. Researchers also found that loneliness and social isolation were directly tied to poor school performance. 

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Several new smartphone applications are intended to help stop school bullying, including Stop Bullies that allows students to report incidents of bullying anonymously by sending photos, messages and other information to school administrators. Another app, Back Off Bully (BOB), was created by students and offers similar features, along with resources on bullying and a function that allows students to schedule counseling appointments. 

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Self-injury is a common emotional disorder among teens and young adults, and now new research confirms that young children also injure themselves on purpose. In one of the first studies ever to assess self-injury rates among children as young as age 7, close to 7% of 3rd grade girls and 8% of 3rd grade boys said they had self-injured at some point in their lives.

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Student teachers learn a lot about how to teach in college, but they don’t get much training in how to respond to young children’s emotions, such as frustration, anger, and excitement, according to new research. Regulating emotions is important not only for young children, but for their long-term success as they move into higher grades.

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A new Government Accountability Office report about bullying recommends additional action by the U.S. Department of Education and the attorney general, and says more study is needed to determine whether existing laws go far enough in protecting all students from bullying at school.

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Gay and lesbian teenagers across the United States are less likely to be happy, more likely to report harassment and more inclined to experiment with drugs and alcohol than the nation's straight teens, according to a new nationwide survey of more than 10,000 gay and lesbian young people.

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At schools across metro Detroit, students and adults are taking a stand against the serious and often unreported problem of bullying -- efforts that have intensified in the six months since Michigan lawmakers adopted Matt's Safe School Law, which requires anti-bullying policies in every school district and charter school in the state by Wednesday.

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing to reduce the city's after-school enrichment programs in a budget-cutting move designed to save $19 million, or about one-quarter of 1 percent of the total city budget. The programs slated for elimination run from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and serve 27,000 children, most of them from poor or blue-collar families whose parents may not be able to afford other after-school child care. 

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A federal judge in Rome, Georgia, has determined that a high school student who hanged himself in 2009 likely was subjected to severe and pervasive bullying throughout his high school career, but that the school system had responded effectively every time school administrators were alerted that the teen had been bullied.

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A new set of guidelines for school administrators attempts to clarify the distinction between a bully and a student exercising the right of free speech. Produced by the American Jewish Committee and the Religious Freedom Education Project/First Amendment Center, the guidelines state that while students have a right to attend school without feeling threatened, schools should not censor a student's right of free speech unless it is substantially disruptive to the education process. 

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For example, recent studies show that more than 50% of school-bus drivers believe bullying is a serious problem on their bus. First Student, the nation's largest provider of school-bus transportation, launched a "See Something, Do Something" campaign to empower drivers and attendants to establish an environment of respect on the bus, recognize signs of bullying, and take immediate action.

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On May 16th, Search Institute is hosting a webinar featuring resilience and family-based prevention science expert, Dr. Doug Coatsworth. Participants will learn to recognize the difference between “bullying” and “conflict”; understand why raising resilient kids is essential to rising above bullying; and learn how to nurture a child’s resilience characteristics, like empowerment, empathy, and self-control.

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Being left out or bullied is more likely to lead to depression in children with developmental disabilities than any facet of their condition, new research indicates. Accordingly, the researchers said that children who report being bullied or excluded should be carefully observed for signs of depression or other internalizing behaviors.

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Urban youth who have been bullied or bully others may be at increased risk of suicide according to new research.

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Nearly two-thirds of schoolchildren with autism have experienced bullying and those with autism are three times as likely as those without the disorder to have been bullied in the past month, according to a new survey by the Interactive Autism Network. 

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President Barack Obama today endorsed a pair of bills that would protect students who are bullied at school and in some cases, provide for students or their families to collect damages from school districts that don't act swiftly or strongly enough in students' defense.

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While an overwhelming number of elementary school principals believe in the power of recess to improve academic achievement and make students more focused in class, most discipline-related problems happen at school when kids cut loose at recess and lunch, according to surveys. One of the solutions, according to a study released this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: more, and well-trained, staff on the playground.

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Students who bully other students via social-networking websites could be suspended or expelled under legislation passed Monday by lawmakers in California. Lawmakers said the state's previous cyberbullying law -- written in 2006 -- was insufficient to address today's issues, which include students being impersonated online and "burn pages."

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Analyzing new data from the federal Education Department, the American Association of University Women has found that 14 of the 20 largest school districts in the nation reported no incidences of bullying or harassment. They were also asked for the first time about incidents of restraining and secluding students. The Education Department said that any time there are new reporting requirements, there will be imperfect reporting.

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The new documentary film, "Bully," will now be rated PG-13, instead of R, after filmmakers hoping to attract a wider audience lobbied for the change. 

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Thirty-eight states have bullying laws that include a ban on "electronic harassment" in their provisions, and 14 states have laws that expressly prohibit cyberbullying, according to the Cyberbullying Research Center, which tracks such legislation. Some states, such as New Jersey, also have identity-theft laws that have been used in cases involving fake social-networking profiles, and California, New York, and Texas all have laws against cyber or digital impersonation.

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Data on more than 1,400 seventh-graders in a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program showed than 37% of them were victims of psychological dating violence and 15% were physical dating-violence victims. The survey also found 49% reported having been a victim of sexual harassment in the past 6 months.

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The Weinstein Co. is moving past the R rating earned by its documentary "Bully" and plans to release the film unrated. The company announced Monday that "Bully" will hit theaters March 30 without a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, meaning some theaters may choose not to show it.

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The early results from a new survey find that 63 percent of children with autism spectrum disorders have been bullied at some point in their lives, three times as much as their brothers and sisters who don't have the disorders.

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“Cell Phone Smart,” a new public awareness campaign created by I Know Better and the Internet Keep Safe Coalition and funded by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, aims to teach children and youth about cell phone safety and smart cell phone use.

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Psychology of Violence editor Sherry Hamby shares five ways parents intervene to help their teens forge healthy romantic relationships and curb teen dating abuse.

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Middle and high school students who bully their classmates are more likely to use cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana than other students, according to a new study.

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More work needs to be done to keep young Americans from using tobacco, including creating smoking bans and increasing taxes on tobacco products to deter youth, the U.S. Surgeon General's office said in a report released Thursday. The report said it's particularly important to stop young people from using tobacco because those who start smoking as teenagers can increase their chances of long-term addiction.

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After years of accusations that it failed to stop antigay bullying and a spate of student suicides, Minnesota’s largest school district has agreed to sweeping changes designed to prevent harassment based on sexual orientation in a plan that federal officials call a national model.

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Young adults who avoid smoking and heavy drinking, and who eat a healthy diet, exercise and stay lean, reduce their risk of developing heart disease when they reach middle age, a new study indicates.

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Violent crime at the nation's schools is declining, and students and schools are reporting less bullying and gang activity. But new government data reports an increase in cyber bullying and youth suicides.

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A new review of the research about The Incredible Years, an intervention composed of training programs for children, parents, and teachers intended to reduce children's aggression and improve their social skills, has found no clear conclusions can be drawn about the program's effectiveness for preschool age children with disabilities.

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The Anoka-Hennepin School District replaced a policy requiring teachers to be neutral in discussions about sexual orientation with a new one requiring them to foster a respectful learning environment for all students. Leaders in Minnesota’s largest school district said the long debate over how teachers should handle discussions about sexual orientation probably had a bigger impact than a new policy will.

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In a new study, reported in the current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers surveyed 246 LGBT youth aged 16 to 20 and followed them over several years to see what happened to them. Being bullied (over the time period of the study) and a low level of support from others boosted the risk that the teens would become suicidal. Bullying also boosted the risk that they would try to harm themselves.

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Voluntary after-school programs on drug and alcohol use could be successful in curbing alcohol use in middle school students, says a recent RAND Corp. study. The study evaluates CHOICE, a voluntary after-school program that instructs middle school students about drugs and alcohol, ways to resist using both, and what harmful impacts they can have.

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A school program designed to improve student behavior may help reduce bullying in elementary schools, a new study shows. Teachers at schools that have implemented the School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports program, in place now in about 16,000 U.S. schools, reported less bullying, teasing & aggression among students. 

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A new study, published this week in the journal "Child Development," suggests that kids who cry easily, express negative emotions, and show other signs of depression ultimately suffer socially because they are shunned by their peers and attract the attention of bullies.

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In the first national estimate of its kind, a report from government researchers says more than 1 in 5 high school students and middle schoolers ride in cars while others are smoking. This kind of secondhand smoke exposure has been linked with breathing problems and allergy symptoms, and more restrictions are needed to prevent it, the report says.

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A program funded by the nonprofit Center for Civic Mediation is teaching students in a troubled California middle school to act as peer mediators. The students learn conflict-resolution and other skills as part of the program, which is aimed at reducing school violence and suspensions by resolving disputes before they escalate.

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In the emerging social landscape, mental health professionals, universities and schools are facing new questions about how the Internet should be used to help emotionally suffering individuals. As schools strive to balance the need to protect individuals’ privacy and the need to keep students safe, some experts said it’s likely that schools will have to clarify how their staff handles electronic communication when responding to students in distress.

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A little-known New Jersey state government council ruled Friday that New Jersey's tough new anti-bullying law constitutes an unfunded mandate for local school districts and must be changed for the law to remain in effect. The Council on Local Mandates ruled 7-2 that the year-old law requires local school districts to provide training and personnel but doesn't pay for them.

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The U.S. Supreme Court's refusal last week to take up appeals involving school discipline of student speech on the Internet leaves the state of the law unclear for school leaders, parents, and students themselves.

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The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals of three cases involving students' free-speech rights on the Internet. Two cases involved Pennsylvania students who had posted mockeries of their school principals on the Internet, while another case involved a West Virginia student who had ridiculed a peer online.

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The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to decide for the first time on the dividing line between the rights of students to freely use their own computers and the authority of school officials to prevent online harassment of other students and the staff. It may act as early as Tuesday.

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Military veterans and other community volunteers are working to ensure that students in Orange County, Fla., make it to school safely after budget cuts caused the district to reduce bus service.

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Health and education groups have released guidelines for sex education that urge states and districts to provide students with a foundation for lessons in sex, relationships and bullying before second grade. The groups also suggest teaching students about sexual orientation by middle school and instructing elementary-school students to use proper names for parts of the human anatomy.

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A preschool in Ohio offers short-term interventions for preschool students with behavioral and mental health challenges who have been suspended from other area preschool programs. Educators at the school use puppets and other hands-on strategies to help teach positive behavior and impulse control to students, who typically attend the school for three to six months.

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A new website is designed to foster the reporting of student bullying in Iowa schools. ReportBullyingIowa.com is being launched by the Eychaner Foundation and will allow users to report details such as the name of the school, the type of incident and information on those involved.

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According to a report released Friday by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, victims of bullying are often, as a result of social and emotional hurdles, distanced from learning, disadvantaged academically and more likely to fall behind in school attendance.

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The latest annual survey from the University of Michigan shows fewer students are drinking and smoking cigarettes, but more are turning to marijuana and prescription drugs.

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Illegal actions involving sexting befall a relatively small number of youth Internet users nationally, according to two reports from the University of New Hampshire. But the reports focus on transmission of videos and pictures, and don't address sexually explicit text-based messages.

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Only 16 states have laws that specifically prohibit the bullying of students with disabilities. Research shows students with disabilities often face a higher risk of becoming victims of bullying than do students without disabilities.

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A recent study found that only 13 states have laws that allow schools to address off-campus bullying, despite the federal government's warning that schools are responsible for intervening in such cases.

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A new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health suggests the risks for depressed children can start much earlier than expected: Nearly 40 percent of adolescents who attempt suicide first try to kill themselves before high school.

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The problem is influenced in part by rural communities limited expectations for students' futures, according to a new study.

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Gov. Rick Snyder is "very likely" to sign legislation that will require Michigan schools to adopt anti-bullying policies. Lawmakers approved a new version without a clause that critics said would have allowed religious-based verbal harassment.

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Twenty-four percent of more than 1,500 youths aged 10 to 15 who were surveyed in 2008 said they were harassed via text messages, up from about 14% in a 2007 survey of the same respondents, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.

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NYC middle school students who were warned against dating violence and harassment as part of a federal study were up to 50 percent less likely to commit dating violence than a control group of students.

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Roughly 50% of students in grades 7 to 12 report having experienced sexual harassment during the past school year, with a majority of those saying the experiences caused them to miss school and sleep or have stomachaches, according to a new study.

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The San Francisco Unified School District has built a pioneering support network to improve students' social and emotional well-being.

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Federal lawmakers are considering anti-bullying legislation that would apply to every school in the country and could explicitly protect gay students.

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and those questioning their sexuality are at greater risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, bullying by their peers and truancy, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Illinois.

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Students who sent or received "sext" messages or were "sexting" victims were more likely to report psychological distress compared with students not involved in sexting, a 2010 study of 23,187 high school students in Boston found.

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A new study suggests that when parents are deployed in the military, their children are more than twice as likely to carry a weapon, join a gang or be involved in fights.

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Asian Americans endure far more bullying at US schools than members of other ethnic groups, with teenagers of the community three times as likely to face taunts on the Internet, new data shows.

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Teenagers who consume large amounts of soda are more likely to display violent tendencies, according to a study recently conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Sesame Street hosted this month a panel of anti-bullying experts. The panel's discussion is presented in a 5-part video series titled "Happy to Be Me: An Anti-Bullying Discussion," and is available to parents on the Sesame Street website and YouTube Channel.

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The issue of bullying rose on state legislative agendas this year, with 21 states passing anti-bullying laws—some of which expanded schools’ responsibilities to keep a check on any harassment that goes on among their students.

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While the faceless nature of the Internet can bring out the worst in cyberbullies of all shapes and sizes, it also means concerned bystanders can more easily report wrongdoing without the stigma of public identification, said panelists at a town hall meeting on cyberbullying Tuesday in Chicago and on a live Web stream worldwide.

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Teachers' union officials in New York City have launched a hotline for students to call, in confidence, to speak with mental-health specialists about issues related to school bullying. The hotline is being publicized in all city schools and lines will be open each day from 2:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

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The Interactive Autism Network (IAN Project) has launched a national survey to study the impact of bullying on children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are believed to be especially vulnerable targets due to their social deficits and other challenges.

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The venerable PBS show will air a special episode Monday that aims to teach preschoolers how to recognize and combat bullying.

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The film, "Your Social Life," was produced by two nonprofits with the support of the school district, whose students are featured discussing examples of bullying involving social-networking tools such as Facebook and YouTube.

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The Los Angeles Board of Education is expected to consider a proposal Tuesday that will take on teen dating violence by teaching students to recognize when a relationship is becoming abusive.

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College football players who felt comfortable displaying emotion—both positive (happiness) and negative (sadness)—were found to have higher self-esteem than those who shunned emotion, according to two papers in Psychology of Men & Masculinity, a journal published by the American Psychological Association.

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Several organizations are stepping up efforts to curb the bullying of students with disabilities in schools during October, which has been designated as bullying-prevention month.

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A new Associated Press-MTV poll of youth in their teens and early 20s finds that most of them — 56 percent — have been the target of some type of online taunting, harassment or bullying, a slight increase over just two years ago.

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New York State Senator Jeffrey Klein introduced a new "cyber-bullying" bill on Monday, saying outdated pre-digital harassment laws fail to punish bullies who use the Internet and smartphones to torment others.

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The CDC awarded a $6.5M grant to the University of Colorado's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, named by the CDC as one of 10 National Academic Centers for Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention. It will be part of a five-year program to study youth violence and introduce prevention programs in the community.

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When Congress gets around to revamping the No Child Left Behind law, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he'd like to see a provision that calls for surveying students about bullying.

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Facebook's Stop Bullying: Speak Up Social Pledge app addresses bystanders, with the opportunity to take an "interactive social media pledge" to specific actions that will help stop bullying.

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About 70 percent of parents across the U.S. say that their child has been bullied on school grounds, according to a new survey—a percentage much higher than students report.

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Bullying of LGBT youth is making up a growing number of discrimination complaints received by the Obama administration.

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Colorado lawmakers and police said Monday that strict disciplinary policies at schools created after the Columbine High School shootings should be scaled back or scrapped and that administrators should have more control over student punishment.

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Bullying lawsuits are on the rise nationwide, says to Francisco Negron, general counsel for the National School Boards Association. The lawsuits are increasing for several reasons, including increased awareness, new standards and more experts in the legal community, says David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.

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Bullying in high school is not just a problem of individual torment: It is linked to lower academic achievement across the school. The research shows that high school campuses with more reported bullying had lower passing rates on Virginia’s standardized tests.

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A new study in the journal Child Development has found that the types of goals children set in their relationships help determine how they respond to being bullied—and whether they choose responses that are effective.

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Children who want to interact with their peers but find the prospect of making friends anxiety-inducing are at high risk of rejection and bullying, a new study finds.

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The law, known as the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, is considered the toughest legislation against bullying in the nation. Schools worry about meeting the mandates without additional resources.

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About a quarter of high school students were bullied at least once during the 2008-2009 school year, and about 7 percent were bullied online by other students, according to new data released Monday by the National Center for Education Statistics.

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Victims of bullying often suffer academically, and this is particularly true for high achieving black and Latino students, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

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Students attending high schools dominated by bullies are more likely to have lower standardized test scores, a new study shows.

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Educational institutions and non-profit organizations can apply for research grants from Facebook on the topic of bullying prevention. The deadline is next month and funds will be awarded in October.

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The Justice Department together with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights are looking into "allegations of harassment and discrimination in the Anoka-Hennepin School District based on sex, including peer-on-peer harassment based on not conforming to gender stereotypes," according to a district memo.

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Facebook and Time Warner are teaming up to tackle bullying with a joint campaign that encourages people to speak out. Dubbed "Stop Bullying: Speak Up," the campaign will have a presence on the Internet, TV, radio, and major magazines.

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The Virginia School Safety Survey found that among the 737 elementary, middle and high schools that gave students anonymous safety surveys, bullying emerged as students’ main concern at all grade levels in 2009-10, the most recent data available.

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The Bully Project follows stories of several kids who are being bullied or have been bullied. What The Bully Project adds to the public conversation is an unflinching look at the stakes.

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Peer influence and low self-control appear to be the major factors fueling juvenile cybercrime such as computer hacking and online bullying, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University criminologist.

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Experts warn that bullying should be treated as a serious issue and not accepted as normal childhood behavior. For victims, damage to self-esteem can be profound.

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U.S. ED will conduct case studies of 24 school sites nationwide to document state and local implementation of anti-bullying laws and policies. Comments are due by August 1, 2011.

More information on comment request

Detailed description of proposed analysis

To cut crime, raise education and income levels, and reduce addiction rates among the poor, no program offers more bang for the buck than preschool, as a new study published in Science demonstrates.

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Guam Homeland Security and the Office of Civil Defense (GHS/OCD), in conjunction with the Department of Education, will be hosting a School Safety Training Workshop for five (5) weeks for all School Personnel. The workshops began on Monday, June 6, at GHS/OCD.

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Though it's not clear whether one type of violence directly leads to the other, a new study says that men who bully others during childhood are more likely to grow up and abuse their wives and girlfriends.

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Poor sleep may be a factor in aggressive behavior among kids, according to new research that found that children who bully other kids are more likely to be sleepy during the day.

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Researchers have looked at how bad jobs affect adults’ mental health. One of the first studies to turn a similar lens on schools suggests a bad classroom climate can shape children’s emotional well-being too.

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The Student Non-Discrimination Act (SENDA), introduced in the House by Rep. Polis (D-COL), would add to existing federal statutes explicit protections against bullying on the grounds of perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.

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Seventeen magazine and ABC Family are coming together to try to put an end to cyber abuse and bullying with Delete Digital Drama, an initiative that will begin on ABC Family July 5 and in the August 2011 issue of Seventeen.

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Among teen boys with an autism spectrum disorder, those who are considered high-functioning are confronted with a greater degree of bullying behavior than their "typically developing" peers, new research indicates.

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Education Week

A new study finds that students' achievement and relationships with educators may play more of a role in school safety than neighborhood crime rate.

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CNN

The guilty pleas of students in a Massachusetts school harassment case this week thrust the spotlight back on bullying in the United States, but the issue is also drawing more attention beyond America's borders.

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Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

Sometimes the solution to a very big problem is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. That’s the theory behind Start Strong, a national program designed to defeat teen-dating violence by helping middle-school kids learn how to avoid unhealthy relationships.

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Education Week

In waves throughout the school year, school counselor Julia V. Taylor has found herself consoling students who have been taunted—often anonymously—on the social-networking site www.Formspring.me.

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ADWEEK

Google has come out in support of Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project in a big way, compiling loads of footage from the anti-gay-bullying campaign for a 90-second Chrome commercial, which aired Tuesday night on Glee.

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THE Journal

Experts say that schools need to stop worrying about external internet predators and take on the threat within: cyberbullying.

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Live Science

Parents who don't want their children to become bullies should stay positive, talk to their kids and meet their children's friends, according to new research presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Denver.

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The Creative Coalition and WWE (NYSE:WWE), announced today the launch of “be a STAR,” a multi-platform, nationwide anti-bullying alliance, in conjunction with the National Education Association Health Information Network (NEA HIN), GLAAD, True Educator Inc., Ad Council, Island Def Jam Music Group, Close Up Foundation and others.

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A University of Arizona College of Education faculty member led an investigation into the perceptions students and teachers throughout Arizona hold about campus safety, finding that each school's climate plays a large role in what people believe.

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School bullies and their victims both spend more time at the nurse’s office compared with their other classmates, according to a new report.

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Student bullies, their victims and bully-victims -- those who are victimized and also engage in bullying -- face a broad range of health risks, including family violence and intentional self-harm, a new U.S. study finds.

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On the 10 year anniversary of the Columbine shooting, consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services released a report suggesting schools are safer, but not out of the woods.

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Gay and bisexual teens are five times as likely as heterosexual peers to attempt suicide, according to new research — but a supportive social environment can cut that rate by one-fifth.

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Friday, April 15 marks the “Day of Silence” – a day in which hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-gay name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.

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The D.C. Council's committee on school safety and truancy found in a report released Thursday that domestic problems and safety concerns both during commutes and at school cause truancy.

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Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department has a central role to play in tackling the problem of youth violence, but some education experts are skeptical of the federal government’s hand in the matter.

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The federal government is investigating how D.C. public schools respond to reports of sexual violence and what they are doing to prevent such incidents, a senior U.S. education official said Monday.

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Vice President Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan introduced comprehensive guidance to help schools, colleges and universities better understand their obligations under federal civil rights laws to prevent and respond to the problem of campus sexual assault.

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Magination Press, the American Psychological Association's children's book imprint, has released a self-help book for older kids called Understanding Myself: A Kid's Guide to Intense Emotions and Strong Feelings. It has also released a book for younger kids as an iPad app, called The Grouchies.

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This spring, the Drug Enforcement Administration and its national and community partners will give the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. On Saturday, April 30th, 2011 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time, DEA and its partners will hold their second National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day at sites nationwide. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.

To learn more, visit the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day website.

Nick, the most-watched TV network among kids ages 2 to 14, will begin an on-air public service campaign Monday featuring some of its stars offering advice on what young people should do when confronted with hostile texts, emails or Facebook posts.

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A yearlong Inquirer investigation of violence in Philadelphia schools uncovered dozens of cases of students assaulting each other, punching teachers, kicking school police officers and threatening to harm staff. The incidents only came to light—weeks or months later—when city police issued arrest reports on the incidents, prompting district officials to ask principals about them. Teachers and union officials, meanwhile, spoke of constant pressure from senior administrators at the district and school level—sometimes subtle and unspoken, sometimes blatant—to hold down the reported numbers.

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Bullying and other types of chronic social stress affect gene activity in the brain, suggests a new study in mice. The changes may lead to persistent social anxiety.

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Special needs children are two to three times more likely to be bullied than the general student population. In addition, 85% of bystanders do nothing in response to bullying they witness. Fifty percent of special needs respondents reported being fearful of their peers.

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A new survey on bullying by the National Education Association (NEA) finds that school employees know bullying is pervasive in schools and that they believe it’s their job to intervene—but that they need more training to do so effectively.

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The startup announced Thursday it is partnering with MIT’s Media Lab to develop detection tools for finding “problematic content” and putting a stop to online bullying.

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Facebook is announcing a new suite of tools to protect users from bullying, foster a stronger sense of community in the social network, and “create a culture of respect” among Facebook users.

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Bullying is a serious problem that not only affects a child’s self esteem and emotional well-being, but can significantly affect a child’s ability to learn.

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The President and First Lady called for a united effort to address bullying at the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention. Approximately 150 students, parents, teachers, non-profit leaders, advocates, and policymakers came together to discuss how they can work together to make our schools and communities safe for all students.

Full Press Release. This release includes a number of valid and helpful resources.

President Obama and the First Lady talk about bullying and the growing movement, led by young people, to make our communities places where young people can thrive.

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Democrat and Republican leaders in the Colorado Senate co-sponsored the first school safety bill in the nation calling for statewide communications interoperability that includes all schools.

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A new study suggests that neither the most popular students nor the least are likely to be bullies at school but rather the kids who are in the middle of the social hierarchies.

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Gossip and social ostracization may come far down on the list of concerns for educators trying to prevent bullying, yet emerging research suggests relational bullying, though often the most frequently overlooked, may hold the key to changing an aggressive culture in schools.

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School Transportation News caught up with Kevin Jennings, the assistant deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools to discuss school bus driver-specfic training necessary to combat the problem.

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Cambridge University findings underscored a growing consensus that any effort to combat bullying must be collective, involving an entire school community — teachers, parents, children who suffer and witness bullying, bullies, school bus drivers, cafeteria workers — and must be regularly reinforced.

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School Climate Survey Compendium (as of December 20, 2011)

To assist educators and education agencies in locating a valid and reliable needs assessment that suits their needs, the Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center is developing a compendium of student, staff, and family surveys that can be used as part of a school climate needs assessment.  Below is an initial list of school climate survey batteries. (Alternatively, click  here to download a summary table (PDF) of each survey by respondent type.)

Please note that the Office of Safe and Healthy Students does not endorse any particular scale or survey presented in this compendium. Additionally, the database presented is not an exhaustive listing of available measures or survey instruments.  If you would like to nominate a survey that is not currently included in the compendium, click on the link below.

 Nominate a Survey
 

Alaska School Climate and Connectedness Survey