The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) is implementing several programs that are designed to help its schools ensure they are safe and supportive, thereby improving student outcomes. Below are descriptions of three such programs.

Safe and Supportive Schools
With a U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students Safe and Supportive Schools grant, SCDE is implementing the South Carolina School Climate Initiative. The initiative will enable the state to develop a more complete data collection system, integrate existing datasets into a school safety score, and identify and implement research-based interventions in high-risk schools to ensure a safe, supportive learning environment for all students.

Building State Capacity for Preventing Youth Substance Use and Violence Prevention
With a U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students Building State Capacity grant, SCDE is building statewide capacity to support schools and districts in preventing youth violence and substance use. SCDE is partnering with South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services (DAODAS) and the Department of Juvenile Justice to provide ongoing services and training to enhance the capacity of educators to recognize and address youth violence and substance use and to access available state and local levels programs and resources across the state.

Safe Schools/Healthy Students
Since 1999 the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice have collaboratively funded and supported the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative. The SS/HS Initiative is a discretionary grant to implement a coordinated SS/HS comprehensive plan of activities, curricula, programs, and services that focus on creating safe school environments, promoting healthy childhood development, and preventing youth violence and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use, henceforth referred to as the SS/HS comprehensive plan. An eligible applicant is a local educational agency (LEA) or a consortium of LEAs that partner with their local public mental health, law enforcement, and juvenile justice agencies to develop and submit a community-specific SS/HS comprehensive plan that addresses five elements. South Carolina has two 2009 Safe School Healthy Students grantees.
 

The South Carolina Department of Education is planning to assess school safety and conditions for learning in the state by using its current School Climate Survey for students, parents, and teachers that has been administered annually for 8 years, as well as other instruments that have been proven reliable and valid. South Carolina has participated in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) since 1991, which assesses six categories of priority health risk behaviors.

On a biannual basis, South Carolina collects data on priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). Below is data for a selection of YRBSS indicators for South Carolina and the United States.