By Pauline Moore, Melissa Kay Diliberti, Brian A. Jackson

Violent incidents, such as shootings, and threats of such violence, have become relatively common occurrences in kindergarten through grade 12 (K–12) schools across the United States. One common way that schools help their staff and students train for the possibility of an active shooter or other threats is by conducting practice drills. The prevalence of these drills — combined with the mixed results of how these drills affect staff and students' feelings of preparedness, safety, fear, and stress — highlights the need for more research. To better understand what teachers across the United States think about school safety generally and active shooter drills in particular, RAND researchers administered a survey to a randomly selected sample of 1,020 K–12 teachers using the American Teacher Panel. The survey focused on teachers' perceptions of school safety, including their main safety concerns and their experiences with incidents of gun violence, and with drills designed to prepare students and staff for school shootings and other violent incidents. The survey specifically asked whether such drills made teachers feel more or less safe and prepared to respond to active assailant events and teachers' perceptions of their students' feelings about such drills, as well as whether support was available to students and staff during and following drills. Survey results indicate that more work is needed to understand the impact of drills on staff and students and what schools can do to better support the well-being of students and staff who are required to participate in these activities.

Key Findings

• One in six K–12 teachers nationally works in a district that has been touched by gun violence since the 2019–2020 school year.

• Relative to the previous school year, teachers reported more concern in 2023–2024 about being victims of an attack at their schools and were even more concerned for their students.

• In the 2023–2024 school year, a greater share of female teachers than male teachers (27 percent versus 14 percent, respectively) reported fear of being harmed or attacked at school. In the previous year, female teachers were no more likely than male teachers to report such fears.

• Variability in the elements and response actions involved in drills highlights the need for more standardized implementation.

• Schools do not typically announce when an active shooter drill will occur to students and parents, and many schools are not providing support to help students and staff manage any stress or anxiety that such drills might cause.

• Teachers are split on whether participation in drills makes them feel more prepared to respond to active shooter incidents: Slightly less than half said that drills make them feel more prepared, and half perceived drills as having no impact on preparedness. A slight majority of teachers (54 percent) reported that drills make students feel more prepared to respond to such incidents.

• Most teachers (69 percent) indicated that participating in active shooter drills has no impact on their perceptions of safety at school, and only one-fifth said that drills make them feel safer.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2024. 36p.

By The United State Secret Service, National Threat Assessment Center

Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools examines 67 plots to conduct a school attack that were averted in the United States from 2006 to 2018. The report was released in conjunction with a virtual presentation to more than 13,000 registered education stakeholders representing all 50 states and 64 countries. U.S. Secret Service Director James Murray welcomed participants, and noted specifically to participants the role that everyone has to play in preventing the next tragedy. “The takeaway from this report, and the 67 cases you are about to examine, is that when people come forward to report concerning behaviors, they can and do save lives,” said Director Murray. “That’s the bottom line, here. Bystanders save lives, and the Secret Service stands ready to support you and your communities in helping to reduce targeted violence in the years to come.” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas also addressed participants during the event. “Ensuring the safety of children while they are at school is our utmost responsibility,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “It requires us working together through our law enforcement and community partnerships. Many of the tragedies that have occurred in schools could have been prevented, that is why it is so important to establish targeted violence prevention programs, including those that the Secret Service recommends.”

The report identified numerous qualitative key findings and commonalities across the 67 incidents:

• Targeted school violence is preventable, if communities can identify warning signs and intervene.

• Schools should seek to intervene with students before their behavior warrants legal consequences.

• Students were most often motivated to plan a school attack because of a grievance with classmates.

• Students are best positioned to identify and report concerning behaviors displayed by their classmates.

• The role of parents and families in recognizing concerning behavior is critical to prevention.

• School resource officers (SROs) play an important role in school violence prevention.

• Removing a student from school does not eliminate the risk they might pose to themselves or others.

• Students displaying an interest in violent or hate-filled topics should elicit immediate assessment and intervention.

• Many school attack plots were associated with certain dates, particularly in the month of April.

• Many of the student plotters had access to weapons, including unimpeded access to firearms.

“The National Threat Assessment Center has been studying targeted violence for over 20 years to help our public safety partners stop violence in their communities,” said National Threat Assessment Chief Dr. Lina Alathari. “The research and guidance we publish is focused on prevention, with a particular focus on preventing targeted school violence, and the report released today builds even further on the work we do every day to best position community and school leaders to effectively intervene before the next potential tragedy.” Since the 1990s, the Secret Service NTAC has been conducting research, training, consultation, and information sharing on threat assessment and the prevention of targeted violence. NTAC has studied attacks directed at government agencies and officials, workplaces, schools, colleges, universities, and other public spaces. This systematic approach identifies individuals who may be exhibiting threatening or concerning behavior and assesses the risk posed by the individual. The academic research-based approach to studying the behaviors associated with acts of violence supports the Secret Service's protective mission and our nation's effort to better protect our communities. The Secret Service will continue to build on our threat assessment methodology and provide research findings and guidance to public and private sectors, to enhance the prevention efforts of those charged with safeguarding our nation.

Washington, DC: United States Secret Service, 2021. 64p.