Over the last 25 years, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have consistently recognized the need for a comprehensive approach to school safety. However, identifying the key components of a comprehensive approach and the ideal way to balance and implement those components has proved challenging. To address this challenge, the National…

The State of Nevada launched the "Nevada SafeVoice" anonymous tip line to prevent harmful events in schools and to promote student safety, health, and wellbeing. We assessed the extent to which "SafeVoice" contributed to reductions in school discipline incidents, youth suicides, and increases in the positive school climate.…

This article considers how schools are addressing harmful sexual behaviour occurring between students. In the context of policy and school inspection, driven by student disclosures of sexual harm, schools are being required to evidence responses to sexual harassment and abuse within and beyond school. Presenting findings from 14 school audits the…

School resource officer (SRO) presence in K-12 public schools is becoming increasingly popular in an effort to help ensure stakeholder safety and protect against unsuspecting acts of school violence. Despite the rise in SRO popularity, over the last 3 decades, research on the perceived impact of SRO presence in schools is mixed and generally…

We examined the effectiveness of the "Say Something Anonymous Reporting System" (SS-ARS) program in improving school safety in a cluster randomized control trial among over 700 students in 19 middle schools in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The SS-ARS is a program that emphasizes youth engagement and trains youth to recognize…

A rise in the number of school shootings over time has driven increasing attention to school safety. However, school shootings are not the only physical safety threat students may encounter at school. Other types of violence include sexual assault, robbery, physical attack or fights, and threats of physical attack (with or without a weapon). In…

We present outcomes from a field test of a student-centered and technology-driven school safety framework. We describe the framework components rooted in school violence prevention. Results from our field test indicate moderate student and teacher use of the framework components, improvements in student perceptions of school safety, reductions in…

Health-Promoting School (HPS) interventions aim to reduce bullying and violence via curriculum, environmental and family/community-engagement components. Despite evidence of their effectiveness, factors influencing the implementation of such interventions are poorly understood. This systematic review aims to examine such factors by assessing…

The use of School Resource Officers (SRO's) has become an increasingly popular strategy in attempting to create safe learning environments on school campuses in the United States. The implementation of SROs saw a significant increase following the school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO on April 20, 1999. As media attention and…

PK-12 leaders use gender- and sexuality-inclusivity professional development (IPD) as a tool to improve the school climate for LGBTQ+ students, but IPD programs vary widely in their scope, breadth, duration, instructional approach, and content. In this paper, we present the IPD conceptual framework, which proposes a sustained, intensive, and…

PK-12 leaders use gender- and sexuality-inclusivity professional development (IPD) as a tool to improve the school climate for LGBTQ+ students, but IPD programs vary widely in their scope, breadth, duration, instructional approach, and content. In this paper, we present the IPD conceptual framework, which proposes a sustained, intensive, and…

With the tragedies of school violence igniting calls for increased safety and security, one popular proposal is to use metal detectors in schools. To address questions about what impact such devices may have on day-to-day safety and on what happens during school violence events, this research brief summarizes what is known about metal detectors in…

This systematic review synthesizes research on school-based crisis intervention protocols, descriptions, and evaluations. We performed a comprehensive literature search, and 60 studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. We found an overwhelming lack of evaluation studies (n = 3), suggesting that interventions are being administered…

Despite its increasing recognition and use in U.S. schools, a limited amount of research has evaluated the effect of restorative justice (RJ) for school violence prevention and response. To date, there is no standardized method for RJ implementation. Therefore, this systematic literature review investigates peer-reviewed studies on the application…

This study evaluated the efficacy of School-Based Teen Courts (SBTCs) using a rigorous experimental trial with 24 middle- and high-schools randomly selected to receive SBTCs (n= 12) or to business-as-usual without any SBTC program (n = 12). Analyses examined school-level longitudinal growth models and individual-level pretest-posttest comparisons…