States’ School Safety Centers: A Brief Look Into History, Characteristics, and Activities

• NCJ Number: 308603
• Author(s): Joseph M. McKenna; Sarah Russo; Hannah Sutherland; Ashley Boal; Anthony Petrosino
• Date Published: 2023
• Length: 6 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2020-CK-BX-0002
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

This brief is part of a series that highlights findings from each of the data collection efforts associated with the Justice and Prevention Research Center’s evaluation of State School Safety Centers; it presents data from the state key informant survey, which were analyzed at an aggregate level to understand the overall histories as well as at the disaggregated level to examine data specific to each state.

Abstract

This document provides a brief report on an evaluation study that aimed to survey key informants who were knowledgeable about school safety in their respective states. The findings discussed in this brief are taken from a survey which was divided into four broad sections: Background Information; State School Safety Center (SSSC) History; Characteristics of Active SSSCs; and Characteristics of Discontinued SSSCs. The paper provides key takeaways, background on SSSCs, a brief description of the evaluation’s methodology, goals of the evaluation study, a detailed breakdown and discussion of the evaluation’s findings, and a listing of references cited. Key findings are based on an online survey of key informants in each state; the survey aimed to assess the history, characteristics, and activities of SSSCs. The survey results indicated that over 65 percent of respondents either has or has had an SSSC and over 96 percent reported that the SSSC was still operational; a majority of SSSCs have been established in the last decade; a large majority of respondents reported that their SSSC was funded by state and/or federal funds; and over 75 percent stated that their SSSC had 10 or fewer staff members.