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Support staff distribution in K-12 US schools that experience shootings: A matched analysis
Keith L Hullenaar1, Frederick Rivara2, Eric J Bruns1
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, United States of America.
Preventive Medicine
|May 6, 2025
Summary
Schools with shootings had more police but fewer mental health staff like nurses and psychologists. This highlights a need to invest more in student well-being and rethink safety strategies.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Public Health
- Criminology
Background:
- School safety is a major concern in the US.
- The presence of various staff, including law enforcement and mental health professionals, is crucial for student well-being and security.
- Previous research has not comprehensively compared staffing in schools with and without shooting incidents.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the presence and rates of school police officers, security guards, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
- To analyze staffing differences between US K-12 schools that experienced shooting incidents and those that did not.
Main Methods:
- Defined school shootings as any live firearm discharge on school grounds (2017-2019).
- Compared staffing patterns using Civil Rights Data Collection (2017-2018) for 200 shooting-affected schools and 86,079 control schools.
- Employed propensity score matching to create comparable samples of 180 shooting-affected schools and 11,063 controls.
Main Results:
- Schools with shootings had a higher prevalence of police officers (50.6% vs 41.8%).
- These schools showed significantly lower rates per 1000 students for nurses (1.37 vs 1.88), psychologists (0.81 vs 1.44), and counselors (2.94 vs 3.71).
- Findings were consistent across sensitivity analyses.
Conclusions:
- Schools experiencing shootings have a greater law enforcement presence but fewer mental health professionals.
- Results indicate a potential misallocation of resources, emphasizing health and mental health support.
- Urges increased investment in mental health resources and a reevaluation of school safety strategies.
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