Resources and Best Practices
Description: School officials routinely seek to balance the interests of safety and privacy for students. While the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) generally requires written parent or “eligible student” consent before an educational agency (district) or institution (school) discloses student education records and the personally identifiable information (PII) contained therein, FERPA gives schools and districts flexibility to disclose PII, under certain limited circumstances, in order to maintain school safety. The purpose of this guidance is to address questions about how FERPA applies to schools’ and districts’ disclosures of PII from student education records to school security units, outside law enforcement entities, School Resource Officers (SROs), and other schools. While the information in this guidance is applicable to all educational agencies and institutions that receive funds under any program administered by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education (Department), the discussion is generally focused on health or safety emergencies faced by public elementary and secondary schools.
Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2022
Description: The FBI has designated 50 shootings in 2022 as active shooter incidents. The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.
Active Shooter Incidents 20-Year Review
Description: This report, produced by the FBI’s Office of Partner Engagement, encompasses statistical data regarding 333 active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2019. Each page focuses on a particular active shooter-related topic and has been designed specifically for law enforcement officers, other first responders, corporations, educators, and the general public.
An Introduction to SRO Programs - FREE e-Training
Description: An Introduction to SRO Programs is a 3-hour eLearning course developed by and to directly support the mission of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) to provide the “highest quality of training to school-based law enforcement officers.” This course provides an overview of school-based law enforcement programs and illuminates the critical need for further SRO training.
NASRO Best Practices School Resource Officer Program Recommendations - Updated January 2024
Description: This report provides an updated overview of NASRO's best practices for school resource programs. NASRO is considered the gold standard for school-based law enforcement training.
SRO Program Recommendations Team Planning/Review Guide - Updated January 2024
Guiding Principles for School Resource Officer Programs - Updated Spring 2025
Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools in 2019-20 - Updated Summer 2022
Description: Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have used to promote school safety.
Law Enforcement Agencies that Employ School Resource Officers, 2019 - Released Fall 2022 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
Description: This report presents statistics about school resource officers, based on data from the first-time BJS Survey of Law Enforcement Personnel in Schools (SLEPS) agency survey, which was developed as a part of the Department of Justice Comprehensive School Safety Initiative. SLEPS was designed to address gaps in national statistics by compiling data on the characteristics of law enforcement agencies employing school resource officers and the characteristics and functions of the officers. It also describes the policies related to school resource officers, including law enforcement, mentoring, and teaching duties performed; hiring processes, and required training.
Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2021
Description: This report was written by the FBI Office of Partner Engagement in collaboration with the FBI Criminal Investigative Division, the FBI Critical Incident Response Group, and the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University.
Executive Summary: For the period 2017–2021, active shooter incident data reveals an upward trend: the number of active shooter incidents identified in 2021 represents a 52.5% increase from 2020 and a 96.8% increase from 2017.
School Resource Officers - Averted School Violence Special Report
Description: Communities across the country are responding to school violence with several measures, including assigned school resource officers (SROs). School administrations, law enforcement agencies, families, and community stakeholders are diligently working to protect children and education personnel from school attacks. The National Policing Institute, in collaboration with the COPS Office, created the Averted School Violence (ASV) database in 2015 as a platform for law enforcement, school staff, and mental health professionals to share information about ASV incidents and lessons learned with the goal of mitigating and ultimately preventing future injuries and fatalities in educational institutions.
Executive Summary: The goal when it comes to averting school violence has been and continues to be zero casualties from school shootings. To achieve that goal, law enforcement and schools have expended vast resources on target hardening, drills, and procedures designed to reduce law enforcement response time. These efforts will and should continue. This report offers evidence, however, that focusing our attention and resources on prevention can help us attain the goal of zero school shootings. To reach this goal it will be incumbent on all of us to identify best practices and success stories and to share lessons as widely as possible.
How to Advocate for Your School Resource Officer
Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools, 2021
Description: This report provides an overview of commonalities found within 67 averted targeted school violence plots from 2006-2018 in an effort to provide safety partners with clear best practices to protect students and provide a safe and healthy learning environment.
Executive Summary: The National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) examined 67 disrupted plots against K-12 schools from 2006-2018. The key findings of the study are clear and consistent: individuals contemplating violence often exhibit observable behaviors, and when community members report these behaviors, the next tragedy can be averted.
Report on Indicators of School Crime & Safety, 2020
Description: This report provides official estimates of school crime and safety from a variety of data sources, including national surveys of students, teachers, principals, and post-secondary institutions.
Executive Summary: Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2020 provides the most recent national indicators of school crime and safety. The information presented in this report serves as a reference for policymakers and practitioners so that they can develop effective programs and policies aimed at violence and school crime prevention. Accurate information about the nature, extent, and scope of the problem being addressed is essential for developing effective programs and policies. This is the 23rd edition of Indicators of School Crime and Safety, a joint effort of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This report provides summary statistics to inform the nation about current aspects of crime and safety in schools
Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2020
Description: This report was written by the FBI Office of Partner Engagement in collaboration with the FBI Criminal Investigative Division, the FBI Critical Incident Response Group, and the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University.
Executive Summary: Although 2020 witnessed the highest rate of active shooter incidents for the period 2000 to 2020,53 casualties were significantly lower. There could be several reasons for the sharp decline in casualty counts. One potential explanation is that many people avoided public spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic, which presented fewer active shooter casualty opportunities in traditional target-rich environments (i.e., restaurants, movie theatres, sports stadiums, workplaces, schools, etc.). 2020 did see several national and prominent public protests drawing large crowds of people, essentially presenting a target-rich environment. However, there were only two active shooter incidents in these environments in 2020; the casualty totals for these two incidents accounted for one killed and six wounded. The FBI remains dedicated to assisting federal, state, local, tribal, and campus law enforcement in its active shooter prevention, response, and recovery efforts, as well as to training its international law enforcement partners. The FBI remains steadfast in its efforts to train private citizens, as it is imperative that citizens understand the risks faced and the resources available in an active shooter situation.
To Protect & Educate: The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence in Schools
Authors: Mo Canady, Bernard James, Dr. Janet Nease
Executive Summary: This report addresses recent criticism of policies by public school officials to fashion campus safety plans around inter-agency partnerships, not the least of which involve the use of law enforcement personnel known as school resource officers (SRO). This aspect of education law, now commonly known as “school safety law,” has been the subject of considerable and thoughtful development over the last thirty years. However, recent criticism has called into question the fairness and effectiveness of this type of inter-agency collaboration in the school context. By focusing on child welfare reform, student rights, victim’s rights, and liability, the report corrects incorrect impressions about the purpose and use of school resource officers as an integral part of school safety teams, primarily by documenting the success of public educators maintaining a safe campus climate using the team approach.
Authors: Peter Langman and Frank Straub
Description: In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) provided funding to the Police Foundation to initiate the Averted School Violence (ASV) project. Through this project, the Police Foundation developed a database (Police Foundation 2018) to collect, analyze, and publish (in an online library [Police Foundation 2018b]) incidents of averted and completed acts of school violence that have occurred since the attack on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. The data are drawn from the public domain as well as from law enforcement, school officials, and others entering reports into the database. The database is intended to serve as a resource to law enforcement, schools, mental health professionals, and others involved in preventing school violence by sharing ways in which other school attacks across the country have been identified and prevented. In this report, 51 completed and 51 averted incidents of school violence, drawn from the ASV database, were analyzed to help further our understanding of averted and completed school attacks. The report also seeks to provide important lessons about how school violence can be prevented.
Juvenile Arrests, 2018 (Published June 2020)
Aurthor: Charles Puzzanchera
Abstract: This bulletin describes the latest trends in arrests involving juveniles (youth younger than age 18) from 1980 to 2018, based on analyses of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Overall, juvenile arrests have been on the decline for more than a decade; however, patterns varied by demographic group and offense. Among violent crimes, juvenile arrests for aggravated assault declined by 8 percent between 2014 and 2018, while arrests for robbery decreased by 11 percent, and arrests for murder increased by 21 percent. Among property crimes, juvenile arrests for burglary, larceny theft, and arson reached historic lows in 2018, while arrests for motor vehicle theft increased each year since 2013. Relative declines in arrests have been greater for boys than for girls across many offenses. Download the report here.
Ten Essential Actions to Improve School Safety
Abstract: The COPS Office School Safety Working Group, which is composed of representatives from eight national law enforcement organizations, has identified 10 essential actions that can be taken by schools, school districts, and law enforcement agencies to help prevent critical incidents involving the loss of life or injuries in our nation's schools and to respond rapidly and effectively when incidents do occur. These actions apply to school shootings as well as to other areas of school safety, including natural disasters and traumatic events such as student suicide. Adopting policies and practices based on the recommendations in this publication can help make school communities safer and save lives.
Description: Guidance from the National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of School Resource Officers
Executive Summary: The National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of School Resource Officers have partnered to provide this guidance on armed assailant training, with input from Safe and Sound: A Sandy Hook Initiative and the ALICE Training Institute. This document provides guidance on the important factors schools must take into account when considering and conducting armed assailant drills, with points on (1) Drill Approaches and Planning, (2) Developmental and Mental Health Considerations, and (3) Steps for Conducting Safe, Effective, and Appropriate Drills.
Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Program: Recommendations and Lessons Learned
Description: a study from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office)
Executive Summary: Over the past decade, advances in the technologies used by law enforcement agencies have been accelerating at an extremely rapid pace. Many police executives are making decisions about whether to acquire technologies that did not exist when they began their careers—technologies like automated license plate readers, gunshot detection systems, facial recognition software, predictive analytics systems, communications systems that bring data to officers’ laptops or handheld devices, GPS applications, and social media to investigate crimes and communicate with the public. Even as police departments are increasingly adopting body-worn cameras, many questions about this technology have yet to be answered. In an effort to address these questions and produce policy guidance to law enforcement agencies, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), with support from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), conducted research in 2013 on the use of body-worn cameras. This research project consisted of three major components: an informal survey of 500 law enforcement agencies nationwide; interviews with police executives; and a conference in which police chiefs and other experts from across the country gathered to discuss the use of body-worn cameras.
NASRO's Best Practices/Recommendation for Ratio of SROs per Student
Description: Message from NASRO Executive Director, Mo Canady
Digital Futures Initiative (DFI)
Description: Free content and resources for SROs to teach kids digital citizenship. Help kids take control over their lives with the only standardized curriculum developed for School Resource Officers by School Resource Officers.