The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) announces the publication of Redesigning Public Safety: K-12 Schools, the third white paper in our ongoing Redesigning Public Safety Resource Series. The safety of our nation’s children is no longer guaranteed during the school day as school shootings have grown more and more commonplace in recent times. According to Education Week, there have been approximately 168 school shootings in the U.S. since 2018 which resulted in 114 deaths and 297 injuries; 24 of those shooting incidents occurred within the first five months of 2023. The status quo is no longer an acceptable boundary to maintain, with the health and well-being of our children on the line.
CPE’s Redesigning Public Safety series is intended to move beyond the illusion of safety that comes with inserting armed officers into schools as a default response. The paper provides thorough scientific research-supported analyses of specific areas of U.S. public safety systems with a specific lens of racial impacts and disparities. Keeping children safe in schools is a goal that everyone shares. CPE's Redesigning Public Safety K-12 white paper presents available evidence alongside emerging community insights to provide a comprehensive overview and recommendations for holistic redesign efforts to make school safety complete and equitable.
“The blanket approach of relying on police presence in schools to address student safety is a disservice to students, well-meaning officers, and police departments alike. There is a better way,” said Max Markham, Vice President of Policy & Community Engagement. “We have worked with key partners to research and develop thoughtful recommendations to serve the demonstrated needs of students around the nation while protecting Black and Brown children from criminalization.”
"The research is quite clear - police officers do not belong in schools. If we genuinely care about student safety, we will invest our resources in proven strategies that we know can improve school climate - not create a culture of punishment." Dr. David C. Turner III, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare at UCLA, Senior Advisor for the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color.
CPE’s Redesigning Public Safety: K-12 Schools recommendations to directly address those disparities include:
- End School-Based Policing Programs
- Recommended guidance for these programs includes a reallocation of funding from school-based policing programs to school staff and student resources to target the disparate rate of arrest and disciplinary action students, particularly Black and disabled students, face.
- End Police Response To Routine Student Conduct Issues
- Police do not need to respond to routine student conduct issues, such as disobedience, defiance, and dress code violations.
- Invest in Public Health Strategies To Create Safe Schools
- By investing in evidence-informed strategies based on public health, such as trauma-informed school environments and restorative justice practices, schools can help prevent violence and behavioral issues commonly addressed by police.
- End Surveillance Strategies
- Recommendations include a call to ban facial recognition software in school video surveillance systems, ban remote access of cameras and microphones on school-owned tablets and laptops, and end school-based drug testing, which the American Academy of Pediatrics has stated demonstrates no evidence of preventing drug use by students.
- End Inequitable and Harsh School Discipline Policies
- Changes in discipline strategies that have been shown to promote equity and safety would require the use of clear and direct language in discipline policies and codes of conduct, an end to zero-tolerance policies, a ban on all forms of corporal punishment along with a prohibition on seclusion and restraint in K-12 schools.
- Improve Data Collection and Transparency
- Data can deepen the understanding of core issues at the center of community problems. CPE recommendations include a requirement for data collection on staff-initiated student-police contacts and a requirement that police departments document the outcomes of their contacts with students, including the use of force.
Learn more about CPE’s Unlocking Democracy Learning Communities collaboration with the CSG Justice Center, where jurisdictions are implementing public health approaches to enhance school-based diversion. See our complete Reports and Publications roster on our website.