State school safety centers (SSSCs) aim to provide a wide range of services to enhance school security. Still, more information is needed to understand how the centers should operate and what factors determine their success.

In 2021, the WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center received funding from the U.S. National Institute of Justice to conduct one of the first empirical studies of SSSCs. This brief is based on an online survey that asked key informants in each state to assess the history, characteristics, and activities of state school safety centers (SSSCs). Key findings include:

• Over 65% of respondents reported that their state has or has had an SSSC, and over 96% reported that the SSSC was still operational
• A majority (62%) of SSSCs have been established in the last decade
• Over 65% of respondents reported that their SSSC was started in response to state legislation, with 28% attributing the creation to a response to incidents of violence in schools
• Over 70% of currently operational SSSCs were reported to be situated within larger state agencies
• A large majority of respondents indicated that their SSSC was funded by state and/or federal funds
• Over 75% of respondents reported that their SSSC had 10 or fewer staff

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 schools and in other settings.

The brief discusses:

• The prevalence of metal detectors in schools
• The (in)effectiveness of metal detectors
• The cost associated with employing metal detectors
• The potential impact on students and the learning environment as a whole

Public school districts and police departments in the United States often collaborate to address school-based violence and other threats to the safety and well-being of students, teachers, and staff.

As a result of these partnerships, law enforcement officers have become an increasingly common presence in schools around the country, even at the elementary school level. But what does research tell us about the impact of school-based law enforcement on school safety outcomes?

This brief presents a definition of school-based law enforcement and summarizes some of the relevant research about its effects on students and schools.

The authors found little rigorous evaluative research on the effects of having a police presence in schools, but they see promise in future studies that have potential to inform school and district leaders, as well as policymakers.

One common policy in response to concerns about school safety is to regularly employ police in school buildings. Although many schools have had some regular presence of police in their buildings, the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 led to more scrutiny of law enforcement across the board. As a result, several districts across the nation began to reconsider the use of police in schools.

However, as schools began returning to full-time, in-person teaching, concerns about the safety of students and staff led several districts to reverse their decision and bring officers back to campus. Clearly, more research is needed to guide this important policy decision.

To respond to this research need, the Justice and Prevention Research Center, in collaboration with Professor Ben Fisher of Florida State University, conducted a systematic review of research on the effects of school policing on safety, perceptions, and academic outcomes. This brief summarizes results from this synthesis of 32 evaluations.