[House Report 116-701]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


116th Congress    }                                    {        Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 2d Session       }                                    {       116-701

======================================================================



 
              SCHOOL SHOOTING SAFETY AND PREPAREDNESS ACT

                                _______
                                

 December 28, 2020.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on 
            the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

   Mr. Scott of Virginia, from the Committee on Education and Labor, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                             together with

                             MINORITY VIEWS

                        [To accompany H.R. 4301]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 4301) to require the Secretary of Education, in 
consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services, to publish an annual report on 
indicators of school crime and safety that includes data on 
school shootings, and for other purposes, having considered the 
same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and 
recommends that the bill as amended do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
Purpose and Summary..............................................     4
Committee Action.................................................     4
Committee Views..................................................     6
Section-by-Section Analysis......................................    11
Explanation of Amendments........................................    11
Application of Law to the Legislative Branch.....................    11
Unfunded Mandate Statement.......................................    11
Earmark Statement................................................    11
Roll Call Votes..................................................    11
Statement of Performance Goals and Objectives....................    14
Duplication of Federal Programs..................................    14
Hearings.........................................................    14
Statement of Oversight Findings and Recommendations of the 
  Committee......................................................    14
New Budget Authority and CBO Cost Estimate.......................    14
Committee Cost Estimate..........................................    15
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............    16
Minority Views...................................................    17

    The amendment is as follows:
  Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 
following:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

  This Act may be cited as the ``School Shooting Safety and 
Preparedness Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

  In this Act:
          (1) Title 18 definitions.--The terms ``firearm'' and 
        ``ammunition'' have the meanings given such terms in section 
        921 of title 18, United States Code. The term ``large capacity 
        ammunition feeding device'' has the meaning given such term in 
        section 921 of title 18, Unites States Code, as in effect on 
        September 1, 2004.
          (2) Mass shooting.--The term ``mass shooting'' means a 
        shooting during which three or more individuals, not including 
        the shooter, were injured or killed in one location or in 
        multiple locations in close proximity.
          (3) School.--The term ``school'' means--
                  (A) an early childhood education program (as defined 
                in section 103 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
                U.S.C. 1003));
                  (B) an elementary school (as defined in section 8101 
                of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 
                (20 U.S.C. 7801));
                  (C) a secondary school (as defined in section 8101 of 
                the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
                U.S.C. 7801)); and
                  (D) an institution of higher education (as defined in 
                section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
                U.S.C. 1002)).
          (4) School shooting.--The term ``school shooting''--
                  (A) means an event or occurrence--
                          (i) during which one or more individuals were 
                        injured or killed by a firearm; and
                          (ii) that occurred--
                                  (I) in, or on the grounds of, a 
                                school, even if before or after school 
                                hours;
                                  (II) while the victim was traveling 
                                to or from a regular session at school; 
                                or
                                  (III) while the victim was attending 
                                or traveling to or from an official 
                                school sponsored event; and
                  (B) does not include an accidental shooting.

SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT ON INDICATORS OF SCHOOL CRIME AND SAFETY.

  (a) In General.--The Secretary of Education, in consultation with the 
Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall 
publish not less frequently than on an annual basis a report on 
indicators of school crime and safety. Such report shall be produced by 
the National Center for Education Statistics of the Department of 
Education in consultation with the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the 
Department of Justice. Such report shall include, at a minimum, an 
updated version of the information provided in the National Center for 
Education Statistics report NCES 2019-047 issued in April 2019, and the 
data described in subsections (b) and (d).
  (b) Statistics on School Shootings.--In collecting data on school 
shootings to be compiled in the annual report described in subsection 
(a), the National Center for Education Statistics shall collect at a 
minimum the following data annually:
          (1) The number of school shootings that have taken place 
        nationwide.
          (2) Of the school shootings described in paragraph (1), the 
        number that were mass shootings.
          (3) Of the school shootings described in paragraph (1), the 
        number that were suicides.
          (4) The number of people killed in each school shooting, 
        including--
                  (A) the number of people whose cause of death was 
                attributable to wound by firearm; and
                  (B) the number of people having some other cause of 
                death.
          (5) The number of people injured in each school shooting, 
        including--
                  (A) the number of people wounded by firearm; and
                  (B) the number of people injured in some other 
                manner.
          (6) The time of the shooting and whether it occurred during 
        school hours.
          (7) The demographics of each school, including--
                  (A) the locale code of the school, as determined by 
                the Secretary of Education; and
                  (B) student demographic data disaggregated by--
                          (i) economically disadvantaged students as 
                        compared to students who are not economically 
                        disadvantaged;
                          (ii) each major racial and ethnic group;
                          (iii) children with disabilities as compared 
                        to children without disabilities; and
                          (iv) English proficiency status.
          (8) The personal characteristics of each victim in the 
        shooting, including, at a minimum, the victim's--
                  (A) age;
                  (B) gender;
                  (C) race;
                  (D) ethnicity; and
                  (E) nationality.
          (9) The personal characteristics of the shooter, including, 
        at a minimum the shooter's--
                  (A) age;
                  (B) gender;
                  (C) race;
                  (D) ethnicity;
                  (E) nationality; and
                  (F) relationship to the school.
          (10) The motivation of the shooter, including any real or 
        perceived bias based on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, 
        or sex (including sexual orientation or gender identity).
          (11) How the shooting was stopped, including--
                  (A) whether the shooter was injured or killed, and if 
                so, by whom; and
                  (B) if not, what was the other outcome of the 
                incident (such as escape, arrest, or suicide).
          (12) The number and type of firearms and ammunition that were 
        used in each shooting, including--
                  (A) the make and model of the firearm;
                  (B) the manufacturer of the firearm;
                  (C) the make and model of the ammunition;
                  (D) the manufacturer of the ammunition;
                  (E) whether a large capacity ammunition feeding 
                device was present at the scene or used during the 
                shooting; and
                  (F) the number of rounds of ammunition fired by the 
                shooter over the course of the shooting.
          (13) Where each of the firearms used in each shooting was 
        obtained and how, including--
                  (A) whether the firearm was registered; and
                  (B) whether the firearm was purchased from a licensed 
                gun dealer or an unlicensed sale.
          (14) If the original purchaser was not the shooter, what was, 
        if any, the original purchaser's relationship to the shooter.
          (15) If the original purchaser was not the shooter and the 
        firearm was obtained from the shooter's home, the gun storage 
        practices being used in the home, and whether the gun owner was 
        charged with failing to properly secure his or her firearm.
          (16) Whether the school had one or more teachers, as that 
        term is defined in section 8553 of the Elementary and Secondary 
        Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7943), who were armed, and if 
        so, whether such armed teacher or teachers stopped the incident 
        by shooting the shooter.
          (17) How long did the shooting last (the approximate elapsed 
        time between the first and last shots fired).
          (18) What was the response time of law enforcement.
  (c) Historic Statistics on School Shootings.--The Secretary of 
Education shall direct the National Center for Education Statistics--
          (1) to collect, to the extent practicable, the data required 
        in subsection (b) for shootings that occurred before the date 
        of the enactment of this Act; and
          (2) to publish such data as revisions to the most applicable 
        annual reports on indicators of school crime and safety issued 
        by the National Center for Education Statistics before the date 
        of the enactment of this Act.
  (d) Safety and Prevention.--In collecting data on school shootings to 
be compiled in the annual report described in subsection (a), the 
National Center for Education Statistics shall collect, at a minimum, 
information on the existence or absence of the following measures at 
the time of the shooting at schools where a school shooting occurred in 
the previous year:
          (1) Physical security measures, including--
                  (A) building envelopes and interiors designed to 
                protect occupants from human threats; and
                  (B) other physical security measures designed to 
                avert and restrict violence.
          (2) Other types of security measures, including measures 
        designed to preserve open learning environments that positively 
        influence student behavior.
          (3) A communication plan with local law enforcement.
          (4) A response plan that includes coordination with local 
        agencies (law enforcement, fire department, hospitals, etc).
          (5) An active shooter response plan (including the use of an 
        alert system to notify students, faculty, and parents or 
        guardians).
          (6) Any other similar type of safety or prevention measure in 
        place at the time of the school shooting.
  (e) Rule of Construction.--In collecting data on school shootings to 
be compiled in the annual report described in subsection (a), any data 
disaggregation required by subsection (b) shall not be required in the 
case where such disaggregation would reveal personally identifiable 
information about any individual.

                          Purpose and Summary

    The purpose of H.R. 4301, the School Shooting Safety and 
Preparedness Act, is to direct the U.S. Department of Education 
(ED), in consultation with the U.S. Departments of Justice 
(DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS), to annually collect 
and report on indicators of school safety for all school 
shootings in prekindergarten through 12th grade (PreK-12) 
schools and institutions of higher education. The bill creates 
definitions of ``school shooting'' and ``mass shooting'' for 
the purpose of the data collection. These would be the first 
time these terms would be defined in federal law. The bill 
requires that statistics of school shootings to be collected 
include the number of people killed, the demographics of the 
shooter and victims, and the type of gun and ammunition used, 
among others. The bill also requires a historical collection 
and reporting of data on prior school shootings.

                            Committee Action


                             110TH CONGRESS

    On May 15, 2007, the Committee held a hearing on ``Best 
Practices for Making College Campuses Safe'' to explore how 
higher education institutions can better prepare for mass 
casualty events in the wake of the mass shooting at Virginia 
Tech University on April 16, 2007. Witnesses included: Steven 
J. Healy, President, International Association of Campus Law 
Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) and Director of Department 
of Safety, Princeton University; Louann Kennedy, former 
Provost, California State University at Northridge; Dr. Dewey 
Cornell, Director, Virginia Youth Violence Project, School of 
Education at the University of Virginia; and, Jan Walbert, 
President, National Association of Student Personnel 
Administrators and Vice President for Student Affairs, Arcadia 
University.

                             113TH CONGRESS

    On February 27, 2013, the Committee held a hearing entitled 
``Protecting Students and Teachers: A Discussion on School 
Safety'' which followed the mass school shooting at Sandy Hook 
Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. 
The purpose of the hearing was to examine the different facets 
from which K-12 schools must approach student safety to prevent 
and mitigate violence. At the hearing, the Committee heard from 
six witnesses: Bill Bond, School Safety Specialist, National 
Association of Secondary School Principals, Paducah, Kentucky; 
Mo Canady, Executive Director, National Association of School 
Resource Officers, Hoover, Alabama; Brett Bontrager, Senior 
Vice President and Group Executive of Stanley Security 
Solutions, Stanley Black & Decker; Fredrick Ellis, Director of 
Office of Safety and Security, Fairfax County Public Schools, 
VA; Vincent Pompei, School Counselor, Val Verde Unified School 
District, Perris, CA; and, David Osher, Vice President, 
American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC.

                             115TH CONGRESS

Other Legislative Action

    On February 16, 2018, then-Ranking Member Robert C. 
``Bobby'' Scott (D-VA) and the other 16 Democratic members of 
the Committee requested a hearing on school shootings and 
safety. While in direct response to the mass school shooting at 
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on 
February 14, the request was also made in consideration of the 
increasing epidemic of school shootings since the Committee 
held its last school safety hearing in five years prior.\1\ In 
the absence of a hearing, Ranking Member Scott hosted an 
unofficial Member forum examining evidenced-based violence 
prevention and school safety measures on March 20, 2018. 
Panelists included Dr. Dewey G. Cornell, forensic clinical 
psychologist and professor of education, University of 
Virginia; Dr. Akil E. Ross, Sr., Principal, Chapin High School, 
Chapin, SC; and Stacey Lippel, English Teacher and Survivor of 
Shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, FL.
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    \1\Letter from Rep. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Ranking Member, and 
16 other Minority Members of the H. Comm. on Educ. & the Workforce, to 
Rep. Virginia Foxx, Chairwoman, H. Comm. on Educ. & the Workforce (Feb. 
16, 2018) https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2018-02- 
16%20Committee%20Democrats%20Request%20Hearing%20on%20School%20Shooting.
pdf
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                             116TH CONGRESS

    On September 11, 2019, the Committee held a hearing 
entitled ``The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practices in 
Education to Assist Students Impacted by Gun Violence and Other 
Adversities''. The Committee examined the different ways trauma 
appears in students who experience mass shootings or high 
levels of community gun violence. The Committee heard testimony 
from: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Surgeon General, State of 
California; Dr. Ingrida Barker, Associate Superintendent, 
McDowell County Schools, Welch, West Virginia; Dr. Janice 
Jackson, CEO, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, IL; and Joy 
Hofmeister, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, State 
of Oklahoma.
    On September 12, 2019, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) introduced 
H.R. 4301, the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act, 
with Reps. Lucy McBath (D-GA) and Jahana Hayes (D-CT) as 
original co-sponsors. The bill was referred solely to the 
Committee on Education and Labor.
    On September 18, 2019, the Committee considered H.R. 4301 
in legislative session and reported it favorably, as amended, 
to the House of Representatives by a recorded vote of 27-22. 
The Committee considered the following amendments to H.R. 4301:
           Rep. McBath offered an amendment in the 
        nature of a substitute to make conforming and technical 
        changes. The amendment was adopted by a recorded vote.
           Ranking Member Virginia Foxx (R-NC) offered 
        an amendment to the amendment in the nature of a 
        substitute, representing the minority substitute. The 
        Foxx amendment struck the definitions and mentions of 
        school shootings from the bill. The amendment was 
        defeated by a recorded vote of 22-25.

                            Committee Views

    The United States experiences 36,000 gun-related deaths and 
more than 100,000 gun-related injuries on average each year, 
translating to about 100 deaths every day.\2\ Unfortunately, 
children have not been shielded from this tragic history. Gun 
violence is the second-leading cause of death among children 
overall and the first-leading cause of death among Black 
children.\3\ And while schools should be safe havens where 
children are protected from violence, it is a uniquely American 
reality that students are injured or killed on their way to and 
from school, in school, and at school-hosted events. Since the 
Columbine High School massacre in 1999, mass school shootings 
have been on the rise. As the Committee discussed during the 
hearing on ``The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practices in 
Education to Assist Students Impacted by Gun Violence and Other 
Adversities'', children in the United States face the 
devastating trauma of gun violence more frequently than 
anywhere else in the world. From Sandy Hook to Chicago, gun 
violence in and around schools is a national crisis that 
continues to claim the lives of our students and educators and 
deserves Congressional attention.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\Everytown For Gun Safety, Gun Violence in America (2020), 
https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-america/.
    \3\Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web-based Injury 
Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), ``Fatal Injury 
Reports,'' last accessed Feb. 20, 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/injury/
wisqars (Calculations include children ages 0-17 and were based on the 
most recent available data: 2017).
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    Without a concerted response gun violence in schools will 
continue to be part of life in American schools. According to 
Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy organization founded in 
response to Sandy Hook which attempts to track gunfire 
incidents in schools, 2018 was the worst year for school 
shootings since 2013.\4\ The Committee recalls that early in 
2018, an announcement by Everytown on the number of school 
shootings in 2018 became a fierce topic of partisan debate.\5\ 
If policymakers do not have agreed upon statistical data about 
the nature of the problem of gun violence in schools, there is 
little chance of developing solutions to the problem. The 
Committee believes H.R. 4301, the School Shooting Safety and 
Preparedness Act, is a small but crucial first step in making 
sure that a federal response to gun violence in schools is 
evidence-based instead of politically expedient.
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    \4\Everytown for Gun Safety, Gunfire on School Grounds in the 
United States, last accessed Dec. 19, 2020, https://
maps.everytownresearch.org/gunfire-in-school/#ns.
    \5\John Woodrow Cox & Steven Rich, No, there haven't been 18 school 
shootings in 2018. That number is flat wrong., Wash. Post Feb. 15, 
2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/no-there-havent-been-18-
school-shooting-in-2018-that-number-is-flat-wrong/2018/02/15/65b6cf72-
1264-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html.
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    Policymakers can either commit to solving the problem or 
use it to advance partisan agendas. The Committee has deep 
concerns that the issue of gun violence in schools is 
especially susceptible to politicization. When a mass school 
shooting occurs, it dominates news cycles and drives rash 
policy. And while no one disagrees that these events deserve 
attention, they often overshadow the daily incidents of gun 
violence that occur in and around schools throughout America. 
Until we have comprehensive data on gun violence in America as 
proposed in H.R. 4301, we are destined to lurch from one mass 
casualty event to another, resulting in the politicization of 
the issue.
    The Committee has already seen what playing politics with 
school shootings looks like. The most recent example occurred 
in the wake of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas 
High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, which 
took 17 lives.\6\ One month after the tragedy, President Trump 
announced the establishment of the Federal Commission on School 
Safety (Commission). Chaired by U.S. Secretary of Education 
Betsy DeVos, the President tasked the Commission with making 
policy recommendations on the issue of school safety and 
violence; this charge included everything related to school 
climate and safety matters except, puzzlingly, for the role of 
guns in gun violence.\7\ Secretary DeVos admitted as much 
before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, 
and Human Services that studying guns was not a part of the 
Commission's charge.\8\ In response, then-Ranking Member Scott 
sent a letter to Secretary DeVos requesting clarification on 
the discrepancy considering the wide acceptance by school 
safety professionals that ``a core element of combatting school 
violence is addressing gun violence both in our schools and 
communities.''\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\Laurel Wamsley & Richard Gonzales, 17 People Died in the 
Parkland Shooting. Here Are Their Names, NPR Feb. 15, 2018, https://
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/15/586095587/17-people-died-in-
the-parkland-shooting-here-are-their-names.
    \7\The White House, Factsheet, President Donald J. Trump is Taking 
Immediate Actions to Secure Our Schools, Mar. 12, 2018 https://
www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-
taking-immediate-actions-secure-schools/.
    \8\Letter from Rep. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Ranking Member and 
16 other Minority Members of the H. Comm. on Educ. & the Workforce, to 
The Honorable Betsy DeVos, Secretary, U.S. Dep't of Educ. (June 8, 
2018).
    \9\Id.
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    Instead, the Commission appeared to focus considerable 
attention on the Obama Administration's 2014 School Discipline 
guidance package, which was issued to help schools understand 
their obligations to administer discipline in schools without 
discriminating against students on the basis of race, color, or 
national origin, as required under Title VI of the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964. Long before the tragedy in Parkland, this guidance 
package had been considered a target for rescission by the 
Trump Administration.\10\ And almost immediately after the 
shooting at Parkland, some Congressional Republicans wrongly 
placed blame on the guidance by questioning whether the shooter 
evaded police identification as a threat because his school did 
not appropriately discipline him.\11\
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    \10\Mark Keirleber, Is DeVos Near Ending School Discipline Reform 
After Talks on Race, School Safety? The 74 Million. (Nov. 20, 2017), 
https://www.the74million.org/article/is-devos-near-ending-school-
discipline-reform-after-talks-on-race-safety/.
    \11\E.g., Erica Green, Trump Finds Unlikely Culprit in School 
Shootings: Obama Discipline Policies, N.Y. Times A10 (Mar. 14, 2018).
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    This political approach runs counter to that of the Obama-
era discipline guidance package. The 2014 guidance laid out 
irrefutable facts: Black students are more than three times as 
likely as their white peers to be disciplined.\12\ Students of 
color are overrepresented in school suspensions and expulsions. 
Black and Latino students make up over half of all school-
related arrests.\13\ Contrary to the dubious research on school 
discipline disparities cited in the Commission's report, these 
disparities are not a result of more frequent or serious 
infractions committed by students of color.\14\ Nor are these 
data a result of inherent, temperamental differences between 
Black and white children. This false assertion has been 
debunked and its use of in a federal report prompted 
Congressional requests for the Secretary's resignation.\15\
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    \12\U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Dear 
Colleague Letter (2014) https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/
letters/colleague-201401-title-vi.html
    \13\Id.
    \14\Id.
    \15\Bailey Vogt, Katherine Clark calls for Betsy DeVos to resign 
for `cherry-picked racist research', Wash. Times (April 1, 2019).
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    A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report 
substantiated those disparate data points a month after the 
shooting at Parkland.\16\ The report found that Black students 
accounted for 15.5 percent of all public school students, but 
represented about 39 percent of students suspended from 
school--an overrepresentation of about 23 percentage 
points.\17\ Differences in discipline were particularly large 
between Black and White students. Although there were 
approximately 17.4 million more White students than Black 
students attending K-12 public schools in 2013-14, nearly 
176,000 more Black students than White students were suspended 
from school that school year.\18\ The guidance package, 
grounded in decades of research, was created to help schools 
confront those hard facts and the racial bias that perpetuates 
them.
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    \16\U.S. Gov't Accountability Off., GAO-18-258, K-12 EDUCATION: 
Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with 
Disabilities (2018), https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-258.
    \17\Id. at 12-13.
    \18\Id. at 13.
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    The Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting was not committed by 
a student of color (the little research that exists about 
school shootings indicate mass school shooters tend to be white 
males, as in this case).\19\ The Commission ultimately 
recommended in a federal report to rescind the school 
discipline guidance package without any evidence that the 
implementation of the guidance causes or contributes to mass 
school shootings.\20\ Indeed, earlier this year, the GAO found 
no empirical research in the last ten years linking school 
discipline practices with mass school shootings.\21\ Three days 
after the Commission's recommendation, Secretary DeVos 
officially rescinded the guidance, less than one year after the 
Parkland shooting.\22\ The Department used a report on school-
targeted shootings, which occur more frequently at schools with 
predominantly white student populations, to rescind guidance 
designed in part to ensure equitable treatment for students of 
color.\23\
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    \19\Everytown For Gun Safety, Everytown Research & Policy, last 
accessed Dec. 23, 2020, https://everytownresearch.org/stat/70-of-mass-
school-shooters-and-attempted-mass-school-shooters-were-white-males/.
    \20\Fed. Comm'n on Sch. Safety, Final Report 72 (2018), https://
www2.ed.gov/documents/school-safety/school-safety-report.pdf.
    \21\U.S. Gov't Accountability Off., GAO-20-455, K-12 EDUCATION: 
Characteristics of School Shootings https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/
707468.pdf
    \22\U.S. Dept's of Educ. & Just., Joint letter rescinding 2014 
School Discipline Guidance Package (Dec. 21, 2018) https://www2.ed.gov/
about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201812.pdf.
    \23\See U.S. Gov't Accountability Office GAO-20-455, K-12 
EDUCATION: Characteristics of School Shootings 22-23 (2020) (suggesting 
that schools with higher minority populations had more school shootings 
generally, but schools with lower minority populations had more 
``school-targeted'' shootings, the FBI term used to describe shootings 
like Columbine, Parkland, or Sandy Hook); see also Letter from Rep. 
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Chrmn., H. Comm. on Educ. & the Workforce, 
to The Honorable Betsy DeVos, Secretary, U.S. Dep't of Educ. (Sept. 23, 
2020) (``. . . it is unclear why the Department would use a report on 
school-targeted shootings, which occur more frequently at schools with 
predominantly white student populations, to rescind guidance designed 
in part to ensure equitable treatment for students of color.'').
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    When a tragedy occurs that grips the national conscience, 
Congress holds hearings in which experts explain the same 
research: though even one mass school shooting is one too many, 
they are the outlier in a sea of ongoing gun violence in our 
communities that surround and permeate school grounds. 
Community gun violence is an adverse childhood experience (ACE) 
that inflicts trauma and has ripple effects in children's 
lives, from their school attendance, academic achievement, 
psychological development, and even their lifetime 
earnings.\24\ Experts have also shared there are multiple ways 
to do due diligence before the legal sale of firearms such as 
universal background checks.\25\ But each time, Congressmembers 
listen, raise their fists in fury at the perpetrators, and 
offer their thoughts and prayers with the victims and a moment 
of silence.
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    \24\The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practices in Education to 
Assist Students Impacted by Gun Violence and Other Adversities: Hearing 
Before the Subcomm. on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Educ. 
Of the House Comm. on Educ. & Lab. 116th Cong., (2019) (testimony of 
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Surgeon General, State of California).
    \25\Markup of H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019: 
Markup Hearing Before the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 116th Cong. (2019) 
(opening statement of Chrmn. Jerrold Nadler).
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    It is a moral imperative that instead of playing politics 
when these tragedies occur, Congress follows the evidence 
offered by the experts to act. H.R. 4301 is a small but crucial 
step in that direction of following the evidence. Without 
accurate, comparable data over incidents and years, and without 
uniform definitions for school shooting and mass school 
shooting, we will not be properly equipped to make sound policy 
choices. We will continue to do more of what has already been 
done: wander aimlessly into prayers instead of evidenced-based 
solutions, tripping over the facts into pitfalls of politics 
and opinions. Thousands of students all over the country 
marched the streets to ask policymakers to pass evidenced-based 
solutions to shield them from gun violence.\26\ Parkland 
survivor and student activist Emma Gonzalez would not have 
called on students to ``fight for your lives before it's 
somebody else's job'' if ``thoughts and prayers'' floor 
speeches were enough to be responsive to the need.\27\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \26\Rebecca Shabad et al., At March for Our Lives, survivors lead 
hundreds of thousands in call for change, MSNBC, (Mar. 24, 2018) 
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/march-our-lives-draws-hundreds-
thousands-washington-around-nation-n859716.
    \27\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    It is the Committee's hope that just as a hard look at ED's 
data on racial discipline disparities drove evidenced-based 
policy change, that a federally-recognized data collection on 
school shootings will help the country face a more pervasive 
problem than the mass school shootings that make headlines that 
can spur policy change. They are the daily gun-related violence 
incidents that occur before and after school, on the way to or 
from school, at school-related events and oftentimes not 
committed by students, in communities plagued by inequities and 
trauma which are currently invisible. These types of shootings 
are actually more prevalent than mass shootings but receive 
little attention.\28\ Collecting data brings to the forefront 
what we may have otherwise ignored.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\GAO-20-455 at 23.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    H.R. 4301 also directs ED, in consultation with DOJ and 
HHS, to annually report on indicators of school safety for 
school shootings that occur. This includes statistics on school 
shootings, such as the number of shootings, the number of 
people killed, demographics of shooters and victims, the 
motivation of shooters, types of firearms and ammunition used, 
how the firearm was acquired, and more. And to ground this work 
in education, it is the Committee's intent that local school 
officials use other relevant sources of pre-existing data to 
evaluate post-shooting effects on school communities, such as 
academic achievement, student and teacher absenteeism, and 
indicators of school climate such as discipline and crime 
statistics data. By shining a light on how gun violence in 
schools actually effects the education of students in those 
schools, the Committee expects this robust data collection to 
paint a broader, more accurate picture of what gun violence in 
American schools looks like, in the hope of providing Congress 
with information necessary to enact meaningful policy to reduce 
it.
    Just a few hours after the markup for H.R. 4301, the same 
day, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force chaired by 
Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) held a Forum on the impact 
of gun violence on children. The Task Force, which was 
established after the tragedy of Sandy Hook, hosted the 
following panelists: Dr. Garen J. Wintemute, M.D., M.P.H., gun 
violence researcher at University of California, Davis; Destini 
Pilpot of Baltimore Students Demand Action; Ray McMurrey, 
Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers 
(AFT), Texas; Leslie Boggs, National Parent Teacher Association 
(PTA) President; and Col. Edwin C. Roessler, Chief of Police in 
Fairfax, Virginia. Rep. McBath attended the forum and posed a 
question to Dr. Wintemute about whether data collection would 
be a helpful first step in addressing gun violence in schools. 
Dr. Wintemute stressed the importance of data collection, 
because there are ``very limited data'' regarding shootings and 
gun violence in schools and across communities generally. The 
Committee believes the data collection required under H.R. 4301 
would help Congress address not only mass school shootings but 
also violence in our most underserved communities. Conflicts 
are rarely confined to just the school or just the community, 
so data on school shootings will illuminate community violence 
issues as well, an important benefit to H.R. 4301's data 
collection. As Rep. Omar said during the markup on H.R. 4301, 
if Members of Congress are ``debating the simple notion of 
collecting data and what should be included in that data'' it 
is difficult to have a constructive debate on how to solve the 
underlying issue. With data, Congress can better consider 
effective policy solutions.
    Though H.R. 4301 is not moving forward in the 116th 
Congress, the Committee is hopeful it can remain as part of the 
larger conversation to addressing school violence in future 
Congresses.

                      Section-by-Section Analysis


Section 1. Short title

    This section states that the title of the bill the ``School 
Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act.''

Section 2. Definitions

    This section defines the terms ``firearm'' and ammunition'' 
as such terms are defined in criminal code. It also defines the 
term ``large capacity ammunition feeding device'' as such term 
was defined in criminal code prior to the expiration of the 
assault weapons ban. The section defines the term ``school'' to 
be inclusive of educational setting from early childhood 
through post-secondary education. It creates new definitions 
for the terms ``mass shooting'' and ``school shooting.''

Section 3. Annual report on indicators of school crime and safety

    Requires the Secretary of Education, in consultation with 
the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, to annually publish a report on indicators of school 
crime and safety. Such report is already produced under 
existing authority of the National Center for Education 
Statistics, so the effect of this section is to require future 
reports to include statistics on school shootings, historic 
statistics on school shootings, and data on safety and 
prevention.

                       Explanation of Amendments

    The Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute are explained 
in the descriptive portions of this report.

              Application of Law to the Legislative Branch

    H.R. 4301 does not apply to terms and conditions of 
employment or to access to public services or accommodations 
within the legislative branch.

                       Unfunded Mandate Statement

    The Committee adopts as its own the estimate of federal 
mandates regarding H.R. 4301, as amended, prepared by the 
Director of the Congressional Budget Office.

                           Earmark Statement

    In accordance with clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, H.R. 4301 does not contain any 
congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff 
benefits as described in clauses 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule 
XXI.

                            Roll Call Votes

    In compliance with clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, the Committee advises that the 
following roll call votes occurred during the Committee's 
consideration of H.R. 4301:

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

             Statement of Performance Goals and Objectives

    Pursuant to clause (3)(c) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, the goals of H.R. 4301 are to direct 
the Secretary of Education to collect and report data relevant 
to school shootings.

                    Duplication of Federal Programs

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(5) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, the Committee states that no 
provision of H.R. 4301 establishes or reauthorizes a program of 
the Federal Government known to be duplicative of another 
federal program, a program that was included in any report from 
the Government Accountability Office to Congress pursuant to 
section 21 of Public Law 111-139, or a program related to a 
program identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal 
Domestic Assistance.

                                Hearings

    For the purposes of section 103(i) of H. Res. 6 for the 
116th Congress, the Committee held a legislative hearing 
entitled ``The Importance of Trauma-Informed Practices in 
Education to Assist Students Impacted by Gun Violence and Other 
Adversities'' on September 11, 2019, which was used to consider 
H.R. 4301. The Committee heard testimony on the science of 
trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); how gun 
violence impacts student mental health and achievement; and how 
schools require more resources to mitigate the effects of gun 
violence.
    The Committee heard testimony from: Dr. Nadine Burke 
Harris, Surgeon General of California; Dr. Ingrida Barker, 
Associate Superintendent of McDowell County Schools, West 
Virginia; Dr. Janice Jackson, CEO of Chicago Public Schools; 
and Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction.

  Statement of Oversight Findings and Recommendations of the Committee

    In compliance with clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII and clause 
2(b)(1) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives, 
the Committee's oversight findings and recommendations are 
reflected in the descriptive portions of this report.

               New Budget Authority and CBO Cost Estimate

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives and section 308(a) of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, and pursuant to clause 
3(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives and section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act 
of 1974, the Committee has received the following estimate for 
H.R. 4301 from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                  Washington, DC, October 11, 2019.
Hon. Bobby Scott,
Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 4301, the School 
Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Leah 
Koestner.
            Sincerely,
                                         Phillip L. Swagel,
                                                          Director.
    Enclosure.

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    

    H.R. 4301 would require the Secretary of Education, in 
coordination with the Attorney General and the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services, to publish an annual report on 
school crime and safety, including statistics on school 
shootings.
    Based on the cost to prepare similar reports, CBO estimates 
that it would cost less than $500,000 each year and $1 million 
over the 2020-2024 period to collect data and write the annual 
report. Any spending would be subject to the availability of 
appropriated amounts.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Leah Koestner. 
The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy 
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

                        Committee Cost Estimate

    Clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives requires an estimate and a comparison of the 
costs that would be incurred in carrying out H.R. 4301. 
However, clause 3(d)(2)(B) of that rule provides that this 
requirement does not apply when the committee has included in 
its report a timely submitted cost estimate of the bill 
prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office 
under section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act.

         Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported

    In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by 
the bill, H.R. 4301, as reported, are shown as follows:

                             MINORITY VIEWS

    Every Republican Member on this Committee believes all 
schools should be safe for our children and any child dealing 
with trauma should receive the services necessary to heal, but 
that was not the focus of the markup on September 18, 2019. 
Instead, the majority brought forward a gun control bill, 
introduced only one week prior to the markup. This partisan 
legislation, disguised as a data collection bill, was pushed 
through the Committee without a single hearing--denying Members 
an opportunity to thoroughly review the bill's substance. The 
Democrats' own panelist at a school safety forum in March 2018 
rightly noted that ``gun safety is not in the purview of this 
committee . . .''\1\ This is probably why the majority brought 
a bill on statistics that they claimed was about school safety. 
Committee Republicans worked to improve this flawed bill by 
offering an amendment that would better provide policymakers, 
school leaders, families, and other members of the public with 
accurate information on school crime and safety indicators from 
the relevant federal agencies already collecting this data.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Cornell, Dewey G., University of Virginia, PhD, written 
statement for the ``Forum on School Safety,'' hosted by Committee 
Democrats and Democratic Leadership, House Committee on Education and 
the Workforce, March 20, 2018, Page 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    H.R. 4301 was crafted to fit the majority's narrative by 
creating new definitions of terms and requiring revisions to 
past reports. This bill is not about evidence. If it was, then 
the discussion would have focused on how the Department of 
Education (Department) can be a helpful partner to law 
enforcement and health officials in collecting data that all 
parties understand and agree is valid and reliable, which the 
Republican substitute included. If the majority wanted a 
serious discussion on school safety, they could have held a 
legislative hearing to gain insight from subject matter experts 
and researchers on identifying what data is unnecessary, what 
data is useful and already collected, how that data could be 
improved, what additional data might be needed, and whether or 
not that data collection is feasible. A hearing on this type of 
data collection could have also provided an opportunity to talk 
and listen to school leaders and parents about what information 
they would like to see so they can better inform themselves and 
do their part to help schools remain safe. Instead, the 
majority rushed a bill through the Committee process that is 
flawed in its design and execution.

                         Confusion in the Field

    In expanding current definitions and creating new 
definitions, the majority is developing a new collection of 
information that will likely cause confusion in the broader 
field of research and lead to further debates without the 
ability to act on the information. For example, creating a new 
definition of ``mass shooting'' or ``school shooting'' is not 
simple. Understanding how those or comparable terms are used in 
other data collections is important to ensure policymakers can 
crosscheck the data for consistency in both data sets. 
Otherwise, the same incident could be included in two different 
collections but not reported consistently because of differing 
definitions. When one data collection reports four victims of a 
mass shooting, including the shooter, but another data 
collection includes the same incident but reports only three 
victims because it does not count the shooter, the data gets 
muddled and is unreliable. This bill creates a definition of 
``school shooting'' that includes an event or occurrence that 
occurred on school grounds even if before or after school 
hours, which could capture incidents wholly separate from the 
school or school system. When that definition includes 
incidents that occurred while a victim was traveling to or from 
a regular session at school, the data could include a random 
act of violence that is completely separate from the school or 
the school system. Without consistent data that experts, 
schools, parents, and policymakers generally agree is helpful, 
school and community leaders could establish inappropriate 
interventions or, worse, could provide parents or students with 
a false sense of security or insecurity.

                       Data Collection Challenges

    In addition to concerns about creating new definitions for 
data collection purposes, the scope of the data collection is 
equally problematic. When the data collection required is 
focused just on gun crimes and does not put equal thought or 
emphasis to other crimes, such as stabbings or sexual assault, 
the data will be skewed to present an inaccurate picture of 
what is happening in schools. The over emphasis on gun violence 
is detrimental to solving problems impacting school safety. The 
Democrats spent a lot of time talking about using the word 
``shooting,'' but that actually highlights the flaw in their 
proposal. They create new reporting metrics on guns, but never 
mention sexual assaults, stabbings, bullying, harassment, or 
assaults. These and other issues are some of the things 
students and teachers face every day in schools and instead of 
picking and choosing which issues the federal government deems 
important, or more important, the Republican substitute 
amendment required experts to review available data and 
determine if it provided an accurate picture of what is 
happening in schools. Further, if the available data did not 
accurately show what is happening in schools, then the 
amendment directs researchers to identify what is needed. 
Instead of being singularly focused on gun control, the 
Republican substitute amendment was singularly focused on 
school safety.
    Moving beyond the concerns with the data specific elements 
of the bill, the legislation has several flaws in the execution 
of the data expected to be collected. Thankfully, the Democrats 
corrected some errors in the bill in the amendment in the 
nature of a substitute they offered and was adopted, such as 
removing the requirement to report the criminal record of the 
shooter that indicates a tendency toward violence. 
Unfortunately, the Democrats left in other problematic 
provisions that a simple call to the Department could have 
highlighted as concerns. For instance, the Department cannot 
reliably determine how guns were stored or the motivation of 
the shooter. The Department also could not determine the 
details of how the shooter was stopped beyond reading public 
media accounts or accessing police records. Requiring the 
Department to collect data they do not currently have, 
accessing police records, and creating new definitions are some 
of the several areas where simple assistance from experts could 
have improved this bill. Even the privacy protections, while 
important, were something that should have been discussed 
considering that these are low incident events, meaning that 
the sample size is so small it would be hard to report anything 
that didn't reveal personally identifiable information.
    The idea of doing a retroactive collection of all the data 
on school shootings in the past is equally concerning, even if 
the information required was easily collected every year moving 
forward. Had researchers been consulted, the Committee could 
have discussed the best way to take a historical look at the 
data. Instead of approaching this issue with the diligence it 
deserves and at least discussing general feedback from the 
office tasked with doing this collection under the bill, the 
Democrats moved forward with a requirement to collect data for 
shootings that occurred ``before the date of the enactment of 
the Act,'' meaning going back to the beginning of time trying 
to gather all the objective and subjective data required under 
the law. This type of information gathering poses concerns 
about data reliability and could cause additional trauma to the 
victims of the past events.

                          Flawed Data Elements

    It is also important to point out the flawed firearm-
specific data elements included in the Democrats' bill. The 
requirements range from possibly helpful information to law 
enforcement to data requirements that are very personally 
intrusive in the lives of everyday Americans. For instance, 
knowing the weapon and ammunition used in a school shooting 
could help police track down a suspect or prevent a future 
crime, but it is not likely to help a principal or school board 
develop or enforce any particular safety policy. Knowing how a 
gun was purchased--whether it was from a licensed gun dealer or 
an unlicensed sale--may, again, help law enforcement track down 
a suspect, or even help policymakers with jurisdiction over 
criminal activity have a better understanding of where problems 
may exist in the purchase pipeline, but it does not help 
educators keep a school safe. Knowing how a gun was stored or 
if the original purchaser of the firearm was not the shooter 
but the firearm was obtained from the shooter's home may be of 
interest to the police or the state, but the Department 
certainly is not best suited to gather that information. 
Capturing the motivation of the shooter, including any real or 
perceived bias, could help improve measures taken by school 
leaders and parents to improve school safety, but as that is 
subjective information, it is difficult to include in a data 
driven report. The Democrats require the report to include the 
demographics of each victim, the demographics of the shooters, 
and the relationship to the school of each shooter. This is 
likely helpful information to schools and policymakers to 
understand who is involved in school shootings, but 
policymakers should be leery of drawing any hard conclusions 
about who is vulnerable to a possible incident in the future 
based on such data.
    In addition to the firearm related data, the report must 
include data on the existence or absence of prevention measures 
at the school which could be helpful information to 
policymakers and school leaders and why Republicans included 
similar reporting on these topics in the Republican substitute 
amendment. The Republican substitute also went one step further 
in charging researchers with making recommendations on these 
issues if there is sufficient evidence to inform any such 
conclusions. The Democrats' bill predetermines the preventive 
measures schools should take without encouraging the Department 
to evaluate the effectiveness of the preventative measures.

                        Politics Over Substance

    As discussed above, there is no disagreement about whether 
data on school safety, including data on gun violence, could be 
helpful which is why it is disappointing that the Democrats 
took a partisan approach to an inherently nonpartisan issue. If 
the Committee held a hearing on this bill, then all members 
could have heard from, and engaged in, a productive, data-
driven discussion with real school safety experts. That 
testimony could have informed us about what data elements to 
collect, what terms to use, and whom to involve in the report. 
Instead, the Democrats rushed a gun control bill through under 
the guise of ``school safety.''

                          Data Already Exists

    The truth of the matter is that the federal government 
already has a significant amount of data on school safety. The 
very report that is codified in the bill and the Republican 
substitute has been produced for decades and is full of helpful 
information on school shootings and, importantly, many other 
crime and safety indicators. In fact, the 2018 indicators 
report\2\ included data points and analysis, such as:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\https://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/key.asp
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
           A total of 38 student, staff, and non-
        student school-associated violent deaths occurred 
        between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, which included 
        30 homicides, seven suicides, and one legal 
        intervention death;
           Between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016, 
        a total of 18 of the 1,478 homicides of school-age 
        youth (ages 5-18) occurred at school and during the 
        same period, three of the 1,941 total suicides of 
        school-age youth occurred at school;
           The percentage of public school teachers 
        reporting that they had been physically attacked by a 
        student from their school in 2015-16 (6 percent) was 
        higher than in all previous survey years (around 4 
        percent in each survey year) except in 2011-12, when 
        the percentage was not measurably different from that 
        in 2015-16; and
           In 2017, about 6 percent of students 
        ages 12-18 reported being called hate-related words at 
        school during the school year, representing a decrease 
        from 12 percent in 2001. This percentage also decreased 
        between 2001 and 2017 for male and female students as 
        well as for White, Black, and Hispanic students.
    These points are just examples of the breadth of 
information in this existing report and the material is 
provided in a way that school leaders, community leaders, and 
parents can create meaningful school safety policies informed 
by meaningful data and other information.
    In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation active 
shooter report provides specific information on school 
shootings. That report includes information on the number of 
active shooter incidents and breaks down where they occurred 
and what happened. The 2018 active shooter report\3\ tells us:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\FBI Active Shooter Report, 2018, https://www.fbi.gov/file-
repository/active-shooter-incidents-in-the-us-2018-041019.pdf/view
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
           That five of the 27 incidents in 2018 
        occurred in educational environments;
           That four occurred in high school and 
        one in middle school;
           That 29 people were killed and 50 people 
        were injured; and
           How the perpetrator was apprehended or 
        the situation ended.
    In addition to information from those reports, the Centers 
for Disease Control has information on school violence\4\ that 
breaks down the causes and trends. It also links to vital 
resources to help parents, school faculty, officials, and other 
community leaders address some of the issues affecting their 
students and schools. Under the Republican substitute, all of 
these entities would be working together to help disseminate 
the best available information from each agency.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/
schoolviolence/fastfact.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Democrats also pointed to other, existing school 
shooting data. One Member noted that since the Sandy Hook 
tragedy there have been 473 incidents of gunfire on school 
grounds resulting in 182 deaths. Another Member noted that 
since the Sandy Hook tragedy there have been 2,226 mass 
shootings in America. One Member noted historical trend data 
and discussed how last year was the worst year on record since 
1970 for school shootings. All of this information was provided 
to them and the source of the information was trusted enough 
they chose to include it as a part of the debate on the bill. A 
discussion about the meaning of that data--if it is accurate 
and reliable--could have occurred at a hearing that would have 
informed this bill, but that did not occur.
    Looking back to the forum the Democrats held in 2018, their 
panelist again referenced several data points such as that 
``Over the past 20 years, the United States has experienced an 
average of 22 students murdered at school each year.'' He goes 
on to say though that students are 67 times more likely to be 
murdered outside of school than at school. He follows up that 
data to say ``we do not have a school violence problem, but a 
gun violence problem.''\5\ While Dr. Cornell had 
recommendations for how to prevent this violence, which perhaps 
the Committee could have heard more about if the majority had 
held even a single hearing on this topic, he also had plenty of 
data to build the case for his recommendations. To pretend this 
was a table setting bill to gather evidence about school 
shootings is not accurate as it is apparent that the evidence 
and data are available leaving a serious discussion on the 
matter missing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\Cornell, Dewey G., University of Virginia, PhD, written 
statement for the ``Forum on School Safety,'' hosted by Committee 
Democrats and Democratic Leadership, House Committee on Education and 
the Workforce, March 20, 2018, Page 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                 Democrats Ignore Bipartisan Proposals

    If the majority wanted to address the issue of school 
safety, then they would have considered any number of 
bipartisan bills that have already been introduced or 
consolidated these proposals into a larger school safety 
package. There are a lot of ideas out there and while 
Republicans and Democrats might not agree on everything, 
necessitating tough discussion and compromise, there are 
proposals that have been introduced that this Committee could 
considere before rushing through this flawed bill.

                         Republican Substitute

    The Republican substitute amendment embraced ensuring that 
this important safety information continues to be provided by 
the Department. The amendment sought to codify an existing 
annual, informative report on school crime and safety 
indicators and provided an opportunity for subject matter 
experts to determine if the right data is available and being 
used. This analysis would ensure that the report would be 
helpful for school officials, parents, and policymakers to 
determine what is actually happening in schools and informing 
decisions about what are the best actions to take to best 
protect students. The amendment also required the Department, 
in consultation with the Departments of Justice, Homeland 
Security, and Health and Human Services, to review the 
available data on safety and prevention measures and, if 
sufficient evidence exists, make recommendations about measures 
in schools that could mitigate or prevent crime and safety 
incidents. This is the better way to help school leaders, 
communities, students, and families.

                               Conclusion

    The majority passed a partisan bill that does little to 
provide educators or school staff with the tools to help 
traumatized students. Instead of using the markup to develop 
real solutions to address school safety, the Democrats sought 
political points with unnecessary and over-the-top rhetoric. 
What's left is a flawed bill that includes far-reaching, 
unworkable, and intrusive data collection requirements. In 
contrast, Republicans remain ready to engage in a serious 
conversation on school safety. As demonstrated just last 
Congress when the leaders of both parties on this Committee 
worked together to support increased funding to help keep our 
schools and students safe, when Republicans and Democrats 
cooperate, we can make a positive difference for American 
schools and schoolchildren.
                                   Virginia Foxx,
                                           Ranking Member.
                                   Glenn ``GT'' Thompson.
                                   Tim Walberg.
                                   Glenn Grothman.
                                   James Comer.
                                   Ben Cline.
                                   Dusty Johnson.

                                  [all]