[House Report 117-307]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
117th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2d Session } { 117-307
======================================================================
SCHOOL SHOOTING SAFETY AND PREPAREDNESS ACT
_______
May 6, 2022.--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. 5428]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 5428) 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.................................................. 7
Section-by-Section Analysis...................................... 13
Explanation of Amendments........................................ 14
Application of Law to the Legislative Branch..................... 14
Unfunded Mandate Statement....................................... 14
Earmark Statement................................................ 14
Roll Call Votes.................................................. 14
Statement of Performance Goals and Objectives.................... 19
Duplication of Federal Programs.................................. 19
Hearings......................................................... 19
Statement of Oversight Findings and Recommendations of the
Committee...................................................... 19
New Budget Authority and CBO Cost Estimate....................... 19
Committee Cost Estimate.......................................... 20
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............ 21
Minority Views................................................... 22
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'' means an
event or occurrence--
(A) during which one or more individuals were injured
or killed by a firearm; and
(B) 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.
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 2021-092 issued in July 2021, 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) Of the school shootings described in paragraph (1), the
number that were accidents.
(5) 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.
(6) 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.
(7) The time of the shooting and whether it occurred during
school hours.
(8) 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.
(9) 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.
(10) 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.
(11) Whether the shooting was determined to be an accident,
and if not, 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).
(12) 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).
(13) 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.
(14) Where each of the firearms used in each shooting was
obtained and how, including--
(A) whether the firearm was registered;
(B) whether the firearm was purchased from a licensed
gun dealer or an unlicensed sale; and
(C) the geographic location from where the shooter
obtained the firearm.
(15) If the original purchaser was not the shooter, what was,
if any, the original purchaser's relationship to the shooter.
(16) 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.
(17) 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.
(18) How long did the shooting last (the approximate elapsed
time between the first and last shots fired).
(19) 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) A trauma response plan to address trauma resulting from
the shooting, including coordination with school-based
counselors, other school mental health professionals, and
appropriate community partners and organizations, such as
community action programs or agencies.
(7) 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. 5428, 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 data collection. This would also be the first
time these terms would be defined in federal law. In addition
to the number of shootings, H.R. 5428 requires data collection
on a number of factors related to school shootings, including
the number of people killed and injured, the demographics of
the shooter and victims, and the type of gun and ammunition
used, among other factors. 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 entitled
``Best Practices for Making College Campuses Safe'' exploring
how institutions of higher education can better prepare for
mass casualty events in the wake of the mass shooting at
Virginia Tech University on April 16, 2007. Witnesses included:
Mr. Steven J. Healy, President, International Association of
Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) and Director of
Department of Safety, Princeton University; Dr. Louann Kennedy,
former Provost, California State University at Northridge; Dr.
Dewey Cornell, Director, Virginia Youth Violence Project,
University of Virginia School of Education; and, Dr. 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: Mr. Bill Bond, School Safety Specialist,
National Association of Secondary School Principals, Paducah,
KY; Mr. Mo Canady, Executive Director, National Association of
School Resource Officers, Hoover, AL; Mr. Brett Bontrager,
Senior Vice President and Group Executive of Stanley Security
Solutions, Stanley Black & Decker; Mr. Fredrick Ellis, Director
of Office of Safety and Security, Fairfax County Public
Schools, VA; Dr. Vincent Pompei, School Counselor, Val Verde
Unified School District, Perris, CA; and, Dr. 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, FL 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 five years prior.\1\ In the
absence of a hearing despite repeated requests, Ranking Member
Scott hosted a 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, Mrs. 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 manifests 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, WV; Dr. Janice Jackson, CEO,
Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, IL; and, Mrs. 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 in the bill. 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.
117TH CONGRESS
On September 29, 2021, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
introduced H.R. 5428, the School Shooting Preparedness and
Safety Act, with Reps. McBath and Hayes as original co-
sponsors. The bill was referred solely to the Committee on
Education and Labor.
On February 16, 2022, the Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing entitled
``Serving All Students: Promoting a Healthier, More Supportive
School Environment.'' The hearing examined outdated discipline
practices and highlighted ways schools can implement evidence-
based approaches to creating healthy school environments that
support students' social, emotional, and academic development.
During the hearing, members and witnesses also discussed the
trauma of gun violence and the role of common-sense gun reform
as part of the solution to create supportive and healthy
schools. The Committee heard testimony from: Ms. Kristen
Harper, Vice President for Public Policy and Engagement, Child
Trends; Mr. Guy Stephens, Founder and Executive Director,
Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint; Ms. Morgan Craven,
J.D., National Director of Policy, Advocacy and Community
Engagement, Intercultural Development Research Association;
and, Mr. Max Eden, Research Fellow, American Enterprise
Institute.
On March 16, 2022, the Committee considered H.R. 5428 in
legislative session and reported it favorably, as amended, to
the House of Representatives by a recorded vote of 27-21. The
Committee considered the following amendments to H.R. 5428:
Rep. McBath offered an amendment in the
nature of a substitute to make conforming and technical
changes to the bill. The amendment was adopted by a
voice vote.
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) offered an
amendment to the amendment in the nature of a
substitute, representing the minority substitute. The
Owens amendment struck the definitions and mentions of
``school shooting'' and ``mass shooting'' from the bill
and would require the Department of Education to
consult with the Department of Homeland Security in
collecting and publishing data on school safety while
eliminating the detailed data collection on school
shooting collected by the underlying bill. The
amendment was defeated by a recorded vote of 21-28.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) offered an
amendment to include data collection and reporting on
the implementation of bail reform, the presence of
school resource officers at schools, and the
implementation of alternative discipline practices in
school districts that have experienced a school
shooting. The amendment was defeated by a recorded vote
of 22-27.
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) offered an amendment
to include a study regarding school safety and school
choice, including whether increased school choice
increases perceptions of school safety. The amendment
was defeated by a recorded vote of 22-27.
Committee Views
The United States experiences over 40,000 gun-related
deaths and more than 73,000 gun-related injuries on average
each year, equating to more than 110 deaths every day.\2\
Unfortunately, children have not been shielded from this tragic
history. In 2018, gun violence was the leading cause of death
for all children and teens. This marked the first time in our
nation's history that more children and teens died from gun
violence than those that died from motor vehicle accidents.\3\
Black children and teens had the highest gun death rate in
2019, followed by American Indian/Alaska Native children and
teens.\4\ And while schools should be safe havens where
children are protected from gun violence, it is a uniquely
American reality that students are shot 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. A Nov. 30, 2021, shooting in which a
student killed four people and injured seven at an Oxford,
Michigan high school was reported to be the deadliest school
shooting since May 2018.\5\ As the Committee discussed during a
hearing in the 116th Congress, children in the United States
face the devastating trauma of gun violence more frequently
than anywhere else in the world.\6\ From Sandy Hook to
Chicago,\7\ 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.
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\2\Everytown For Gun Safety, Gun Violence in America (2022),
https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-america/.
\3\Children's Def. Fund, The State of America's Children, 2021,
https://www.childrensdefense.org/state-of-americas-children/soac-2021-
gun-violence/ (last visited Mar. 29, 2022).
\4\Id.
\5\Livia Albeck-Ripka & Sophie Kasakove, What We Know About the
Michigan High School Shooting, N.Y. Times, Dec. 19, 2021, https://
www.nytimes.com/article/oxford-school-shooting-michigan.html; Education
Week, School Shootings in 2021: How Many and Where, Education Week,
Mar. 01, 2021, https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-
year-how-many-and-where/2021/03.
\6\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).
\7\Gun violence in America is so prevalent that metonyms like Sandy
Hook and Chicago are ingrained in our discourse, and this shorthand
allows us to reference these events without describing them in detail.
But we should not forget that in 2012, a 20-year-old armed with an
assault rifle walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,
Connecticut and murdered 26 people, 20 of them students between 6 and 7
years old. In 2021, 57 school aged children died in Chicago due to gun
violence, 16 of them in elementary or middle school. In 2020, 49 school
aged children died in Chicago due to gun violence, 12 of them before
they reached high school. Hartford Courant Staff, 28 Dead, Including 20
Children After Shooting Rampage at Sandy Hook School in Newtown,
Hartford Courant, Dec. 14, 2021; Emmanuel Camarillo & Nader Issa,
Murders of students amid the pandemic strain school' ability to cope,
heal, Chicago Sun-Times, Dec. 20, 2021.
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A concerted response is needed to solve the epidemic of gun
violence in American schools. The need is particularly pressing
as our nation's children continue to recover from trauma from
the COVID-19 pandemic and return to in-person learning.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy organization
founded in response to Sandy Hook which attempts to track
gunfire incidents in schools, K-12 schools experienced a
pronounced decrease in gunfire incidents during the COVID-19
pandemic, followed by a rise to pre-pandemic levels as schools
nationwide returned to in-person learning. From March through
December 2020, a period of time in which most schools across
the nation were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were
only 25 reported incidences of gun violence on K-12 school
grounds.\8\ In contrast, the first half of the 2021-2022 school
year, when most students nationwide returned to in-person
learning, had the most reported incidences of gun violence on
school grounds in recent history.\9\ Between August 1 and
December 31, 2021, Everytown counted 123 instances of gun
violence on K-12 school grounds--nearly four times the previous
average for that time period.\10\
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\8\Everytown for Gun Safety, Gunfire on School Grounds in the
United States, (March 29, 2022, 4:08 PM), https://
maps.everytownresearch.org/gunfire-in-school/#ns.
\9\Id.
\10\Id.
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However, there is conflicting data on the number of gunfire
incidents on school grounds throughout the pandemic. According
to the publication Education Week, there were 10 school
shootings in 2020, in contrast to 34 school shootings in 2021,
24 of which occurred after August 1.\11\ This conflict itself
illustrates the need for H.R. 5428. As there is no current
uniform definition of school shooting, and data is collected
and tallied in varied ways by different nongovernmental
organizations, there is no consistent unassailable data source
from which to develop policy. If policymakers do not have
accurate statistical data about the nature of the problem of
gun violence in schools, there is little chance of developing
thoughtful solutions to the problem. The Committee believes
H.R. 5428 is a small but crucial step in making sure that a
federal response to gun violence in schools is evidence-based
instead of politically expedient.
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\11\Education Week, supra note 5.
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Policymakers can either commit to solving problems or use
them 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, mass shootings often overshadow the daily incidents
of gun violence that occur in and around schools throughout
America. As Kristen Harper, Vice President for Public Policy
and Engagement for Child Trends, said during the Committee's
February 16, 2022 hearing on promoting a healthier, more
supportive school environment, ``the pattern of providing
support to schools only after tragedy undermines the work [as]
schools need consistent support so that they have the resources
they need to focus on services and relationships so that
tragedies do not happen.''\12\ Until we have comprehensive data
on gun violence in America as proposed in H.R. 5428, we are
destined to lurch from one mass casualty event to another,
resulting in the politicization of the issue.
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\12\Serving All Students: Promoting a Healthier, More Supportive
School Environment: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Early Childhood,
Elementary & Secondary Educ. of the H. Comm. on Educ. & Lab., 117th
Cong. (2022).
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Regrettably, the Committee saw the tragedy of school
shootings succumb to political machinations. In the wake of the
school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in
Parkland, FL on February 14, 2018, which took 17 lives,\13\
former President Trump announced the establishment of the
Federal Commission on School Safety (Commission).\14\ The
Commission was charged to make policy recommendations on many
issues surrounding school safety and violence, except,
puzzlingly, for the role of guns in gun violence.\15\ Instead,
the Commission focused 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, or
adversely effecting school safety.\16\ 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. This political
approach ran counter to that of the Obama-era discipline
guidance package.\17\ At the Commission's recommendation, then-
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded
the School Discipline guidance package without any evidence
that the implementation of the guidance caused or contributed
to mass school shootings.\18\
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\13\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.
\14\The White House, Factsheet, President Donald J. Trump is Taking
Immediate Actions to Secure Our Schools, Mar. 12, 2018 (Archived
Location: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/
president-donald-j-trump-taking-immediate-actions-secure-schools/).
\15\Id.
\16\See U.S. Dept's of Educ. & Just., Joint ``Dear Colleague''
Letter on the Nondiscriminatory Administration of School Discipline
(Jan. 8, 2014) https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/
colleague-201401-title-vi.html (archived, under review).
\17\E.g., Erica Green, Trump Finds Unlikely Culprit in School
Shootings: Obama Discipline Policies, N.Y. TIMES A10 (Mar. 14, 2018).
\18\Fed. Comm'n on Sch. Safety, Final Report 72 (2018), https://
www2.ed.gov/documents/school-safety/school-safety-report.pdf; 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 (archived, under review).
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Statistical evidence of disparities in school suspension
and exclusionary practices, which disproportionately impact
students of color and students with disabilities, was a focal
point of the rescinded guidance package.\19\ Contrary to the
dubious research on school discipline disparities cited in the
Commission's report, the 2014 guidance package laid out that
these disparities are not a result of more frequent or serious
infractions committed by students of color.\20\ Nor are
discipline disparities a result of inherent, temperamental
differences between Black and white children. A Government
Accountability Office (GAO) report substantiated those
disparate data points a month after the shooting at
Parkland.\21\ Additionally, in a 2020 report on the
characteristics of school shootings, GAO examined 318 school
shootings over the 2009 10 to 2018-19 school years and found no
empirical research linking school discipline practices with
mass school shootings.\22\
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\19\U.S. Dept. of Educ., Guiding Principles, A Resource for
Improving School Climate and Discipline (January 2014) https://
www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/guiding-principles.pdf
(archived, under review).
\20\Id.
\21\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. 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. 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.
\22\U.S. Gov't Accountability Off., GAO-20-455, K-12 EDUCATION:
Characteristics of School Shootings (2020) https://www.gao.gov/assets/
gao-20-455.pdf.
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Yet Committee Republicans used the markup of H.R. 5428 to
insinuate once again some connection between certain school
discipline practices and school shootings where none has been
found. This insinuation was taken a step further in the
amendment offered by Rep. Stefanik during the mark up of H.R.
5428. The amendment required data collection and reporting on
the implementation of bail reform, the presence of school
resource officers at schools, and the implementation of
alternative discipline practices in districts that have
experienced a school shooting. It should be underscored that
bail reform is significantly beyond the scope of the
Committee's jurisdiction. Furthermore, research shows that
while school resource officers do effectively reduce some forms
of violence in schools, they do not prevent school shootings or
gun-related incidents.\23\ And the suggestion that alternative
discipline practices may be related to school shootings runs
counter to the GAO findings and are not founded upon evidence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\23\Montserrat Avila Acosta et al., The Thin Blue Line in Schools:
New Evidence on School-Based Policing Across the U.S. 3 (Annenberg
Inst. at Brown U. EdWorking Paper No. 21-476), https://
www.edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai21-476.pdf.
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The Committee hopes that by providing a clear definition as
to what a school shooting is, H.R. 5428 will paint a fuller
picture of the issue of gun violence in schools. While tragic
mass shootings grip the national conscience and spur
policymaking, experts have told us these mass shootings are
outliers compared to the ongoing gun violence in schools,
around school grounds, and in communities. 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\ The
Committee notes that mass shootings will continue to receive
media attention and outsized focus, but it hopes that data
collection required by H.R. 5428 will paint an equally
compelling picture of the persistent trauma caused by gun
violence experienced in too many schools around the country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While H.R. 5428 is focused on gun violence in schools and
surrounding communities, Committee Republicans chose to focus
their attention on school choice. This was exemplified most by
an amendment during markup that sought to use school shootings
as a platform for advancing school privatization. The Allen
amendment to H.R. 5428 proposed a study on the effect of school
safety on school choice, including whether increased school
choice increases perceptions of school safety. Given that over
91 percent of students in America attend public schools,\25\
the infatuation with school privatization and choice undermines
the Committee's efforts to promote safer school environments
for all students. A study of school choice and the perceptions
of school safety is especially troubling given the link between
abstract choice policies and school segregation. In a recent
report on school segregation, the UCLA Civil Rights Project
indicated that ``[s]chool choice plans without equity policies
and strategies often end up with the best-educated and
connected families getting the best choices, actually
increasing inequality. All school choice programs need
voluntary goals, policies, and practices that foster diversity
and integration.''\26\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\25 \Approximately 49.3 million of the 54 million PK-12 students in
the United States attend public schools. See Institute of Education
Sciences, Fast Facts Back-to-School Statistics (2021), https://
nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372#PK12-enrollment.
\26\Erica Frankenberg, et al. Harming Our Common Future: America's
Segregated Schools 65 Years after Brown, 37 May 2019,
www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/
integration-and-diversity/harming-our-common-future-americas-
segregated-schools-65-years-after-brown/Brown-65-050919v4-final.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instead of playing politics when these tragedies occur,
Congress should follow the evidence offered by the experts and
act to remedy these preventable harms. H.R. 5428 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. Thousands of students all over the country marched in
the streets to ask policymakers to pass evidence-based
solutions to shield them from gun violence.\27\ 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''' extended
through floor speeches were enough to be responsive to the
need.\28\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\27\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.
\28\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, Committee Republicans' proposed amendment in
the nature of a substitute to H.R. 5428 aimed to strike the
definitions of ``school shooting'' and ``mass shooting'' from
the bill and require the Department of Education to consult
with the Department of Homeland Security in collecting and
publishing data on school safety. While the amendment would
codify the current report on Indicators of School Crime and
Safety issued by the National Center for Education Statistics,
it would strike the requirement to collect additional data
elements on school shootings, defeating the purpose of the
underlying bill to collect more granular, comparable data on
school shootings and mass school shootings.
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, federally-recognized data collection on school
shootings will help the country better understand the pervasive
problem of gun violence in schools and in turn spur policy
change. Such data will illuminate 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. All current data
suggest these types of shootings are actually more prevalent
than mass shootings but receive little attention.\29\
Collecting data brings to the forefront what could be otherwise
ignored.
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\29\GAO-20-455 at 23.
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H.R. 5428 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, whether a shooting was ruled an accident,
demographics of shooters and victims, the motivation of
shooters, types of firearms and ammunition used, how the
firearm was acquired, the state of origin of the firearm, and
more. Crucially, H.R. 5428 would also direct ED to collect data
regarding school response plans to address trauma resulting
from school shootings, including, but not limited to,
coordination with school-based counselors and other school
mental health professionals and appropriate community partners/
organizations, such as community action programs or agencies.
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 affects 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, as well as
how American schools have responded to the trauma resulting
from gun violence, in the hope of providing Congress with
information necessary to enact meaningful policy to reduce it.
The Committee understands that ED may need to take on
additional work, in consultation with DOJ and HHS, to stand up
new processes or structures for the robust data collection
required under H.R. 5428. Yet the fact such work is not
currently being done should not serve as a deterrent to
accomplishing it. To the extent that new processes or
structures require additional resources, these can and should
be considered during the regular budget and appropriations
process. In the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Omnibus Appropriations
package, the Institute of Education Sciences received $737
million, aligned with IES' FY22 budget request of $737.4
million and an increase of $94 million over the FY21 enacted
level.\30\ Furthermore, House Democrats have made significant
investments in IES through both the Coronavirus Response and
Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA) and the American
Rescue Plan (ARP), providing IES with an additional $28 million
in pandemic related funding through CRRSA and $100 million
through ARP.\31\ House Republicans supported supplemental funds
in FY21 for IES only when such funds were attached to an
omnibus bill to prevent a government shutdown; no House
Republicans supported the ARP.\32\
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\30\Joint Explanatory Statement of Division H, Part 2 at 159,
accompanying H.R. 2471 (Pub. L. No. 117-103, 136 Stat. 49) (Mar. 15,
2022) https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20220307/BILLS-117RCP35-JES-
DIVISION-H_Part2.pdf.
\31\Pub. L. No. 116-260, 134 Stat. 1938 (2020); Pub. L. No. 117-2,
135 Stat. 28 (2021).
\32\167 Cong. Rec. No. 45, H1285-86 (House of Reps. Roll Call Vote
72 on H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan, P.L. 117-2, which contained
additional funding for IES); see 166 Cong. Rec. No. 171, H5434-35
(House of Reps. Roll Call Vote 214 on H.R. 925, The Heroes Act, which
contained additional funding for IES specifically for NAEP, and other
coronavirus relief measures, and received no Republican votes); but see
166 Cong. Rec. No. 171, H 7314 (House of Reps. Roll Call Vote 251 on
agreement to Senate amendment of H.R. 133, Consolidated Appropriations
Act FY2021, which contained supplemental IES funding in Division M--
Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, which
passed with support of two-thirds of the Republican Conference).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Committee believes the data collection required under
H.R. 5428 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. 5428's data collection. As Rep. McBath said
during the Committee's ``Serving All Students'' hearing this
year, ``this is a preventable crisis that we cannot afford to
ignore any longer . . . it's critical that we take steps to
address the epidemic of gun violence and school shootings that
continue to plague our country every single day.''\33\ H.R.
5428 will provide data which will help Congress take a first
step in considering effective policy solutions to the
nationwide epidemic of gun violence in schools.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\33\Serving All Students: Promoting a Healthier, More Supportive
School Environment: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Early Childhood,
Elementary & Secondary Educ. of the H. Comm. on Educ. & Lab., 117th
Cong. (2022).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section-by-Section Analysis
Sec. 1. Short title
This section states that the title of the bill the ``School
Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act.''
Sec. 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 settings from early childhood
through post-secondary education. It creates new definitions
for the terms ``mass shooting'' and ``school shooting.''
Sec. 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, including active shooter response plans and trauma
response plans.
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. 5428 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. 5428, 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. 5428 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. 5428:
[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. 5428 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. 5428 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 2(r) of H. Res. 8 for the 117th
Congress, the Committee held a legislative hearing entitled
``Serving All Students: Promoting a Healthier, More Supportive
School Environment''. The hearing examined outdated discipline
practices and highlighted ways schools can implement evidence-
based approaches to creating healthy school environments that
support students' social, emotional, and academic development.
During the hearing, members and witnesses also discussed the
trauma of gun violence and the role of common-sense gun reform
as part of the solution to create supportive and healthy
schools. The Committee heard testimony from: Ms. Kristen
Harper, Vice President for Public Policy and Engagement, Child
Trends; Mr. Guy Stephens, Founder and Executive Director,
Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint; Ms. Morgan Craven,
J.D., National Director of Policy, Advocacy and Community
Engagement, Intercultural Development Research Association; and
Mr. Max Eden, Research Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.
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. 5428 from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, April 27, 2022.
Hon. Robert C. (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. 5428, 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 Garrett
Quenneville.
Sincerely,
Phillip L. Swagel,
Director.
Enclosure.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
H.R. 5428 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 $1 million over the 2022-2026 period to
collect data and write the annual reports; any spending would
be subject to the availability of appropriated amounts.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Garrett
Quenneville. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy 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. 5428.
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. 5428, as reported, are shown as follows:
MINORITY VIEWS
Every Republican Member on this Committee believes that
students should be safe at school and that any child dealing
with trauma should receive the services necessary to heal. Yet
instead of debating this serious topic of school safety, the
majority brought forward a bill about reporting requirements
and gun politics. This partisan legislation, disguised as a
data collection bill, was pushed through the Committee this
Congress without a single hearing--denying Members an
opportunity to discuss the bill's substance. As was noted last
Congress when a substantially similar bill was marked up, the
Democrats' own panelist noted at a school safety forum in March
2018 that ``gun safety is not in the purview of this committee.
. . .''\1\ The sole hearing the Committee held on trauma last
Congress did not prove there is a need for detailed firearm
data beyond what is already available.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\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.
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School violence is a serious topic that deserves serious
solutions. The latest Indicator report demonstrates one clear
concern: too many students feel unsafe at school.\2\ Yet,
Democrats seem content to collect data rather than offer
students an opportunity to attend a school where they feel
safe. School choice would help these students escape that fear
and focus on learning.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2021/2021092.pdf, highlights section.
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Safety concerns due to firearms are also not the only
threat students face in schools, as a plethora of available and
reported studies show. The hearing on examining trauma-informed
practices in education, held last Congress,\3\ highlighted that
America's students experience trauma in a variety of ways.
Committee Republicans worked to improve the Majority's 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
from the relevant federal agencies already collecting this
data. The Republican amendment would have also provided school
officials with some evidence-based best practices for how to
address issues that may arise on school campuses.
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\3\House Education and Labor Committee Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education hearing titled, The
Importance of Trauma-informed Practices in Education to Assist Students
Impacted by Gun Violence and Other Adversities, September 11, 2019.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
H.R. 5428 does not improve upon the deficiencies that were
present in the bill from last Congress. In fact, it is not
clear what this legislation intends to accomplish. Therefore,
Committee Republicans are left to conclude that Democrats
introduced this bill merely to make a political point instead
of addressing the safety of students at school. Much of the
data required under this legislation is already collected by
the relevant agencies. Further, while current data indicates
that there are multiple other challenges to school safety
besides school shootings, the new data points required in H.R.
5428 focus solely on firearms. The bill does not empower
parents, school leaders, and teachers to address the problems
students are facing.
In addition to concerns about the relevance of some of the
data required for the report, we have concerns about the burden
it would place on schools to report the data and on NCES to
collect the data. Additionally, requiring NCES to go back and
revise previously published reports is inappropriate and overly
demanding. The task is also cost prohibitive when weighed
against the relative value of the data. All of this suggests
that this legislation does not appear to be about school safety
but about gun politics.
CONFUSION IN THE FIELD
In expanding current definitions and creating new
definitions, Democrats are developing a new collection of
information that will likely cause confusion in the broader
field of research and will 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. Another example of this confusion is
the bill's 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. While that
definition brings in incidents that occurred while a victim was
traveling to or from a regular session at school, the data
could also include a random act of violence disconnected from
the school or the school system. Haphazardly redefining terms
as this bill does leads to inconsistent data that does not meet
experts', schools', parents', and policymakers' needs. As a
result of this inconsistent data, 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
While the issue of creating new definitions for data
collection purposes is serious, 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
focus on 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 overemphasis on gun violence is
detrimental to solving the variety of problems impacting school
safety. In this bill, the Democrats create a significant
requirement for reporting on firearms but completely ignore
sexual assaults, stabbings, bullying, harassment, or assaults.
To remedy this oversight, the Republican substitute
amendment required experts to review available data on all
challenges to school safety and to determine whether 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. Importantly though, it does not
unilaterally authorize any new data collection. Instead of
being singularly focused on guns, the Republican substitute
amendment was broadly focused on challenges to school safety in
every form.
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. Despite noting the
concerns with the legislation last Congress, it appears the
Democrats have either ignored or once again did not get any
technical assistance from the Department of Education (the
Department) on this legislation. Despite the quick markup after
notice on this bill, Committee Republicans asked for technical
assistance from the Department and were informed of multiple
concerns in that feedback. Some issues that were raised by the
Department and others include that the Department cannot
reliably determine how guns were stored or the motivation of
the shooter. The Department also does not have access to 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, to
access police records, and to create new definitions are some
of the areas where simple assistance from experts could have
improved this bill.
The idea of doing retroactive collection of all the data on
past school shootings is also concerning, even if the
information required could be easily collected every year
moving forward. If the Majority had engaged in bipartisan
conversations, 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, 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 some unspecified starting date 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. While
some of this data may be useful to law enforcement as they
track down suspects, much of it is useless in effecting either
public policy or school safety. It is a further question
whether even the more helpful data is relevant and useful to
school personnel looking to craft school safety policies and
procedures. For instance, the bill collects data on the weapon
and ammunition used in a school shooting. This data could help
police track down a suspect or prevent a future crime; however,
it is not likely to help a principal or school board develop or
enforce any particular safety policy because safety plans focus
on preventing incidents, not particular manufacturers'
products. The bill also tracks data concerning how a gun was
purchased--whether it was from a licensed gun dealer or an
unlicensed sale. Again, this may help law enforcement track
down a suspect, or even help policymakers with jurisdiction
over criminal activity to 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 it is not clear how
this information would be useful to school personnel. Other
details which the bill sets out to measure, such as motivation
of shooters and real or perceived bias, would be useful to
school leaders and parents looking to improve school safety,
but are too subjective to be measured 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 has been involved in school shootings, but
policymakers should be wary of drawing hard conclusions about
who is vulnerable to a possible incident in the future based on
such data. As we already know from the Averting Targeted School
Violence report issued by the U.S. Secret Service in 2021,
there is no profile of a student attacker nor is there a
profile for the type of school that has been targeted.\4\
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\4\https://www.secretservice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2021-
03/USSS%20Averting%20Targeted%20School%20Violence.2021.03.pdf.
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WE HAVE THE DATA
We already have the data showing that too many of our
schools are unsafe. As the 2021 indicator report says,
``violent deaths and shootings at schools are rare but tragic
events . . . Based on the most recent datathere were a total of
56 school-associated violent deaths in the 17-18 school year.''
This included 46 homicides, nine suicides, and one legal
intervention death. 35 of those deaths and eight of the
suicides were of school-age youth.\5\ This is absolutely
heartbreaking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2021/2021092.pdf.
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The same 2021 report gives us historical data, telling us
the number of school shootings going back to the 2000-01 school
year as well as the number of incidents per year that led to
injuries and the number that resulted in deaths. Turning to the
CDC's school associated violent death study, we know that
homicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged
5-18. We also know that less that 2 percent of these homicides
occur on school grounds, on the way to and from school, or at
or on the way to and from a school-sponsored event.\6\ Given
that these statistics are known, it is odd to see that a
significant part of the bill focuses on gathering data to
report these same facts.
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\6\https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/
schoolviolence/SAVD.html#::text=
Homicide%20is%20the%20second%20leading,from%20a%20school%2Dsponsored%20e
vent.
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Other reports on school safety, for example the School
Health Policies and Practices Report showed the following about
surveyed schools:
75.9 percent of elementary schools use
security cameras and 85.5 of high schools do the same;
5.6 percent of elementary schools require
uniforms and 77.2 percent of elementary schools require
the enforcement of some sort of dress code;
almost the same percentage of elementary and
high schools require monitoring on campus;
nearly all school districts have specific
anti-bullying policies; and
71.8 percent of the districts have utilized
material from the Department of Education for crisis
preparedness and 94.6 percent of them have a
comprehensive district-level crisis plan.
This is already reported information, available to school
leaders and policy officials, yet this bill also requires NCES
to collect information on security measures and communications
plans. This is duplicative work for no value to those on the
ground: school leaders, parents, local officials, and medical
professionals.
It is clear there is a lot of information available
regarding safety in schools and specific school safety
incidents. There are reports that have synthesized available
data and done other research to produce reports to help school
leaders prevent or avert school violence. School leaders, law
enforcement, parents, medical professionals already have the
needed to help protect student safety. That data is not skewed
to focus solely on firearms but rather on all challenges to
student safety, so it is fundamentally more helpful to
politicians, law enforcement, and school personnel than the
data gathered by the Democrats unnecessary and tunnel-vision
bill.
REJECTED REPUBLICANS AMENDMENTS
Republican Substitute
The Republican substitute amendment, offered by Rep.
Burgess Owens (R-UT), 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. It would also help inform decisions of
school administrators about the actions that best protect their
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, to 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.
School Choice
Democrats want to conduct study after study and report on
problems, regardless of how many times and in how many other
ways those problems are being studied and reported on.
Tragically, though, they steadfastly refuse to offer children
trapped in unsafe schools a solution. Republicans, on the other
hand, want solutions. Unfortunately, an amendment that would
actually offer children an escape hatch is not germane to this
bill, which goes to highlight one of the problems with the
Democrats' bill.
School choice is a solution that works and is a solution
most parents support.\7\ The Urban Institute studied the tax
credit scholarship program in Florida, the country's largest
school choice program. Its research found that students who
enroll in private schools through the program were more likely
to attend and graduate college than their public-school peers,
and that the positive effects of the program increased with the
number of years of participation.\8\ Finally, and of particular
relevance in this legislation, school choice can increase
public safety and families' perception of safety. Research into
Milwaukee's citywide voucher program found that students who
participated in that program through 12th grade committed fewer
crimes than their publicschool peers.\9\ Other research has
consistently shown that student safety is a key motivator for
parents who place their children in school choice programs.\10\
Rep. Rick Allen (R-AL) offered a simple amendment to look at
the impact of school safety regarding school choice.
Unfortunately, Rep. Allen's amendment was rejected along party
lines.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\https://www.federationforchildren.org/new-poll-school-choice-
support-at-all-time-high/.
\8\https://www.urban.org/research/publication/effects-florida-tax-
credit-scholarship-program-college-enrollment-and-graduation.
\9\http://www.uaedreform.org/downloads/2016/03/the-school-choice-
voucher-a-get-out-of-jail-card.pdf.
\10\https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/here-are-10-
reasons-school-choice-winning.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crime Wave
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) offered an amendment to add
relevant data elements to the required report. Violent crime
has escalated in communities across the country. There has been
a significant increase in homicides and aggravated assaults
throughout the United States. If the Committee is concerned
about children's safety, the focus should be on policies that
help deter and punish crime instead of on revising a
statistical report. The criminal justice system should include
a robust police force that faithfully enforces the laws of the
land without bias and with fairness for all. It should include
a justice system that includes vigorous prosecution of criminal
activity, especially violent activity. Instead, we have people
advocating to defund the police--including school resource
officers--to let violent criminals out of jail, and to not
prosecute alleged criminals for their crimes. A statistical
report on school shootings will not keep our children safe.
Rep. Stefanik's amendment was rejected along party lines.
CONCLUSION
Once again, 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
trotted out a flawed bill that made no improvements to the text
that was marked up last Congress. When the Democrats showcase a
real willingness to address these issues constructively,
Republicans remain ready to engage in a serious conversation on
school safety.
Virginia Foxx,
Ranking Member.
Joe Wilson.
Glenn ``GT'' Thompson.
Tim Walberg.
Glenn Grothman.
Elise M. Stefanik.
Rick W. Allen.
Jim Banks.
James Comer.
Russ Fulcher.
Fred Keller.
Mariannette Miller Meeks, M.D.
Burgess Owens.
Lisa C. McClain.
Mary E. Miller.
Scott Fitzgerald.
Madison Cawthorn.
Julia Letlow.
Chris Jacobs.
[all]