To better understand what teachers across the United States think about school safety in general and active shooter drills in particular, RAND researchers fielded a survey to a randomly selected sample of 1,020 kindergarten through grade 12 teachers. Key findings include teachers' main safety concerns at school and perceptions on whether drills make students and staff feel safer and more prepared to respond to active shooter and other emergencies.

Teachers' Experiences with School Violence and Lockdown Drills

Findings from a 2023 American Teacher Panel Survey

Pauline Moore, Melissa Kay Diliberti, Brian A. Jackson

ResearchPublished Sep 18, 2024

Violent incidents, such as shootings, and threats of such violence, have become relatively common occurrences in kindergarten through grade 12 (K–12) schools across the United States. One common way that schools help their staff and students train for the possibility of an active shooter or other threats is by conducting practice drills. The prevalence of these drills — combined with the mixed results of how these drills affect staff and students' feelings of preparedness, safety, fear, and stress — highlights the need for more research.

To better understand what teachers across the United States think about school safety generally and active shooter drills in particular, RAND researchers administered a survey to a randomly selected sample of 1,020 K–12 teachers using the American Teacher Panel. The survey focused on teachers' perceptions of school safety, including their main safety concerns and their experiences with incidents of gun violence and with drills designed to prepare students and staff for school shootings and other violent incidents.

The survey specifically asked whether such drills made teachers feel more or less safe and prepared to respond to active assailant events and teachers' perceptions of their students' feelings about such drills, as well as whether supports were available to students and staff during and following drills. Survey results indicate that more work is needed to understand the impact of drills on staff and students and what schools can do to better support the well-being of students and staff who are required to participate in these activities.

Key Findings

  • One in six K–12 teachers nationally works in a district that has been touched by gun violence since the 2019–2020 school year.
  • Relative to the previous school year, teachers reported more concern in 2023–2024 about being victims of an attack at their schools and were even more concerned for their students.
  • In the 2023–2024 school year, a greater share of female teachers than male teachers (27 percent versus 14 percent, respectively) reported fear of being harmed or attacked at school. In the previous year, female teachers were no more likely than male teachers to report such fears.
  • Variability in the elements and response actions involved in drills highlights the need for more standardized implementation.
  • Schools do not typically announce when an active shooter drill will occur to students and parents, and many schools are not providing supports to help students and staff manage any stress or anxiety that such drills might cause.
  • Teachers are split on whether participation in drills makes them feel more prepared to respond to active shooter incidents: Slightly less than half said that drills make them feel more prepared, and half perceived drills as having no impact on preparedness. A slight majority of teachers (54 percent) reported that drills make students feel more prepared to respond to such incidents.
  • Most teachers (69 percent) indicated that participating in active shooter drills has no impact on their perceptions of safety at school, and only one-fifth said that drills make them feel more safe.

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Citation

RAND Style Manual
Moore, Pauline, Melissa Kay Diliberti, and Brian A. Jackson, Teachers' Experiences with School Violence and Lockdown Drills: Findings from a 2023 American Teacher Panel Survey, Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center operated by the RAND Corporation, RR-A1077-6, 2024. As of September 23, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1077-6.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Moore, Pauline, Melissa Kay Diliberti, and Brian A. Jackson, Teachers' Experiences with School Violence and Lockdown Drills: Findings from a 2023 American Teacher Panel Survey. Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center operated by the RAND Corporation, 2024. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1077-6.html.
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This research was sponsored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and conducted in the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program of the RAND Homeland Security Research Division (HSRD).

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