DATA

POINT

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

NCES 2018-096 MARCH 2018

Students’ Relationships in 

School and Feelings About 

Personal Safety 

at School

This report investigates the relationship between students’ feelings of safety in school and their perceptions about the level of 

crime in their home neighborhoods and school neighborhoods. It further examines whether students’ reports of feeling safe in 

school despite being in high crime neighborhoods are related to students’ reports that they have supportive relationships with 

adults and peers in school.

The data used in this report come from the 2015 School Crime Supplement (SCS), a nationally representative sample survey 

of students ages 12 through 18. The SCS is administered every other year as a supplement to the National Crime Victimization 

Survey (NCVS). The SCS collects additional information from students in NCVS survey households about their experiences 

with and perceptions of crime and violence occurring at school, on school grounds, and going to or from school. The SCS 

questions also cover students’ perceptions of crime in the neighborhoods where they live and where they go to school, their 

feelings of safety at school, and various aspects of school climate and security such as relationships with adults in school.

Analysis for this report is restricted to the SCS respondents who were enrolled in grades 6 through 12 and who did not receive 

any part of their education through homeschooling during the school year.1

Regardless of their perceptions of 

the level of crime in their home 

neighborhoods and school 

neighborhoods, at least 95 percent 

of students agreed that they felt 

safe at school for all school 

locales (figure 1).

• In 2015, the percentage of students 

attending city schools who agreed 

there was a lot of crime in their home 

neighborhoods (16.1 percent) and 

school (14.5 percent) neighborhoods 

was higher than the percentage of 

students who agreed and who 

attended suburban schools (9.1 and 

7.6 percent), town schools (7.2 and 

6.8 percent), or rural schools (6.5 and 

5.2 percent). The percentages for 

students in suburban schools who 

agreed with these statements were 

also significantly higher than the 

percentages for students in rural 

schools.

• In the same year, 95.7 percent of 

students attending city schools 

FIGURE 1. Percentage of students ages 12 through 18 who agree or strongly 

agree with statements about crime and feeling safe, by school locale: School 

year 2014–15

NOTE: Data include only students who reported being enrolled in grades 6 through 12 and not receiving any of their 

education through homeschooling during the school year reported. Locale codes come from the Common Core of 

Data or the Private School Survey data for 2013-2014. For more information on locale definitions see https://

nces.ed.gov/ccd/rural_locales.asp. School locale data was not available for approximately 3.4 percent of respondents 

who were excluded from the analysis. Tabular data for percentages and their standard errors are available at http://

nces.ed.gov/programs/crime/crime_tables.asp. 

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime Supplement to the National Crime 

Victimization Survey, 2015.

Data in this report are from the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization 

Survey, a nationally representative sample survey of students ages 12 through 18. To learn more 

about the survey, visit: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crime. For questions about content or to 

download additional copies, go to: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.
Students’ Relationships in School and Feelings About Personal Safety at School

reported feeling safe in their school, which is lower than 

the percentage of students attending suburban schools 

(97.9 percent) but not significantly different than students 

in any other areas.

FIGURE 2. Percentage of students ages 12 through 18 indicating a lot of crime in their home neighborhoods and/or school 

neighborhoods who agree or strongly agree they have supportive relationships with adults and students in school, by 

whether they feel safe in school: School year 2014–15

NOTE: Data include only students who reported being enrolled in grades 6 through 12 and not receiving any of their education through homeschooling during the school year 

reported. Tabular data for percentages and their standard errors are available at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crime/crime_tables.asp. 

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 2015. 

Among students who agreed that there was a lot of 

crime in their home neighborhoods or school 

neighborhoods, one area of difference between 

those who agreed that they felt safe in school 

compared to those who did not agree that they felt 

safe was in their reported relationships with adults 

and other students at school (figure 2).

• Among students who agreed there was a lot of crime in 

their home neighborhoods, those who agreed that they 

felt safe at school also agreed that there was a teacher 

or adult at school who really cared about them (93.5 

percent) and really listened when they had something to 

say (96.4 percent) at higher rates than students who did 

not feel safe at school (73.8 percent and 76.5 percent, 

respectively).

• Among students who agreed there was a lot of crime in 

their home neighborhoods, those who agreed that they 

felt safe at school also agreed that there was a student 

at school who really listened when they had something 

to say (96.3 percent) at higher rates than students who 

did not feel safe at school (84.9 percent).

• Among students who agreed there was a lot of crime in 

their school neighborhoods, those who also agreed that 

they felt safe at school more often agreed that there was 

a teacher or adult at school who really cared about them 

(94.0 percent) than students who did not feel safe at 

school (81.1 percent).

• Among students who agreed there was a lot of crime in 

their school neighborhoods, those who also agreed that 

they felt safe at school more often agreed that there was 

a student school who really cared about them (93.6 

percent) than students who did not feel safe at school 

(77.1 percent).

Endnote

1School locale data was unavailable for 3.4 percent of the 

sample who were excluded from the analysis.

This NCES Data Point presents information on education topics of current interest. 

It was authored by Deborah Lessne and Christine Yanez of Synergy Enterprises, 

Inc. All estimates shown are based on samples and are subject to sampling 

variability. All differences discussed in this report are statistically significant at 

the .05 level. In the design, conduct, and data processing of National Center for 

Education Statistics (NCES) surveys, efforts are made to minimize the effects of 

nonsampling errors, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing 

error, or other systematic error.