DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37222.v1
title: School Emergency Preparedness Study, United States, 2018
title: Version 1

description: The School Emergency Preparedness Study, United States, 2018, was conducted to better understand the state of knowledge concerning violent emergency preparedness in schools and the interrelationship between federal, state, district, and school perspectives on safety planning. RTI International conducted a two-year study in four phases. In Phase I, the project team reviewed federal and state guidelines and mandates for school safety planning. In Phases II and III, a survey was administered to district safety and security directors and superintendents, then the team reviewed guidelines and mandates for a subset of districts. In Phase IV, interviews were conducted with administrators from 37 schools and results were analyzed from all four phases.
description: The study sought to address the following research questions at state, district, and school levels: State: What are general observations about state materials for school emergency preparedness? To what extent do state guidelines for emergency preparedness resemble federal guidelines? What are characteristics of states with guidelines and mandates that are consistent with federal recommendations? District: How prevalent is serious school violence and what types of districts have experienced it? What resources do districts use to build guidelines for school emergency preparedness? To what extent do district guidelines resemble federal guidelines? What types of districts have guidelines that are consistent with federal guidelines? What types of training for violent events are offered or encouraged at the district level? School: What can we learn from school administrators about how schools prepare for violence, the challenges of preparing, and the types of support that schools need in their efforts?
description: The study addressed questions about state guidelines and mandates through rigorous reviews of emergency planning materials posted by state agencies on their websites (Phase I). At the district level, questions were addressed about the comprehensiveness of district guidelines and alignment with federal recommendations through a national survey of school districts (Phases II and III). Finally, at the school level, preparedness from the local school perspective was sought by interviewing school officials (Phase IV).
description: RTI International calculated statistical analysis weights such that responding districts would represent all eligible districts. The weights were computed as the product of two components: the base weight and an adjustment for nonresponse. Because all districts were included in the survey, the base weight for all districts was equal to 1. The nonresponse adjustment was calculated using the procedure WTADJUST in SUDAAN (RTI International 2012). The WTADJUST procedure uses a logistic model to predict response and is designed so that the sum of the unadjusted weights for all eligible units equals the sum of the adjusted weights for the respondents. The predictor variables used in the nonresponse modeling included census division; district locale; and district size based on enrollment. RTI International also created a 34-category "group" variable from a combination of census region, locale, and district size. These variables were defined for all respondents and nonrespondents. The beta parameters of the logistic model were used to determine the nonresponse adjustment factors.
description: Response Rates: 19.83 percent for the district survey portion of the study.
description: Presence of Common Scales: none
description: In Phase II, RTI administered a web-based survey to school district safety and security directors and superintendents between January and June 2018. The sampling frame consisted of all public school districts with an e-mail address for either the safety and security director or the superintendent. Of the approximately 14,675 public school districts in the United States, 13,583 school districts had usable e-mail addresses and were eligible for the study. Demographic characteristics such as poverty status, urbanicity, and enrollment size were obtained from NCES Common Core of Data and added to the database. All targeted districts were initially contacted via hard-copy letter, then e-mail. District staff could obtain additional information about the study, including sample survey questions, through the study's website. A toll-free number was also available to callers for any questions or concerns or for technical assistance with the survey. Nonresponding districts were reminded with repeated e-mails. In addition, trained telephone interviewers conducted telephone prompting and completed surveys by telephone with a subsample of nonrespondents. A total of 2,692 districts completed the survey (19.82% of eligible districts).
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Weights for Districts in Survey Sample DS2: District Survey Analysis Data DS3: 2015 Common Core Data DS4: Raw Data for District Survey DS5: State-level Data
description: All public school districts with an e-mail address for either the safety and security director or the superintendent. Smallest Geographic Unit: State
description: telephone interview; web-based surveyThe documentation refers to school administrator interviews. These data were not included with this release.