I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3655 
To require the Secretary of Education to review and revise the guidelines 
relating to the ‘‘Principles of Effectiveness’’ criteria developed pursuant 
to the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to improve 
State and local prevention programs and activities carried out under 
such Act, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 
Mr. BACA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Education to review and revise 
the guidelines relating to the ‘‘Principles of Effective-
ness’’ criteria developed pursuant to the Safe and Drug- 
Free Schools and Communities Act to improve State 
and local prevention programs and activities carried out 
under such Act, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘School Violence Pre-
vention Act of 2005’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) In 1997, the Department of Education, in 
collaboration with the National Institute of Justice 
of the Department of Justice, conducted a Study on 
School Violence and Prevention, to investigate the 
extent of problem behavior in schools nationally. The 
study reported on several aspects of delinquency pre-
vention efforts in schools, such as types and quality 
of prevention efforts, how schools plan and use in-
formation about prevention options to improve their 
own efforts and school management, and sources of 
funding for school prevention activities. 
(2) In a follow up report prepared for the De-
partment of Education, entitled ‘‘Wide Scope, Ques-
tionable Quality, Three Reports from the Study on 
School Violence and Prevention’’ (2002), experts 
made a number of findings based on the 1997 Study 
on School Violence and Prevention. 
(3) A significant finding from the 2002 study 
is that schools can improve the quality of violence 
prevention through attention to needs assessment, 
planning, increased used of research-based ap-
proaches, and monitoring of implementation. 
(4) The 2002 study also noted that middle 
school students and teachers were more likely to be
victimized than their high school counterparts, sug-
gesting that this is an area for additional attention. 
(5) Additionally, while many students and 
teachers reported feeling safe in their schools, about 
one-fourth of students and teachers said they would 
avoid a specific place at school out of fear that 
someone might hurt or bother them, and 27 percent 
of teachers in middle and high schools reported that 
the behavior of some students kept them from teach-
ing a fair amount or a great deal, indicating that 
school safety is still an issue of concern. 
(6) The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Com-
munities Act (20 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.), which is part 
A of title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Edu-
cation Act of 1965, is the most common funding 
source for prevention activities in schools. Effective 
July 1, 2002, the State grants program under the 
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act 
authorizes a variety of activities designed to prevent 
school violence and youth drug use, and to help 
schools and communities create safe, disciplined, and 
drug-free environments that support student aca-
demic achievement. 
(7) Section 4115(a) of the Safe and Drug-Free 
Schools and Communities (20 U.S.C. 7115(a)) re-
quires State and local prevention programs and ac-
tivities to meet the ‘‘Principles of Effectiveness’’ cri-
teria described in such section and the guidelines re-
lating to such criteria developed by the Department 
of Education pursuant to such section. The ‘‘Prin-
ciples of Effectiveness’’ provide a framework for re-
cipients of State and local grant funds to improve 
the quality of drug and violence prevention program-
ming implemented with such funds. 
(b) STATEMENT OF POLICY.—In light of recent stud-
ies prepared for the Department of Education, which indi-
cate that school violence and prevention programs funded 
by the Department of Education could be improved, Con-
gress believes that it would be useful for the Department 
of Education to review and revise the guidelines relating 
to the ‘‘Principles of Effectiveness’’ criteria developed pur-
suant to section 4115(a) of the Safe and Drug-Free 
Schools and Communities (20 U.S.C. 7115(a)) with the 
objective of improving safe school programs. 
SEC. 3. REVIEW AND REVISION OF GUIDELINES RELATING 
TO THE ‘‘PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVENESS’’ 
CRITERIA UNDER THE SAFE AND DRUG-FREE 
SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES ACT. 
(a) REVIEW AND REVISION.—The Secretary of Edu-
cation shall review and revise the guidelines relating to
the ‘‘Principles of Effectiveness’’ criteria developed pursu-
ant to section 4115(a) of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools 
and Communities Act (20 U.S.C. 7115(a)) to ensure that 
such guidelines meet the findings of the report prepared 
for the Department of Education, entitled ‘‘Wide Scope, 
Questionable Quality, Three Reports from the Study on 
School Violence and Prevention’’ (2002), with particular 
emphasis on the findings of such report described in sub-
section (b). 
(b) FINDINGS OF REPORT.—The findings of the re-
port referred to in subsection (a) are the following: 
(1) Relatively higher rates of discipline prob-
lems in middle schools suggest that greater attention 
to violence prevention efforts in middle school may 
be warranted. Attention to middle school violence 
problems may also aid in preventing discipline prob-
lems in high school. 
(2) Strengthening needs assessments, including 
collecting information on the prevalence of problem 
behavior, would assist schools and districts in identi-
fying problem areas to allow for better targeting of 
violence prevention efforts. 
(3) Along with a greater focus on research, 
schools should be encouraged to adopt a ‘‘continuous 
improvement’’ process, whereby quality of implemen-