Search results

The Assessment of National and State Tip Line Technology as a Strategy for Identifying Threats to School Safety was conducted by RTI International, in partnership with the Oregon State Police, from 2018 through 2021. The project was designed to describe the national prevalence and characteristics of school safety tip lines, and to develop lessons learned on successful implementation approaches by conducting a case study with the SafeOregon tip line. The three main goals of the project were to:

1. Describe the prevalence and variability of tip line technology in public middle and high schools across the U.S. through a national survey of school administrators (Component 1).
2. Evaluate the relationship between tip line technology implementation and school safety by augmenting the national survey data with publicly available data on student disciplinary and school safety outcomes from the Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) (Component 2).
3. Assess the implementation experiences, outputs, and costs through an in-depth case study in the state of Oregon (Component 3).

For component 1, RTI conducted a national survey of public middle and high school administrators. For component 2, RTI conducted a national evaluation of school tip lines and measures of school safety, merging the national survey findings with eleven offense categories schools reported to the Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).

For Component 3, the team set out to better understand how tip lines are implemented, the characteristics or features of these systems, challenges school administrators face during implementation and use, and perceived effectiveness. Using a mixed-methods design, researchers analyzed the efforts to implement and operate Oregon's SafeOregon statewide school tip line program and present data from the national survey for context. Case study objectives included identifying the (1) prevalence and school characteristics of tip line use; (2) basic operational characteristics of tip lines, including partnerships, staffing, tip submission and triage processes, and anonymity and confidentiality; (3) barriers and challenges involved in tip line implementation; and (4) perceived impact of tip lines. This qualitative assessment was informed by interviews with key stakeholders, school administrators and students. As part of the final component, RTI analyzed tip line data from the SafeOregon statewide tip line program (2018-2020).

Data and documentation from the qualitative interviews (student focus groups and school-level stakeholders) will be made available at a future date.

Although the placement of school resource officers (SROs) in schools is widespread, little is known about its effectiveness in preventing school crime or the extent to which placement may harm schools and students (e.g., by facilitating the formal processing of minor offenses). The Study of Police in Schools sought to strengthen the evidence base on the effects of SROs on schools and students. Specifically, this study addressed two research questions: (1) What are the effects of SROs on school disciplinary offenses and disciplinary actions? and (2) Do the effects of SROs vary by implementation, school, and student characteristics?

The study focused on public secondary schools that increased SRO staffing through the 2013 and 2014 Department of Justice's Community Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program (CHP) and on matched comparison schools that neither received SROs funded by CHP grants nor increased SRO staffing at the same time as treatment schools. Using longitudinal analyses of monthly school-level administrative data, the study compared the treatment and comparison schools on disciplinary incidents/offenses and actions. In addition, the study analyzed data from web surveys of school administrators and SROs at the sample schools, and from interviews with law enforcement officials at the agencies that placed the SROs in the schools. To assess the extent to which the presence of SROs affects the measurement of school crime, research staff also collected and analyzed qualitative information from interviews with school administrators in select treatment schools.

To conduct the study, the following data sources were collected or obtained:

1. Linking and SRO program information data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
2. California Department of Education administrative data files (5 files)
3. SRO web survey data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
4. School administrator web survey data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
5. Law enforcement agency interview data files (1 file for CA, 1 file for FL)
6. Moderator data file (1 file for CA)
7. School administrator interview data file (1 file for CA)