Comprehensive School Safety in Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia, 2015-2021 (ICPSR 38459)

Version Date: Apr 16, 2026

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Joseph L. (Joseph Lorn) McCrary, WestEd

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38459.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) is a research-focused initiative that was launched by the National Institute of Justice in response to high-profile incidents of school violence. The CSSI grant program aimed to identify and understand the root causes of school violence and identify effective strategies for responding to and resolving safety and security issues. The Atlanta Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (Atlanta CSSI) project, funded in 2016 under the National Institute of Justice's CSSI grant program, and as a partnership between researchers and practitioners, centered around the fundamental question of how to design and implement safe and supportive learning environments for students in Atlanta Public Schools (APS).

Since 2014, district leadership from APS and researchers from WestEd and Georgia State University (GSU) developed a blended research and technical assistance approach to make progress towards improving school safety. The findings are based on data gathered through:

  1. focus groups with school-and district-based staff;
  2. observational protocols and meeting notes; and
  3. school-level student climate and discipline data gathered by the state.

Citation

McCrary, Joseph L. (Joseph Lorn). Comprehensive School Safety in Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia, 2015-2021. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-04-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38459.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2015-CK-BX-K001)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2015-01-01 -- 2021-12-31

Date of Collection

2017-01-01 -- 2021-12-31

Data Collection Notes

  1. Qualitative data were collected through interviews and focus groups with school and district personnel, but that data are not part of this current study collection. These interviews and focus groups collected information regarding participant's experiences with and attitudes towards the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) program. Please reference the available User Guide and ICPSR README File for further information.

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Study Purpose

This project aimed to achieve four distinct but related goals:

  1. Develop and implement a comprehensive, districtwide process leading to safe and supportive schools;
  2. Study the implementation of the process to understand which factors aid or inhibit implementation;
  3. Describe the extent to which the process is associated with enhanced safety and supportive learning environments; and
  4. Disseminate project learning nationally.

Study Design

In March and April of 2018 online surveys were sent to school administrators and school resource officers (SROs) to learn about their perceptions of school safety and student supports. Please see the User Guide for additional information.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

District staff, school administrators, school staff, and school resource officers within Atlanta Public Schools.

Unit(s) of Observation

School, Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

DS1 - Main Analytic File: (89 cases and 9 variables)

  • Composite means and ranks for various domains

DS2 - Meeting Observations and Protocol Coding: (59 cases and 313 variables)

  • Protocol notes on school Coordination and Integration (CI) meetings
  • Who was present and who participated
  • How did they interact and participate
  • Content and progress of goals

DS3 - School Administrator Survey: (103 cases and 35 variables)

  • Safety rating of school building during the day
  • Satisfaction with communication with district's police department
  • Agreement of how SRO's interact with school personnel, students, and parents
  • Frequency of safety related issues at school by students and parents

DS4 - School Resource Officer (SRO) Survey: (60 cases and 40 variables)

Agree / Disagree scales regarding the SRO's experience with:

  • Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Restorative Practices (RP)
  • School leadership and teachers
  • Students and parents
  • School safety plans

Response Rates

For DS3, there were 103 school administrators who participated from 61 different schools (69 percent of all schools).

For DS4, a total of 60 school resource officers completed the online survey (over 98 percent of all SRO's).

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Original Release Date

2026-04-16

Version History

2026-04-16 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Weight

Only the School Administrator Survey (DS3) contains a weight variable (SCHWEIGHT18).

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.