More schools reported training students for active shooter situations and using security cameras, electronic notification systems, and anonymous reporting tools in the 2013-14 school year than four years earlier, and the rate of violent incidents at schools fell during that time.
In 2013-14, 70 percent of schools surveyed by the U.S. Department of Education reported drilling students on a written plan for school shootings, according to federal data released last month, the first update on many school safety factors since 27 people died in shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. That’s compared to 51.9 percent of schools reporting having such drills on a similar federal survey given in the 2009-10 school year.