We are continuing to track school shootings. Click below to visit our latest tracker or explore year-by-year data on school shootings since 2018 that resulted in injuries or deaths.
To bring context to the polarizing debates that surround school shootings, Education Week journalists, in 2018, began tracking shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths. That year, there were 24 such incidents. There were also 24 in 2019.
We continued tracking school shootings in 2020 with injuries or deaths, when there were 10 such incidents.
The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have interrupted the trend line. That fall off in numbers is probably due to the shift to remote learning for nearly all schools for part or all of 2020. But those using this data should note that it should not be interpreted to mean that schools were “safer.” Rather, the definition of school safety has shifted as schooling entered the home in a way it never had before.
Here’s a good parallel: Referrals to child protective services agencies fell in 2020 but that does not mean fewer children were being hurt; it reflects that schools are a main locus for reporting potential abuse. Similarly, we do not know whether, despite our 2020 school shooting figures, some students and staff were potentially more at risk of gun violence during the pandemic: Tracking off-campus shootings was beyond the scope of this project. (Schools, in general, remain among the safest places for children to be and shootings in schools are relatively rare.)
On this page, we document where the shootings happened, how many people were killed or injured, and other key information.
Injuries & Deaths
Where the Shootings Happened
The size of the dots correlates to the number of people killed or injured. Click on each dot for more information.
About the Shootings
A previous version of this table included the age, sex, and status of the suspect(s). We are no longer tracking that information.
Contact Information
For media or research inquiries about this data, contact library@educationweek.org.
About This Tracker
In the emotionally charged aftermath of school shootings, politicians, activists, news media, and ordinary citizens often cite statistics that can present a distorted view of how many of these incidents occur. Those statistics are used to fuel ongoing debates about gun control, arming teachers, and school security.
With this tracker, Education Week aims to provide a clear accounting of K-12 school shootings. There is no single right way of calculating numbers like this, and the human toll in the immediate aftermath and long term is impossible to measure. We hope to provide reliable information to help inform discussions, debates, and solutions.
Methodology
Counting Incidents
This page refers to incidents that meet all the following criteria:
- where a firearm was discharged,
- where any individual, other than the suspect or perpetrator, has a bullet wound resulting from the incident,
- that happen on K-12 school property or on a school bus, and
- that occur while school is in session or during a school-sponsored event.
We do not track incidents in which the only shots fired were from an individual authorized to carry a gun on school property, such as a school resource officer, and who did so in their official capacity.
The numbers of incidents, injuries, and deaths reported in this tracker do not include suicides or self-inflicted injuries. While suicides and attempted suicides are serious issues of health and safety, many of the critical questions and debates that those incidents raise for educators and the broader public are often distinct from those generated by school shootings.
Counting Injuries & Deaths
Injuries included in this tracker may be major or minor. While we only track incidents resulting in at least one bullet wound, total injuries are not necessarily the result of gunfire.
The total number of people killed or injured does not include the suspect or perpetrator.
Sources
In addition to our own reporting, we rely on local news outlets, school and district websites, news alerts via online search engines, the Gun Violence Archive, and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s Naval Postgraduate School’s K-12 School Shooting database.
How to Cite This Page
School Shootings in 2020: How Many and Where (2020, January 13). Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2020/01
