The State of School Violence in America — 2026

Executive Summary

Violence against educators and students in American public schools has reached levels that can only be described as a national crisis. Federal data show that two-thirds of public schools recorded at least one violent incident during the 2021–22 school year, amounting to approximately 857,500 violent incidents nationwide (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2024). The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that more than one million criminal incidents occurred on school property between 2020 and 2024, producing approximately 1.5 million victims (FBI, 2025). The American Psychological Association’s landmark Task Force on Violence Against Educators found that 80% of teachers experienced verbal or threatening aggression from students, and 56% experienced physical violence during the 2021–22 academic year (Espelage et al., 2024).

These numbers are not abstractions. They represent teachers punched in the face, paraprofessionals choked, counselors threatened, and custodians attacked—every day, in schools across the country. The consequences ripple outward: rising workers’ compensation claims, an accelerating teacher shortage, deteriorating educational quality, and a growing sense among educators that their safety simply does not matter to the institutions that employ them.

This white paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the current state of school violence in America, drawing on the most recent federal data, peer-reviewed research, state-level incident reports, and economic analyses. It examines the human, institutional, and financial costs of the crisis, reviews the inadequacy of current policy responses, and presents the Violence-Free Schools Alliance’s (VFSA) proposed remedy: mandatory one- year removal for students who commit acts of physical violence on school grounds—a policy we call Freedom From Violence.

The evidence is clear. The time for incremental reform has passed. America’s schools must become violence-free zones, and the Educator’s Bill of Rights provides the legislative framework to make that happen.

I. The Scope of the Crisis: Violence in American Schools by

the Numbers

Federal Data: A National Picture

The most comprehensive federal snapshot of school violence comes from the NCES report Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools, published in 2024 using 2021–22 data. The findings are stark: 67% of public schools recorded at least one violent incident, and approximately 857,500 violent incidents were reported across the nation’s schools (NCES, 2024). Sixty-one percent of schools reported at least one physical attack or fight without a weapon, and 4% reported attacks involving a weapon.

The FBI’s Crime in Schools, 2020–2024 special report, released in August 2025, adds a criminal justice lens. Agencies reported more than one million criminal incidents on school property over the five-year period, with approximately 1.5 million victims and 1.2 million known offenders (FBI, 2025). More than three-quarters (76%) of weapons used on school property were personal weapons—fists, teeth, hands, and feet—underscoring that the dominant form of school violence is physical assault, not armed attack.

The Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2023 report, jointly published by NCES and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), documented 50 active shooter incidents at elementary and secondary schools between 2000 and 2022, with 2022 producing the second-highest casualty count (52) of any year since tracking began (Irwin et al., 2024).

Violence Against Educators: The APA Task Force Findings

The American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel conducted the most rigorous national survey of educator victimization to date, surveying nearly 15,000 educators before and during COVID-19 restrictions and approximately 12,000 after restrictions ended (Espelage et al., 2024). The findings were published in the American Psychologist in 2024 and revealed an alarming picture:

80% of teachers reported at least one incident of verbal or threatening aggression from students during the 2021–22 year.

56% of teachers reported at least one incident of physical violence from students.

School psychologists, social workers, and counselors experienced physical violence at the same rate (56%).

Administrators (43%) and support staff (53%) also reported substantial rates of physical violence.

Rates of violence returned to pre-pandemic levels or higher after COVID-19 restrictions ended.

The APA Task Force’s data demolish the notion that school violence is a rare, isolated phenomenon. When more than half of all teachers report being physically assaulted by students in a single year, violence has become a structural feature of the American school system—not an aberration.

Teacher Concern and Threat Perception

The most recent School Pulse Panel data from the 2024–25 school year show that 21% of teachers and 15% of principals worry about being personally attacked or harmed at school (NCES, 2025). Nearly 50% of both teachers and principals expressed concern about students being attacked or harmed. These are not abstract fears; they are informed by lived experience in schools where violence has become normalized.

II. The Human Cost: Case Studies From the Front Lines

Statistics illuminate the scale of the crisis. Individual stories reveal its cruelty. The following case studies, drawn from public reporting and legal filings, illustrate what school violence looks like in practice.

Clark County, Nevada: Ground Zero

Clark County School District (CCSD)—the nation’s fifth-largest district, serving Las Vegas and surrounding communities—has become a national symbol of the school violence crisis. During the 2024–25 school year alone, CCSD police logged 9,232 incident calls related to violence (CCSD Police Department, 2025).

The most horrific incident occurred at Eldorado High School, where a student beat a teacher nearly to death and sexually assaulted her in her own classroom. The student was charged with attempted murder, attempted sexual assault, and battery with a deadly weapon resulting in serious bodily harm, and was ultimately sentenced to 16 to 40 years in prison (Las Vegas Sun, 2024). The teacher sued CCSD, alleging the district knew about chronic violence at the school and failed to protect her.

National media coverage by NPR and The Washington Post in 2022 documented a district in which teachers described daily physical assaults as routine—a reality that administrators often minimized or ignored.

Kentucky: A Legislative Response Takes Shape

Kentucky has emerged as a bellwether state. The Kentucky Education Association reported approximately 25,000 incidents of assault against teachers since 2021 (Kentucky Lantern, 2026). In response, Senate Bill 101, introduced in January 2026, would require school boards to expel students in grades six through twelve for at least 12 months when they intentionally physically harm a school employee. The bill represents exactly the kind of legislative response that the VFSA’s model Educator’s Bill of Rights envisions.

Oregon: When Workers’ Compensation Data Tell the Story The Oregon School Employees Association’s (OSEA) “Work Shouldn’t Hurt” campaign has documented extraordinary rates of workplace injury among school employees, particularly those working with special education and high-needs students. OSEA’s 2022 survey of more than 2,500 school employees revealed systemic failures in reporting, training, and administrative response to violence (OSEA, 2022). The campaign provided critical momentum for Oregon HB 3318 and ongoing legislative efforts to protect school workers.

Texas: Bipartisan Action at Scale

Texas’s House Bill 6, the “Teacher Bill of Rights,” passed the Texas House by a vote of 124 to 20 during the 89th Legislative Session in 2025, demonstrating overwhelming bipartisan support for educator safety legislation (Texas Policy Research, 2025). HB 6 reforms disciplinary policy, provides legal immunity for educators who enforce discipline in good faith, and expands access to student mental health care. Texas AFT’s longstanding Educator’s Bill of Rights campaign laid the groundwork for this landmark vote.

III. The Economic Cost of School Violence

School violence imposes staggering financial costs on school districts, states, and taxpayers. These costs are often invisible because they are distributed across multiple budget lines—workers’ compensation, substitute staffing, litigation, recruitment, and lost productivity—but their cumulative impact is enormous.

Teacher Turnover

The Learning Policy Institute’s 2024 analysis estimates that replacing a single teacher costs approximately $25,000 in large districts, $16,450 in medium districts, and $11,860 in small districts (Podolsky et al., 2024). These costs include separation processing, recruitment, hiring, and the lost productivity during the transition period. When teachers leave because of unsafe working conditions, the costs are compounded by the difficulty of recruiting replacements to schools known for violence.

Nationally, approximately one in eight teaching positions is either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments (Learning Policy Institute, 2025). The APA Task Force found that 23–57% of educators reported intentions to quit the profession after COVID restrictions ended, with rates varying by role (Espelage et al., 2024). Unsafe working conditions are a primary driver: the Pew Research Center found in 2024 that 52% of Americans surveyed would not advise young adults to become teachers.

Workers’ Compensation and Medical Costs Educators injured by students generate workers’ compensation claims that include medical treatment, lost wages during recovery, and in severe cases, permanent disability benefits. Psychological injuries—post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression—compound the financial toll. A single serious assault, like the Eldorado High School attack in Clark County, can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical costs, legal fees, and compensation.

Substitute Teacher Costs

When injured educators miss work, districts must pay for substitute teachers. In high- violence schools, chronic absenteeism among staff due to injury or fear creates a

revolving door of substitutes, degrading educational quality and further destabilizing the school environment.

Litigation

Lawsuits filed by injured educators against school districts are increasing. Claims allege negligence, failure to provide a safe workplace, and deliberate indifference to known dangers. The Eldorado High School teacher’s lawsuit against CCSD is one example of litigation that can cost districts millions in settlements and legal defense.

The Cost Comparison: Violence vs. Alternative Education

Critics of mandatory removal policies often cite the cost of alternative education placements. However, virtual learning programs—the most common alternative education setting—cost significantly less per pupil than traditional classroom instruction.

When the full costs of violence are calculated—workers’ compensation, substitute staffing, litigation, recruitment to replace departing teachers, and the incalculable cost of educational disruption for all students in a violent school—removal to alternative settings is the more cost-effective option.

IV. The Failure of Current Policy Responses

Restorative Justice: Promise and Limitations

Restorative justice practices have become widespread in American schools, often adopted as alternatives to exclusionary discipline. These approaches have genuine value for relational harms—broken trust, miscommunication, social conflict. However, the application of restorative justice to physical violence against educators has produced troubling outcomes in many districts.

In practice, restorative justice for physical assault often means that a student who attacks a teacher participates in a brief restorative conversation and returns to the same classroom, sometimes the same day. This approach re-traumatizes the victim, sends a message that violence carries no meaningful consequence, and undermines the credibility of the entire restorative framework. As the APA Task Force data show, violence rates have not declined despite the widespread adoption of restorative practices (Espelage et al., 2024).

The IDEA Interpretation Problem

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides critical protections for students with disabilities. However, the way many school districts interpret IDEA has created a de facto shield for violent behavior. Under common interpretations, if a manifestation determination review concludes that a student’s violent act was related to their disability, the student is returned to the regular classroom—sometimes to the same room where they assaulted an educator.

IDEA already permits removal to an alternative setting for up to 45 school days for offenses involving weapons, drugs, or serious bodily injury. The principle that safety can justify a change of placement is already embedded in federal law. What is lacking is the political will to extend that principle to all acts of physical violence, regardless of disability status.

Administrative Pressure to Underreport

Across the country, educators report being pressured by administrators to minimize or decline to report violent incidents. Motivations include avoiding negative publicity, maintaining favorable school ratings, and reducing the appearance of disciplinary disparities. The result is a systematic undercounting of school violence that distorts policy discussions and denies educators legal protections.

The Progressive Discipline Fallacy

Many districts employ progressive discipline models for violence: a warning for the first offense, a short suspension for the second, and escalating consequences thereafter. This approach treats the first assault as a freebie—a cost of doing business that the educator is expected to absorb. No other workplace in America operates on this principle. If an employee punches a coworker, they are terminated immediately. If a patron assaults a store clerk, they are banned and arrested. Only in schools are workers expected to endure the first assault and wait for a pattern to emerge before meaningful action is taken.

V. The VFSA Proposal: Freedom From Violence

The Violence-Free Schools Alliance proposes a clear, enforceable standard: any student who commits an act of physical violence against any person on school grounds is removed from the school for one calendar year. We call this policy Freedom From Violence, and it forms the centerpiece of our model Educator’s Bill of Rights legislation.

Core Principles

1. Schools as Violence-Free Zones

Just as schools are gun-free zones under the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, they should be violence-free zones. The structure is parallel: a defined prohibited act, mandatory removal for a specified period, due process protections, and continued education in an alternative setting. If the nation can agree that bringing a gun to school warrants automatic one-year removal—and it can, because it has for over 30 years—then it should agree that physically assaulting a person at school warrants the same consequence.

2. One Strike, One Year Out

The mandatory one-year removal applies to any act of physical violence—defined as the intentional use of physical force against another person that causes or is intended to cause bodily harm. The definition explicitly excludes incidental physical contact during normal school activities and acts of reasonable self-defense. The standard is objective and narrow: did the student intentionally hit, kick, choke, or otherwise physically attack someone? If yes, removal. If no, existing school discipline applies.

3. Due Process

Every student accused of an act of physical violence is entitled to a hearing before a three- member Violence Review Panel within five school days. The panel includes an administrator from a different school, an educator representative, and a community member. The student may present evidence, call witnesses, and be represented by counsel. This is not zero tolerance—it is one-strike accountability with full procedural protections.

4. Alternative Education, Not Expulsion

Removed students are not expelled. They are placed in alternative education settings—

virtual learning programs, Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs), or home-based instruction—where they continue their coursework. Students with IEPs receive all special education services in the alternative setting. The student’s education does not stop; their access to the building where they committed violence does.

5. Parental Accountability

Parents bear responsibility during the removal period: ensuring the student completes coursework, enrolling the student in required behavioral intervention programs, and participating in a re-entry conference before re-enrollment. When schools absorb all consequences of student violence and families face none, there is no incentive for behavioral change.

6. A Clear Path Back

After one year, students may re-enroll upon completion of a behavioral intervention program, a written statement from the program provider, a re-entry conference, and a signed Behavioral Contract. The goal is not permanent exclusion—it is meaningful accountability followed by a structured return.

Universal Application: The SPED Question

The Educator’s Bill of Rights applies to all students regardless of special education classification or disability status. A disability may explain violent behavior, but it does not excuse it, and it does not entitle a student to remain in a setting where they have assaulted someone. Students with disabilities continue to receive all IEP services in the alternative setting. The manifestation determination review is preserved, but regardless of its outcome, the student is removed from the regular school. FAPE is maintained; the setting changes.

Equity and Civil Rights

The most common criticism of mandatory removal policies is that they will disproportionately impact minority students. This concern deserves serious engagement.

However, the current system disproportionately harms minority educators, who are more likely to work in schools with higher violence rates and less administrative support. The

objective standard—physical violence only, not subjective offenses like defiance or disrespect—reduces the discretionary decision-making that drives racial disparities in school discipline. Due process protections ensure that every student receives a fair hearing.

VI. The Legislative Landscape: State-by-State Action

A growing number of states are taking legislative action to address school violence. The following table summarizes recent legislative developments across key states, demonstrating both the breadth of the movement and the varied approaches being pursued.

State Legislation Key Provisions Status Texas HB 6 (89th Session, 2025)

Teacher Bill of Rights; disciplinary reform; legal immunity for educators; student mental health expansion Passed House 124–20 Kentucky SB 101 (2026)

Mandatory 12-month expulsion for students grades 6–12 who intentionally harm school employees Introduced Jan. 2026 Arkansas Teacher & Student Protection Act (2025)

Prohibits placing student removed for violence back in the same class as the victim Enacted West Virginia School Discipline Law (2025)

Expands teacher authority over classroom management; teachers “stand in place of parent” Effective July 2025 Oregon HB 3318 / OSEA advocacy Work Shouldn’t Hurt campaign; expanded reporting and training requirements Ongoing Nevada Multiple proposals Clark County union-backed discipline reforms following national media coverage In progress Wisconsin Teacher Bill of Rights (2025)

Proposed protections for managing student behavior and preventing violence Introduced The VFSA’s model Educator’s Bill of Rights is designed to harmonize and strengthen these efforts. While each state’s legislative approach is tailored to local conditions, the VFSA model provides a comprehensive framework that addresses removal, due process, alternative education, parental accountability, anti-retaliation protections, mandatory reporting, and funding—ensuring that no element of the solution is left to chance.

VII. The Business Case: Cost Analysis

The economic argument for mandatory removal is compelling. The table below illustrates the comparative costs of the current system versus the Freedom From Violence framework.

Cost Category Current System (Estimated Annual)

Under Freedom From Violence Teacher replacement (turnover)

$25,000 per departing teacher (large districts)

Reduced turnover as schools become safer Workers’ compensation claims Thousands to hundreds of thousands per serious incident Fewer assaults = fewer claims Substitute teacher costs Chronic in high-violence schools Reduced educator absenteeism

Litigation and

settlements Millions in aggregate across districts Reduced liability exposure Alternative education per pupil N/A (students remain in building)

$3,000–$8,000 per pupil (virtual/DAEP)

Educational disruption (all students)

Incalculable but pervasive Stabilized learning environments Sources: Learning Policy Institute, 2024; NCES, 2024. Estimated alternative education costs are based on state virtual school per-pupil expenditures reported by state education agencies.

The Violence-Free Schools Fund, established by the Educator’s Bill of Rights, provides state-level funding to reimburse districts for alternative education costs, behavioral intervention programs, and violence prevention training. At the federal level, the legislation authorizes $100 million in first-year appropriations to support states that adopt the law.

VIII. Recommendations

The Violence-Free Schools Alliance calls on state legislatures, the United States Congress, school districts, educators’ unions, and the American public to take the following actions:

For State Legislatures

Enact the Educator’s Bill of Rights, adopting the VFSA model legislation or a substantially similar framework that includes mandatory one-year removal for physical violence, due process protections, alternative education requirements, and parental accountability provisions.

Establish a Violence-Free Schools Fund to reimburse districts for alternative education and behavioral intervention costs.

Mandate quarterly public reporting of school violence data by every district.

Enact anti-retaliation protections for educators who report violence.

For the United States Congress

Introduce the Educator’s Bill of Rights Act as federal legislation, extending Gun-Free Schools Act principles to all forms of physical violence.

Clarify IDEA to explicitly permit removal to alternative settings for physical violence when FAPE continues.

Authorize federal incentive grants for states that adopt violence-free school zone policies.

Direct the National Center for Education Statistics to collect and publish annual, disaggregated data on school violence nationwide.

For School Districts

Adopt violence-free zone policies immediately, even before state legislation is enacted.

Invest in alternative education capacity, including virtual learning programs and DAEPs.

Train administrators on incident documentation, reporting requirements, and anti- retaliation obligations.

For Educators and Unions

Join the Violence-Free Schools Alliance and advocate for the Educator’s Bill of Rights in your state.

Report every act of violence. Documentation is the foundation of legislative change.

Contact your state legislators and demand action.

For Parents and the Public

Support violence-free school zone policies. Your child’s teacher should not have to fear assault at work.

Hold your school district accountable for transparent violence reporting.

Teach your children that violence is never acceptable—not at home, not in public, and not at school.

IX. Conclusion

The state of school violence in America in 2026 is a disgrace. More than half of the nation’s teachers have been physically assaulted by students. Two-thirds of schools report violent incidents every year. Educators are leaving the profession in droves, citing safety as a primary concern. And the policy responses to date—restorative conversations, progressive discipline, administrative silence—have failed.

The Violence-Free Schools Alliance refuses to accept this as normal. We believe that schools should be violence-free zones—as clearly and unequivocally as they are gun-free zones. We believe that the first time a student physically assaults someone at school should be the last time they attend that school for a year. We believe that educators have a right to work without fear of assault, that students have a right to learn in a safe environment, and that parents have a responsibility to ensure their children do not bring violence into schools.

The Educator’s Bill of Rights is not punitive. It is protective. It does not expel students—it removes them to settings where they receive education, behavioral intervention, and a clear path back. It is not zero tolerance—it provides due process, independent review, and the right to appeal. It is not discriminatory—it applies an objective standard equally to every student, and it protects the minority educators and students who are most often victimized by school violence.

One strike. One year out. No warnings. No exceptions. Pay attention.

The time for action is now.

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