Upgrading Security

As it has in its analyses from previous years, the network urges schools to focus less on relatively rare events like a shooting and more on other potential crises. The network urges schools to focus their training and resources on an all-hazards approach to school safety.

“The erroneous belief that active shooter events are the most significant hazard schools face leaves educators vulnerable and unprepared for the more likely crisis events they will encounter,” the network says. “In many cases, the only training educators receive is geared toward a school shooting, even though it is one of the least likely crisis events.”

In 2024-25, the network found, the most common incidents of violence were a false report of an active shooter, a gun found on campus, a non-gun-related violent incident (such as violent and aggressive behavior) and outside violence spilling into school.

Assessing threats

Schools and universities would be safer if they could identify and defuse potential threats before they lead to violence. That’s why behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) has become a widely used approach to violence prevention. BTAM seeks to prevent violence and other harmful outcomes by bringing together multidisciplinary teams to systematically evaluate and appropriately respond to student behaviors or threats. 

“Adoption of BTAM as part of school safety efforts is becoming a nearly ubiquitous practice across U.S. schools,” says “The State of Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management in K-12 Public Schools,” a report from the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center the Rand Corporation’s Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center. “The main challenge now is not encouraging adoption but rather ensuring effective and consistent implementation.”

The report includes results from a survey conducted in 2025 of 1,746 school principals who have put BTAM practices into place. “The primary goal of this report is to draw on a nationally representative sample of school administrators to understand how BTAM is being implemented and operationalized across the country,” it says.

Some of the report’s findings:

• Responses suggest that schools are appropriately scoping their BTAM programs to focus on the most severe and high-risk cases of student behavior. Schools are maintaining clear thresholds for referring cases to BTAM teams, focusing on serious safety concerns.
• Most schools are tailoring supports to meet the specific needs and circumstances of students. Schools are using a variety of interventions to address underlying causes of student behavior rather than relying on a single solution.
• School BTAM efforts generally reflect a commitment to using supportive measures that address root causes of concerning behaviors rather than relying primarily on exclusionary discipline practices or referrals to law enforcement. Survey results show that schools prioritize interventions such as mental health counseling, building trusted relationships with adults, and skill-building services over restrictive measures. Over 75% said they rarely or never use exclusionary discipline, and 80% rarely or never arrest or prosecute students referred to BTAM teams.
• Parents are a key part of schools’ behavioral threat management processes. One-third of schools identify a lack of parent participation as a significant challenge.
• Principals report reductions in crime, violence and self-harm and view BTAM as preferable to exclusionary discipline. Many said they believe that BTAM contributes to a safer and more supportive school environment.
• There is considerable variability in training for BTAM members. Fewer than half of schools provide annual training, and many offer it only as needed; this may limit team members’ skills in such key areas as risk assessment and bias mitigation. Training gaps are especially pronounced in urban and high-poverty schools.
• There is significant variability in how BTAM teams are structured; how often they meet; and how they conduct information-gathering, case reviews and program evaluations. Although some schools use structured processes, most rely on informal approaches, and about half lack formal policies. This inconsistency highlights the need for clearer tools and resources to support systematic and effective team operations.

“Schools often blend elements from national programs with local practices, leading to significant differences in implementation,” the report says. “Although this flexibility allows adaptation to local needs, it also creates inconsistencies and challenges in measuring effectiveness. Greater coherence and guidance are needed to ensure fidelity to evidence-based frameworks while allowing for local adaptation.”

Postsecondary perspective

Reports of a deadly shooting and a campus lockdown in December at Brown University were upsetting to thousands of students on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, but especially so for sophomore Zoe Weissman. Nearly eight years earlier as a middle school student in Parkland, Florida, she heard the gunshots at the adjacent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a former student opened fire on students and staff, killing 17 and injuring 18.

‘When I was 12, I told myself it would ever happen again,” Weissman wrote on X. “Now I’m freshly 20, and I’ve once more been proven wrong.”

Weissman and countless other students who have lived through shootings or other acts of violence at their elementary or secondary schools may arrive on their college campuses with lingering trauma and mental health issues from those experiences. A 2025 report from the Rand Corporation’s Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center, “Safety and Security at Institutions of Higher Education,” draws attention to the issue as one that colleges and universities should be addressing.

“The increasing prevalence of mental health issues among students, particularly heightened sensitivities to gun violence among postsecondary students who have experienced school shootings during their K–12 education, and the complexities involved in managing campus protests are especially pressing emerging concerns,” the report says.

The report from Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center, which conducts research for the Department of Homeland Security, seeks to provide insight into the ways the department can better support safety and security efforts at colleges and universities.

Other findings from the research:

• Effective campus safety and security efforts involve collaboration among multiple institutional stakeholders, community-level partners, and federal agencies. The extent to which such collaborative approaches are applied should be an area of continued focus.
• Physical security measures, including the use of security personnel, are key to keeping campuses safe. Such measures as building access control, closed-circuit television cameras, and emergency notification systems are widely used. Community policing seems to be especially important when it comes to fostering positive relationships between campus law enforcement and the broader campus community, although perceptions of campus police vary across student populations.
• Although colleges and universities are making considerable efforts to keep their communities safe, resource constraints, including limited funding and staff time, pose obstacles to safety and security. Research also shows that under-reporting of certain safety-related concerns and incidents, most notably sexual misconduct, continues to be a concern. Heightened sensitivities to the possibility of gun violence and mass shootings may lead to increases in reporting of what postsecondary institutions perceive as threatening or concerning behavior.
• More up-to-date information is needed in several areas: postsecondary students’ perceptions of threats; trends in reporting beyond sexual violence misconduct; and the shifting nature of challenges that colleges and universities are facing.

“The research related to the effectiveness of various approaches to safety and security, from physical security measures and technologies to active shooter drills, is largely lacking and continues to complicate safety and security planning," the report says.

The report’s recommendations:

• The Department of Homeland Security should expand the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse and the grant finder tool it operates to provide resources about federally available safety and security grants for colleges and universities. The report also urges Homeland Security to identify and list more-targeted grant opportunities for less well-resourced schools, such as community colleges and minority-serving institutions.
• Create additional resources focused specifically on safety and security at colleges and universities. Homeland Security components such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency could provide additional tools, resources, and training opportunities focused on safety and security at colleges and universities.
• Further facilitate information-sharing and collaboration among colleges and universities, local law enforcement, and state and federal agencies. This could include publishing resources that highlight best practices in dealing with various types of threats and offering opportunities to conduct joint training exercises.
• Further encourage mutual aid agreements on safety and security among schools and between schools and local emergency responders to ensure coordinated responses during large events and emergencies. “Providing best practice guides and examples of or templates for mutual aid agreements could be especially helpful and practical,” the report says.
• Provide guidance to help colleges and universities develop user-friendly and accessible reporting systems for their campus communities. Focused guidance could help colleges and universities provide more information to their communities about the types of concerns that should be reported, develop processes to triage the large volume of information received, and develop procedures to effectively respond to concerns. “This additional support could contribute to preventing various forms of violence, including commonly underreported incidents, such as sexual and gender-based violence and misconduct,” the report says.
• Provide additional resources and guidance to help colleges and universities address the threat of targeted violence on college campuses. “Given the heightened sensitivities to gun violence with which many postsecondary students are coming to college, a particularly fruitful area for further (Homeland Security) support could be related to response and recovery,” the report says. The department could consider expanding guidance on how to adequately consider and respond to the potential psychological impacts of measures designed to improve response to targeted violence, such as active assailant drills.
• Support efforts to collect more-comprehensive data and conduct new research to help colleges and universities adapt to the evolving safety and security landscape. “To date, many of the studies on safety and security issues are based on research conducted at a single institution or across a small sample of students, faculty, and staff at a handful of institutions in one state....Nationally representative survey-based studies could help expand the understanding of national-level trends and identify priority areas for additional investment, resources, and support.