Student and Teacher Safety in Chicago Public Schools: The Roles of Community Context and School Social Organization

This research report finds that students and teachers feel much safer in some Chicago Public Schools than others, and the best predictor of whether students and teachers feel safe is the quality of relationships inside the school building. The report, Student and Teacher Safety in Chicago Public Schools, found that schools serving students from high-crime, high-poverty areas tended to feel less safe; however, demographics were not deterministic of safety. In fact, disadvantaged schools with high-quality relationships actually felt safer than advantaged schools with low-quality relationships.