Policing America's Schools: An Education Week Analysis

Which Students Are Arrested the Most?

In the 2013-14 school year, nearly 70,000 students were arrested in a small share of America's public schools — about 8,000 schools. While every state had arrests in that year, most individual schools did not report any arrests. Browse U.S. and state data below.

All U.S. Schools

Who gets arrested?

33.7%

33.4%

24.9%

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Who gets referred to law enforcement?

38.2%

25.8%

22.5%

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What does overall enrollment look like?

50.3%

15.5%

24.7%

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White
Black
Hispanic
Asian
Native American
Hawaiian
Two or more

What percentage of schools have sworn police officers?

29.0%

71.0%

U.S. and Statewide School Data

Search for State Data:

Location	Total Student Enrollment	Percentage of Schools With Police	Number of Arrests*	Percentage of Arrests	Number of Referrals	Percentage of Referrals
United States	49,959,586	28.993%	69,782	0.140%	222,541	0.445%
California	6,252,490	17.827%	9,501	0.152%	22,628	0.362%
Texas	5,176,574	27.574%	7,399	0.143%	16,151	0.312%
Pennsylvania	1,742,477	21.389%	5,161	0.296%	13,293	0.763%
Georgia	1,735,891	38.990%	4,847	0.279%	6,530	0.376%
Illinois	2,039,708	14.728%	4,640	0.227%	10,072	0.494%
Kansas	492,766	26.696%	3,452	0.701%	2,362	0.479%
Indiana	1,026,167	34.611%	2,063	0.201%	3,774	0.368%
Connecticut	546,780	21.108%	1,990	0.364%	2,791	0.510%
South Carolina	747,053	55.429%	1,956	0.262%	3,163	0.423%
Maryland	882,334	33.404%	1,911	0.217%	3,308	0.375%
Florida	2,720,743	47.773%	1,768	0.065%	16,747	0.616%
Ohio	1,767,544	24.965%	1,628	0.092%	2,709	0.153%
Nevada	453,380	10.648%	1,602	0.353%	937	0.207%
Wisconsin	874,272	25.067%	1,578	0.180%	7,226	0.827%
Missouri	903,854	37.623%	1,506	0.167%	4,322	0.478%
Minnesota	857,390	22.614%	1,302	0.152%	5,358	0.625%
Tennessee	989,317	54.459%	1,219	0.123%	2,754	0.278%
Arizona	1,101,791	18.263%	1,204	0.109%	4,566	0.414%
Mississippi	494,297	48.171%	1,016	0.206%	1,897	0.384%
Massachusetts	949,053	31.687%	982	0.103%	2,031	0.214%
Alabama	738,773	45.899%	978	0.132%	2,174	0.294%
New Jersey	1,336,112	19.658%	946	0.071%	3,243	0.243%
Oklahoma	685,922	30.377%	879	0.128%	2,641	0.385%
New York	2,733,087	45.171%	875	0.032%	7,773	0.284%
Louisiana	710,248	32.212%	852	0.120%	1,553	0.219%
Virginia	1,274,850	44.456%	851	0.067%	14,629	1.148%
Hawaii	186,893	0.000%	769	0.411%	18,331	9.808%
Iowa	500,095	15.915%	744	0.149%	2,091	0.418%
Washington	1,071,711	15.051%	608	0.057%	3,151	0.294%
Michigan	1,568,911	16.571%	566	0.036%	3,995	0.255%
Arkansas	481,361	47.368%	557	0.116%	1,191	0.247%
Oregon	566,607	25.116%	468	0.083%	1,341	0.237%
Colorado	879,529	22.568%	462	0.053%	6,275	0.713%
Kentucky	685,999	35.653%	444	0.065%	818	0.119%
Nebraska	306,864	12.989%	346	0.113%	1,874	0.611%
New Mexico	338,093	13.279%	306	0.091%	2,064	0.610%
Utah	631,496	40.182%	299	0.047%	2,383	0.377%
New Hampshire	187,269	28.898%	290	0.155%	1,201	0.641%
Washington, D.C.	76,276	69.307%	288	0.378%	364	0.477%
South Dakota	135,257	26.068%	274	0.203%	909	0.672%
North Carolina	1,530,939	55.383%	239	0.016%	4,090	0.267%
Montana	145,139	18.861%	226	0.156%	1,010	0.696%
Rhode Island	140,870	24.315%	182	0.129%	455	0.323%
North Dakota	104,393	18.527%	148	0.142%	484	0.464%
Delaware	132,585	30.000%	134	0.101%	1,529	1.153%
Idaho	289,611	35.185%	114	0.039%	1,195	0.413%
Vermont	84,206	19.281%	60	0.071%	330	0.392%
West Virginia	284,340	14.763%	55	0.019%	738	0.260%
Alaska	129,232	22.016%	54	0.042%	539	0.417%
Maine	175,259	19.089%	33	0.019%	698	0.398%
Wyoming	93,778	32.213%	10	0.011%	853	0.910%

Showing 1 to 52 of 52 entries

School	District	City	Zip	School Has One or More Police	Student Enrollment	Number of Arrests*	Percentage of Arrests	Number of Referrals	Percentage of Referrals
No data available in table

Indicates percentages that exceed the U.S. percentage

*Table initially sorted by number of arrests.

Some student counts were rounded to protect individuals from being identified.

NA indicates that the school did not provide information, or that information was not considered applicable by the Office for Civil Rights.

SOURCE: Education Week Research Center original analysis of Civil Rights Data Collection, 2017

Education Week’s data-driven journalism projects are supported in part by a grant from the Schott Foundation for Public Education, at schottfoundation.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.

© 2017 Editorial Projects in Education, 6935 Arlington Road, Bethesda MD 20814, 1-800-346-1834 (Main Office), 1-800-445-8250 (Customer Service). This data tool is not for distribution or presentation without permission. For permission, please contact library@educationweek.org.