Crime in North Carolina schools has dropped for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, new state data from the 2023-24 school year shows.
School leaders said Wednesday that the state still has some work to do to disrupt violence and drug possession in schools.
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The crime rate dropped 7.4% -- from 8.77 reportable acts per 1,000 students to 8.1 reportable acts per 1,000 students.
The number of students found in possession of a weapon on campus plummeted 25% from the 2022-23 school year to the 2023-24 school year, from 3,171 students to 2,378 students.
But the number of students found in possession of drugs remains high at more than 7,000 students, and the number of students reported for assaulting a school employee has risen to the highest number in at least 17 years, at more than 1,600 students.
The state doesn't track assaults by students against other students.
Bomb threats rose to 94, the highest number in 15 years.
Crime in schools had been rising since the Covid-19 pandemic, driven mostly by growing drug possession reports. While the data show continued areas of concern for the state's public schools, it also shows progress in some areas that parents, students, teachers and school employees have raised concerns about, such as weapons being brought into school.
The number of students found with a weapon on campus dropped to its second-lowest number it least 17 years.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction presented the numbers to the State Board of Education on Wednesday, along with data on disciplinary actions taken against students -- numbers that also went down but not be nearly as much as the school crime rate.
Rob Dietrich, department senior director of enterprise data and reporting, noted that 77.3% of schools reported students committing none to five acts of violence. Less than 1% of students were reported for a crime.
"For the most part, our schools are not experiencing a lot of acts of crime and violence," he said.
Board Vice Chairman Alan Duncan found himself fixated on the rise in students assaulting school personnel.
"I think many people would find it disheartening that the third-most offense involves teachers," he said, suggesting it shows a lack of respect some students have for teachers.
"That's something we should be highlighting, how we react to that and prioritize that," Duncan said.
The numbers presented Wednesday reflect the lived experience of educators, said Beckie Spears, a Wilkes County elementary school principal and board adviser.
"These numbers are astounding and horrible," she said.
Juvenile crime has been a growing challenge for North Carolina law enforcement agencies, WRAL News has reported.
Karen Fairley, director of the state's Center for Safer Schools, told WRAL News on Wednesday that what happens in the community also winds up at school -- and vice versa.
The state's schools have beefed up their behavioral threat assessment teams, which can stop or prevent certain safety concerns. Often, those might be self-harm or bullying. But they also include drug possession and use and threats. Schools can receive tips in a number of ways but are increasingly using the Say Something reporting app.
"Drug possession and use is going to be a problem as long as young people have easy access to it," Fairley said. "That is not necessarily a school issue, that is more of a community issue."
She said students are setting up drug transactions on their phones, likely at night when they're at home. Then, they might transact at school -- where offenses for drug possession have risen more than for any other type of offense and comprise more than half of offenses reported to the state.
"Cellphones are a concern," she said.
But Fairley noted the overall drop in crime is still something to recognize.
She said there may be a lot of reasons why, including police work.
The number of students found in possession of a weapon could be going down because of the growing presence of metal and weapons detectors, she said. They may be working more effectively as deterrents from ever bringing a weapon to campus in the first place, she said.
"Maybe if a school has weapon detectors, and the child who would bring one to school knows that, then they'll think twice about bringing that weapon to school, just because they know that the weapons detector is there," Fairley said. But police could be helping bring the numbers down, too, if they're confiscating more weapons in the community or effectively reducing gang activity.
Still, the Center for Safer Schools is working on improving safety more, she said.
The agency continues to host workshops, provide mental health first aid training and other programming.
Ellen Essick, head of the department's NC Healthy Schools, said the department is reviewing data to determine what would help students the most. She also suggested more behavior assessments and interventions to reduce behavior issues.
But Spears said those are personnel-intensive measures that would be difficult for schools to do.
A functional behavior assessment, which is often done for special education students who have behavior challenges, is a significant assessment that requires several personnel and lengthy meetings.
"Our school psychologist serves 2,000 students," she said, noting the same is true of her school's social worker. "It's very important to speak to the needs of having professionals to do the work."
More funding for psychologists, counselor, social workers and nurses is something the board has pushed for in recent years.