There Are Way Fewer School Shootings Than the Government Says

By Joshua Gill | 28 August 2018

• The Department of Education’s report on school shootings during the 2015-1016 school year lists 235 school shootings at different schools.
• NPR independently confirmed only 11 of these shootings, while 161 were errors and four were miscategorized incidents.
• Problems ranging from unclear definitions and user error to technical malfunctions plagued the survey process.

THE DAILY CALLER — The Department of Education vastly overstated the number of school shootings that occurred from 2015 to 2016, according to an investigative report by NPR.

The Civil Rights Data Collection’s (CRDC) 2018 spring report on school climate and safety for the 2015 to 2016 school year, published by the Department of Education, stated that 235 schools, about 0.2 percent of U.S. schools, “reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.” NPR reportedly reached out to every school mentioned in the report and, of the 176 schools that responded, only 11 confirmed that incidents meeting the government criteria for a school shooting occurred, while at least four schools miscategorized the incidents they reported. (RELATED: Study: There Is Actually Not A School Shooting Epidemic)

The Department of Education stated in response to the NPR report that it relies on schools to self report accurately. The DOE plans to publish updated data in the Fall of 2018 and told NPR that they will not republish the current report for the 2015 to 2016 school year. […]