Brookfield, WI. (November 16, 2009) – Crisis Prevention Institute, the world's leading training organization specializing in the safe management of disruptive and assaultive behavior, today announced the results of a nationwide survey conducted by Zogby International, which revealed that a majority of K-12 school teachers believe their classrooms are more prone to violence than they were five years ago.
Over 55 percent of the teachers surveyed said their schools are more likely to experience disruptive behavior, with 76 percent experiencing verbal confrontations, 65 percent experiencing school fights and 36 percent witnessing abuse of a staff member in the past year.
"This temperature check on violence in American schools reveals that a significant majority of teachers believe that improved training in diffusing and de-escalating situations will help them prevent and safely deal with crisis situations," said Tony Jace, CEO, Crisis Prevention Institute. Over two-thirds of teachers surveyed said they would like to be better prepared to deal with incidents that may occur. "National, state and local policy-makers should take note of the need to provide our school teaching staff with the resources to address situations that might arise," Jace added.
General education teachers surveyed reported they lag behind special education teachers in receiving staff training in dealing with potential classroom violence (43 percent vs. 80 percent). Correspondingly, a significant majority (82 percent) of special education teachers say they feel comfortable that their training equips them to deal with disruptive behavior.
"While the survey points to escalating rates of violence in American schools, the encouraging news is teachers'confidence in making critical decisions in the chaotic moments of crisis situations improve as they receiveongoing skills based training," said Judith Schubert, president, Crisis Prevention Institute. "Despite tightly stretched school budgets, quality in-service training to build competencies in preventing and safely diffusing crisis situations is an imperative in today's school environment."
School safety has received significant national attention, thanks in part to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study identifying hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death resulting from improper use of seclusion and restraint techniques in schools across the nation. In response to the GAO report, Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote a letter to Chief State School Officers asking them to submit guidelines to ensure sensible policies are in place. Several states have begun this process, reviewing and updating policies and procedures, creating task forces, and in some cases passing legislation.
Key Facts from the Survey
"This poll confirms that training matters and is the preferred approach to address school violence," said Dr. Randy Boardman, executive director of research and development, Crisis Prevention Institute. "In the wake of recent highly publicized incidents of school violence, it is critical that education policy leaders take concrete steps to ensure that school safety plans are adopted and implemented and that on-going training in violence prevention and intervention are key components of those plans."
Zogby surveyed a representative sample of K-12 special education and general education teachers between September 26 and October 5, 2009; the survey has a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percent for general education teachers.
Full School Violence Survey Results
Final Report [PDF]
UF Regular Ed Teachers [PDF]
UF Special Ed Teachers [PDF]
X01-24 Special Ed Teachers [PDF]
X01-24 Regular Ed Teachers [PDF]
About the Crisis Prevention Institute CPI was established in 1980 for human service professionals to address the need for crisis prevention and intervention training in safe, respectful, noninvasive methods. CPI remains on the forefront of critical issues and best practices in behavior management based on its founding philosophy of providing Care, Welfare, Safety, and SecuritySM for everyone involved in a crisis moment. More than 5.4 million people across the globe have participated in CPI's Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® training, the most widely used program in the world for managing disruptive and assaultive behavior.
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