03-21516. Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

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Proposed Project

School Associated Violent Death Surveillance System—New—National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Division of Violence Prevention (DVP), National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) proposes to develop a system for the surveillance of school-associated homicides and suicides. The system will rely on existing public records and interviews with law enforcement officials and school officials. The purpose of the system is to (1) estimate the rate of school-associated violent death in the United States and (2) identify common features of school-associated violent deaths. The proposed system will contribute to the understanding of fatal violence associated with schools, guide further research in the area, and help direct ongoing and future prevention programs.

Violence is the leading cause of death among young people, and increasingly recognized as an important public health and social issue. In 1998, over 3,500 school aged children (5 to 18 years old) in the United States died violent deaths due to suicide, homicide, and unintentional firearm injuries. The vast majority of these fatal injuries were not school associated. However, whenever a homicide or suicide occurs in or around school, it becomes a matter of particularly intense public interest and concern. NCIPC conducted the first scientific study of school-associated violent deaths during the 1992-99 academic years to establish the true extent of this highly visible problem.

Despite the important role of schools as a setting for violence research and prevention interventions, relatively little scientific or systematic work has been done to describe the nature and level of fatal violence associated with schools. Until NCIPC conducted the first nationwide investigation of violent deaths associated with schools, public health and education officials had to rely on limited local studies and estimated numbers to describe the extent of school-associated violent death.

The proposed system will draw cases from the entire United States in attempting to capture all cases of school-associated violent deaths that have occurred. Investigators will review public records and published press reports concerning each school-associated violent death. For each identified case, investigators will also interview an investigating law enforcement official (defined as a police officer, police chief, or district attorney), and a school official (defined as a school principal, school superintendent, school counselor, school teacher, or school support staff) who are knowledgeable about the case in question. Researchers will request information on both the victim and alleged offender(s)—including demographic data, their academic and criminal records, and their relationship to one another. They will also collect data on the time and location of the death; the circumstances, motive, and method of the fatal injury; and the security and violence prevention activities in the school and community where the death occurred, before and after the fatal injury event. The total burden hours are estimated to be 70.

Respondents	No. of respondents	No. of responses/respondent	Avg. burden/response (in hrs.)
School Officials	35	1	1
Police Officials	35	1	1

Dated: August 18, 2003.

Nancy E. Cheal,

Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.