Finding a Safe School is Driving Parents’ Educational Decisions

 Years of research have identified the two things that parents prize more than anything else when picking a school for their child – academic quality and safety. 

While consistently lumped together at the top, these priorities are not equal. A quality education cannot be obtained if a child does not feel safe. On the other hand, it is possible for a child to feel safe while not receiving a quality education. 

It can be helpful to refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when thinking about how parents choose an educational environment for their children. In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” Abraham Maslow argued that human beings have certain basic needs that have to be met before they can perform higher-level functions. Applied to education, it means that students cannot learn (a higher-level function) if they are hungry or feel in danger (basic functions).  

With more families having a choice in their child’s education now than ever before, one might expect to see families prioritizing needs higher up the pyramid and selecting educational environments based on qualities like class size, extracurricular activities, or diversity. Instead, the data suggests parents are forced to prioritize a basic need like safety when deciding on a school for their child, which is not only a scathing indictment on the school they are leaving but a potential hindrance to finding a school that could maximize higher level functions.  

According to EdChoice’s 2023 Schooling in America survey, parents were more likely to prioritize safety as a factor when selecting a school for their child in 2023. This came at a cost, as parents were much less likely to rank academic quality as a top factor when selecting a school for their child in 2023, regardless of sector. In fact, safety ranked as the top factor for homeschool and charter school parents when figuring out where to send their child to school. 

Switching schools because of safety concerns is hardly a new concept. EdChoice’s monthly public opinion tracker includes questions hoping to learn more about school switchers, or families who have chosen to switch school types for their child (besides moving from grade school to middle school, or middle school to high school). When asked about reasons why their child switched school types, the most cited difficulty at their previous school was bullying.

But it isn’t just bullying. Horrific tragedies in schools in Uvalde, TX, Nashville, TN and most recently at Perry High School in Iowa have become uncomfortably recurrent. These events are just the tip of the iceberg. There is ample data justifying parents’ decisions to prioritize safety above all else. 

According to the recently released NCES School Survey on Crime and Safety,  during the 2021-22 school year 67 percent of public schools reported having at least one violent incident. Broken down further, 90 percent of public middle schools and 85 percent of public high schools reported having at least one violent crime during SY 2021-22. 

Public opinion data provides an even clearer picture of why parents are keener to prioritize a safe learning environment. According to a Gallup poll of parents from August 2023, 38 percent of parents fear for their child’s physical safety at school. While down 6 points from 2022, the last time parental concern reached 38 percent was back in 2001. 

Survey data from EdChoice’s monthly public opinion tracker, in partnership with Morning Consult, provides more context. Roughly half of parents say their child’s school is doing well handling issues like guns or violent behaviors. It’s disturbing to imagine that the other half of parents feel their child’s school is not doing well handling these issues, but what’s perhaps worse is that these figures may even be a tad optimistic. EdChoice surveys teachers and teenagers through its monthly public opinion tracker as well. Teenagers and teachers, groups who are inside school buildings each day, are consistently less likely than parents to say their school is effectively handling issues like guns and violent behaviors. 

It is hard to not see a connection between growing parental concerns for student safety and the growth of school choice programs around the country. If a child feels unsafe at their school, families deserve a right to look elsewhere to obtain a quality education for their child. 

It is unreasonable to suggest that affording all families a choice in where their child gets educated will eradicate all school safety-related issues. School choice can be a solution for some, however. Some of the parents who fear for their child’s physical safety at school can look for educational environments where they no longer feel burdened with such a feeling. Parents can choose schools that are more effective at handling issues like guns or violent behaviors. 

Hopefully, we are not far from a future where parents can seek educational environments that address needs higher up the pyramid. In this future parents no longer have to sacrifice them to meet the most basic of needs every child deserves while in school, the feeling of safety. 

Colyn Ritter is a senior research associate at EdChoice.

https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2024/02/15/finding_a_safe_school_is_driving_parents_educational_decisions_1012100.html