Hear Us,
Believe Us:
Centering African American
Parent Voices in K-12 Education

Key Finding 3: School Safety

80% of Black parents and caregivers ranked safety as one of the most important factors in choosing a school for their child.

The findings indicate that 80% of Black parents and caregivers ranked safety as one of the most important factors for school selection. This is down 7 percentage points from the previous survey. Moreover, when asked what are the most important issues facing African American students in their communities, 63% of parents cited violence and unsafe conditions in schools. From mass shootings in schools to violence and safe passage concerns, safety issues are palpable for parents.

In UNCF’s report A Seat at the Table: African American Youth’s Perspectives of K-12 Education, only 43% of African American youth felt their schools were safe. For African American students in schools predominantly with students of color, safety may take on different meanings, as they may be more likely to experience over-policing in schools, yet the research suggests that increased funding for school resource officers does not necessarily decrease discipline.1Anderson, K. & Anderson, M. (2020). Safety and school resource officers: Framing a legislative agenda. Howard University & UNCF. A joint UNCF and Howard University report, School Safety and School Resource Officers: Framing a Legislative Agenda, shows that students of color are often mechanically and physically restrained at rates that exceed their population size. In fact, Black students are mechanically restrained with devices at a rate nearly two times their population size.

Violence and safety are nuanced concepts in schools, and the culture and climate of the school matters as well in ensuring students feel safe. Office for Civil Rights data shows that Black students were 15% of the student population but represented 37% of students bullied or harassed based on race.2Office for Civil Rights Data Collection. 2017-2018. https://ocrdata.ed.gov/estimations/2017-2018

The next two most important issues when choosing a school for their child was the graduation rate or passing students to next grade level (61%) followed by support for students with special needs (52%).

Digging Deeper

The data shows that among Black parents of 9-12th graders, the main source for obtaining information for college was their child’s school (45%), followed by websites (29%), other parents (13%), church (4%) and nonreligious organizations in their community (3%). This finding is disheartening because though parents go to their child’s school for information about college, only a little over a quarter feel that the school did a very good job in helping them understand the college process.

The focus groups substantiated these issues as well. Parents were concerned about the lack of coordination efforts for children with special needs. One parent discussed the lack of high expectations for children with disabilities suggesting, “They don’t know how to manage these students [with disabilities], and these students just get left in this space where no one knows what to do with them.”

Figure

Footnotes

  • 1
    Anderson, K. & Anderson, M. (2020). Safety and school resource officers: Framing a legislative agenda. Howard University & UNCF.
  • 2
    Office for Civil Rights Data Collection. 2017-2018. https://ocrdata.ed.gov/estimations/2017-2018
“They don’t know how to manage these students [with disabilities], and these students just get left in this space where no one knows what to do with them.”

— African American parent, focus group participant

Additional Resources

Safety and School Resource Officers: Framing a Legislative Agenda

This joint brief with Howard University proposes tangible legislative actions that can occur at federal, state, and local levels to address school safety and school resource officers (SROs). The brief provides 7 key recommendations to address issues such as racial disparities in restraints of students, data loopholes, community voice, and SRO role ambiguity.

A Seat at the Table: African American Youth’s Perceptions of K-12 Education

The role to be played by youth is just as important as that of leaders and parents. They are, after all, the stakeholders whose response to reform will determine if it succeeds or fails. Of the three groups, they are the only one with firsthand knowledge of what happens in the classroom. And, all too often, they do not have a seat at the table during reform discussions. This study, the third installment of UNCF’s African American perceptions research on key issues in K-12 education, begins to remedy that omission.