School Level and Urbanicity Differences in School Threat Scenario Plans: A National Analysis

The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to determine the degree to which school level (i.e., elementary, middle, and high schools) and school urbanicity (i.e., city, suburb, town, and rural) were related to written safety plans (i.e., active shooter, hostage, bomb, and pandemic flu/disease threats) and drilled safety plans (i.e., evacuation, lockdown, and shelter-in-place) based on school administrator responses to a nationwide school safety survey. The first specific purpose was to ascertain the extent to which the frequencies of written school safety plans for active shooter, hostage, and bomb threats differ by school level and urbanicity. The second specific purpose was to establish the extent to which the frequencies of drilled school safety plans for evacuation, lockdown, and shelter-in-place practices differ by school level and urbanicity. The third specific purpose was to examine the extent to which written pandemic flu/disease safety plans differ by school level and urbanicity. In the third study, analyses were performed to determine if trends were present for school safety written pandemic flu/disease plans by school level and urbanicity.