U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice
Washington, D.C. 20531

April 6, 2016
Dear Colleague:
This Dear Colleague Letter alerts all interested parties to additional topics and research questions
of high priority and particular interest to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) as part of its
Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI). The topics and research questions described in
this letter provide greater specificity, but remain consistent with the funding categories,
priorities, and guidance described in the full CSSI solicitation (available at http://www.nij.gov/
funding/Documents/solicitations/NIJ-2016-9093.pdf). Many of the items listed below focus on
school discipline, and are particularly germane to applicants for funding Category 1: Developing
Knowledge About What Works to Make Schools Safe and funding Category 3: Shorter Term
Studies on School Safety. However, potential applicants for all funding categories are
encouraged to review and consider these items.
1. NIJ has a strong interest in understanding and reducing disparities on the basis of race,
national origin (including English Learners), sex, and disability in the administration of
school discipline. With regard to disability, NIJ is particularly interested in discipline
disparities for students with behavioral and mental health disabilities. NIJ encourages
those applying for funding under Category 1 to incorporate programmatic performance
measures and evaluation measures to assess, and where applicants are developing
responsive programs, seek to remedy, any potential disproportionalities stemming from
disciplinary policies, practices, and procedures.
2. NIJ encourages applicants under funding Category 1 to develop and evaluate pilot
programs that involve stakeholders — school districts, courts, law enforcement
(including police, sheriff’s departments, and district attorneys’ offices), public defenders,
family and child welfare system personnel, and communities (e.g., parents, students, local
leaders) — working together to develop school-based protocols that allow for graduated
sanctions for students’ misbehavior and limit school-based arrests.
3. NIJ similarly encourages applicants under funding Category 1 to develop and evaluate
pilot programs that involve these same stakeholders (school districts, courts, law
enforcement, public defenders and prosecutors, family and child welfare personnel, and
communities) working together to build diversion programs that reduce misbehavior of
students while (1) minimizing the severity of negative outcomes for students (e.g., arrest,
secure detention, adjudication); (2) encouraging positive outcomes (counseling,
community-based alternatives to secure programs);and (3) minimizing costs to schools
and the justice system.

 4. Under funding Category 1, NIJ seeks proposals for a model school behavior and
discipline data system that: (1) considers what information a school would want and need
to collect (e.g., student demographic information, incident information, referral
information, consequence information, information about any SRO involvement,
outcomes information); (2) determines how best to collect it (including methods to
standardize teacher and administrator data entry); (3) allows for layperson-friendly data
analytics modeling so educators can understand and use their own discipline data; (4)
includes and shares information as appropriate from other public agencies, while
complying with FERPA, HIPAA, and other federal laws that implicate student privacy.
5. NIJ is interested in the activities and functions of School Resource Officers (SROs) and
other law enforcement and security officers operating in schools and in coordination with
schools. NIJ encourages applicants for funding under Category 3 to consider:


How are SROs and other law enforcement officers trained to operate in K-12
public schools? On what topics do they receive training? How does their training
compare to their actual duties? What structural method of providing training is
most effective (e.g., online, episodic, in-person, with follow-up coaching,
mandatory training, voluntary interests-based training)?



What are the criteria that are being used to select law enforcement officers to
operate in schools?



How are the activities (e.g., mentoring, educational activities, use of force that
does not result in arrest) by SROs and other law enforcement officers being
documented, beyond documentation of arrests? Which entity (i.e., the school
district? the police department?) is documenting those activities, and in what
form?



How are law enforcement officers operating in schools supervised by their own
department and/or by the school(s) in which they operate? What criteria are used
to assess officer performance?



To what extent are SROs and other law enforcement officers involved addressing
school disciplinary matters that do not rise to the level of criminal activity? How
are those situations initiated and handled? Who initiates SRO involvement and
why?



Are there differences in SRO turnover, discipline disparities, or arrest rates when
comparing between school districts that have their own police departments,
school districts that have MOUs or contracts with local law enforcement, and
school districts that do not have formal arrangements with local law enforcement?



Similarly, do SRO assignment patterns (assigned to one school, assigned to
several schools, roving, assigned to a “beat”) affect SRO turnover, discipline
disparities, or arrest rates?

 

For SRO programs that are implementing (i.e., adding) fines, fees, or ticketing in
program of graduated sanctions, what is the impact of those sanctions on schoolbased arrest rates?

6. NIJ is interested in applications related to school discipline and safety issues in Indian
Country, including studies and pilot programs that address issues related to understanding
and reducing school discipline disparities, school to prison pipeline issues, and schoolbased arrest.
7. NIJ encourages proposals for studies and pilot programs to understand and reduce
disciplinary disparities for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian
students in schools in proximity to Indian Country.
8. NIJ is seeking proposals for descriptive and comparative studies that analyze the
sequence of events and decisions that lead from a school-related incident, to an arrest, to
juvenile or adult court involvement and disposition.
9. NIJ seeks applications for studies that examine school pushouts (i.e., all of the reasons
students are removed from the general education environment, regardless of educational
justification). Such research might describe and analyze the spectrum of circumstances,
consequences, and alternative education options available for students who experience
school pushout, including, but not limited to, a self-contained classroom, in-school
suspension, out of school suspension, an alternative school, a cyber-charter, educational
services during expulsion, a partial hospitalization program, a residential treatment
facility, a juvenile justice facility, etc.
For more information about NIJ’s Comprehensive School Safety Initiative, please see
http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/school-crime/Pages/school-safety-initiative.aspx.
Sincerely,

Nancy Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Director
National Institute of Justice