SINCE THE EARLY 1990s, school safety has become a top priority across the nation. Schools, communities, lawmakers, and even students are working to stop the violence in schools. Separately and together they are using many different approaches to curb school violence.

Schools reacted by increasing security and implementing a variety of violence prevention programs. Parents and communities in many school districts also came together to create violence prevention programs tailored to the particular needs of their local schools. Lawmakers passed bills in the 1990s specifically designed to reduce school violence. A large majority of students also expressed a willingness to take an active stand against violence, and students at some schools even formed antiviolence groups.

Studies indicate that these violence prevention efforts may be working in some cases because school violence overall is not increasing. In fact, schools became somewhat safer during...