Effects of school structure and support on youth violence.

OJJDP FY 09 Demonstration Programs Division Grants was established to provide grants, cooperative agreements and other assistance to organizations designated by OJJDP, as authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. Sections 5601 et seq.) and statutes appropriating funds for juvenile justice programs.

The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia proposes to (1) Investigate the protective effects of school structure and support on school violence and dropout rates, (2) Assess school outcomes following adoption of the Virginia threat assessment guidelines, and (3) Determine whether protective factors can reduce the disproportionate punishment and high dropout rate of minority students.

In 2007, the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia collected survey data from randomly selected samples of 7,300 ninth grade students and 2,900 teachers and found that their measures of structure and support were associated with concurrent measures of safety conditions, including lower levels of bullying and both student and teacher victimization. This application proposes to analyze longitudinal data on school outcomes 3-4 years after the surveys, when the 9th grade cohort will be completing 12th grade and attempt to demonstrate that schools using a structure-and-support approach are more likely to maintain safer conditions over time and will have lower levels of student suspension, expulsion and dropout. The applicant further plans to identify school conditions that reduce the disproportionate rates of suspension, expulsion, and dropout for African-American students. NCA/NCF