School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act

II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1285 To direct the National Center for Education Statistics to produce an annual report on indicators of school crime and safety, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 25, 2023 Mr. BENNET introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To direct the National Center for Education Statistics to produce an annual report on indicators of school crime and safety, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘School Shooting Safety 4 and Preparedness Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6 In this Act: 7 (1) TITLE 18 DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘‘fire- 8 arm’’ and ‘‘ammunition’’ have the meanings given 9 such terms in section 921 of title 18, United States 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1285 IS Code. The term ‘‘large capacity ammunition feeding 1 device’’ has the meaning given such term in section 2 921 of title 18, Unites States Code, as in effect on 3 September 1, 2004. 4 (2) MASS SHOOTING.—The term ‘‘mass shoot- 5 ing’’ means a shooting during which 3 or more indi- 6 viduals, not including the shooter, were injured or 7 killed in one location or in multiple locations in close 8 proximity. 9 (3) SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘school’’ means— 10 (A) an early childhood education program 11 (as defined in section 103 of the Higher Edu- 12 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1003)); 13 (B) an elementary school (as defined in 14 section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 15 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)); 16 (C) a secondary school (as defined in sec- 17 tion 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 18 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)); and 19 (D) an institution of higher education (as 20 defined in section 102 of the Higher Education 21 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002)). 22 (4) SCHOOL SHOOTING.—The term ‘‘school 23 shooting’’ means an event or occurrence— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1285 IS (A) during which one or more individuals 1 were injured or killed by a firearm; and 2 (B) that occurred— 3 (i) in, or on the grounds of, a school, 4 even if before or after school hours; 5 (ii) while the victim was traveling to 6 or from a regular session at school; or 7 (iii) while the victim was attending or 8 traveling to or from an official school-spon- 9 sored event. 10 SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT ON INDICATORS OF SCHOOL 11 CRIME AND SAFETY. 12 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Education, in 13 consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary 14 of Health and Human Services, shall publish not less fre- 15 quently than on an annual basis a report on indicators 16 of school crime and safety. Such report shall be produced 17 by the National Center for Education Statistics of the De- 18 partment of Education in consultation with the Bureau 19 of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice. Such 20 report shall include, at a minimum, an updated version 21 of the information provided in the National Center for 22 Education Statistics report NCES 2022–092 issued in 23 July 2022, and the data described in subsections (b) and 24 (d). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1285 IS (b) STATISTICS ON SCHOOL SHOOTINGS.—In col- 1 lecting data on school shootings to be compiled in the an- 2 nual report described in subsection (a), the National Cen- 3 ter for Education Statistics shall collect at a minimum the 4 following data annually: 5 (1) The number of school shootings that have 6 taken place nationwide. 7 (2) Of the school shootings described in para- 8 graph (1), the number that were mass shootings. 9 (3) Of the school shootings described in para- 10 graph (1), the number that were suicides. 11 (4) Of the school shootings described in para- 12 graph (1), the number that were accidents. 13 (5) The number of people killed in each school 14 shooting, including— 15 (A) the number of people whose cause of 16 death was attributable to wound by firearm; 17 and 18 (B) the number of people having some 19 other cause of death. 20 (6) The number of people injured in each school 21 shooting, including— 22 (A) the number of people wounded by fire- 23 arm; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1285 IS (B) the number of people injured in some 1 other manner. 2 (7) The time of the shooting and whether it oc- 3 curred during school hours. 4 (8) The demographics of each school, includ- 5 ing— 6 (A) the locale code of the school, as deter- 7 mined by the Secretary of Education; and 8 (B) student demographic data 9 disaggregated by— 10 (i) economically disadvantaged stu- 11 dents as compared to students who are not 12 economically disadvantaged; 13 (ii) each major racial and ethnic 14 group; 15 (iii) children with disabilities as com- 16 pared to children without disabilities; and 17 (iv) English proficiency status. 18 (9) The personal characteristics of each victim 19 in the shooting, including, at a minimum, the vic- 20 tim’s— 21 (A) age; 22 (B) gender; 23 (C) race; 24 (D) ethnicity; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1285 IS (E) nationality. 1 (10) The personal characteristics of the shooter, 2 including, at a minimum, the shooter’s— 3 (A) age; 4 (B) gender; 5 (C) race; 6 (D) ethnicity; 7 (E) nationality; and 8 (F) relationship to the school. 9 (11) Whether the shooting was determined to 10 be an accident, and if not, the motivation of the 11 shooter, including any real or perceived bias based 12 on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or sex (in- 13 cluding sexual orientation or gender identity). 14 (12) How the shooting was stopped, includ- 15 ing— 16 (A) whether the shooter was injured or 17 killed, and if so, by whom; and 18 (B) if not, what was the other outcome of 19 the incident (such as escape, arrest, or suicide). 20 (13) The number and type of firearms and am- 21 munition that were used in each shooting, includ- 22 ing— 23 (A) the make and model of the firearm; 24 (B) the manufacturer of the firearm; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1285 IS (C) the make and model of the ammuni- 1 tion; 2 (D) the manufacturer of the ammunition; 3 (E) whether a large capacity ammunition 4 feeding device was present at the scene or used 5 during the shooting; and 6 (F) the number of rounds of ammunition 7 fired by the shooter over the course of the 8 shooting. 9 (14) Where each of the firearms used in each 10 shooting was obtained and how, including— 11 (A) whether the firearm was registered if 12 required; 13 (B) whether the firearm was purchased 14 from a licensed gun dealer or an unlicensed 15 sale; and 16 (C) the geographic location from where the 17 shooter obtained the firearm. 18 (15) If the original purchaser was not the 19 shooter, the original purchaser’s relationship, if any, 20 to the shooter. 21 (16) If the original purchaser was not the 22 shooter and the firearm was obtained from the 23 shooter’s home, the gun storage practices being used 24 in the home, and whether the gun owner was 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 1285 IS charged with failing to properly secure his or her 1 firearm. 2 (17) Whether the school had one or more teach- 3 ers, as that term is defined in section 8553 of the 4 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 5 (20 U.S.C. 7943), who were armed, and if so, 6 whether such armed teacher or teachers stopped the 7 incident by shooting the shooter. 8 (18) The length of time that the shooting lasted 9 (the approximate elapsed time between the first and 10 last shots fired). 11 (19) The response time of law enforcement. 12 (c) HISTORIC STATISTICS ON SCHOOL SHOOTINGS.— 13 The Secretary of Education shall direct the National Cen- 14 ter for Education Statistics— 15 (1) to collect, to the extent practicable, the data 16 required in subsection (b) for shootings that oc- 17 curred before the date of the enactment of this Act; 18 and 19 (2) to publish such data as revisions to the 20 most applicable annual reports on indicators of 21 school crime and safety issued by the National Cen- 22 ter for Education Statistics before the date of the 23 enactment of this Act. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 1285 IS (d) SAFETY AND PREVENTION.—In collecting data 1 on school shootings to be compiled in the annual report 2 described in subsection (a), the National Center for Edu- 3 cation Statistics shall collect, at a minimum, information 4 on the existence or absence of the following measures at 5 the time of the shooting at schools where a school shooting 6 occurred in the previous year: 7 (1) Physical security measures, including— 8 (A) building envelopes and interiors de- 9 signed to protect occupants from human 10 threats; and 11 (B) other physical security measures de- 12 signed to avert and restrict violence. 13 (2) Other types of security measures, including 14 measures designed to preserve open learning envi- 15 ronments that positively influence student behavior. 16 (3) A communication plan with local law en- 17 forcement. 18 (4) A response plan that includes coordination 19 with local agencies (such as law enforcement, fire 20 department, and hospitals). 21 (5) An active shooter response plan (including 22 the use of an alert system to notify students, faculty, 23 and parents or guardians). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 1285 IS (6) A trauma response plan to address trauma 1 resulting from the shooting, including coordination 2 with school-based counselors, other school mental 3 health professionals, and appropriate community 4 partners and organizations, such as community ac- 5 tion programs or agencies. 6 (7) Any other similar type of safety or preven- 7 tion measure in place at the time of the school 8 shooting. 9 (e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—In collecting data on 10 school shootings to be compiled in the annual report de- 11 scribed in subsection (a), any data disaggregation required 12 by subsection (b) shall not be required in the case where 13 such disaggregation would reveal personally identifiable 14 information about any individual. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:37 Apr 28, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1285.IS S1285 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS