School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2869 To require the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to publish an annual report on indicators of school crime and safety that includes data on school shootings, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 25, 2023 Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (for herself, Mrs. HAYES, and Mrs. MCBATH) in- troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Edu- cation and the Workforce A BILL To require the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to publish an annual report on indica- tors of school crime and safety that includes data on school shootings, 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2869 IH (1) TITLE 18 DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘‘fire- 1 arm’’ and ‘‘ammunition’’ have the meanings given 2 such terms in section 921 of title 18, United States 3 Code. The term ‘‘large capacity ammunition feeding 4 device’’ has the meaning given such term in section 5 921 of title 18, Unites States Code, as in effect on 6 September 1, 2004. 7 (2) MASS SHOOTING.—The term ‘‘mass shoot- 8 ing’’ means a shooting during which three or more 9 individuals, not including the shooter, were injured 10 or killed in one location or in multiple locations in 11 close proximity. 12 (3) SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘school’’ means— 13 (A) an early childhood education program 14 (as defined in section 103 of the Higher Edu- 15 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1003)); 16 (B) an elementary school (as defined in 17 section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 18 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)); 19 (C) a secondary school (as defined in sec- 20 tion 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary 21 Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)); and 22 (D) an institution of higher education (as 23 defined in section 102 of the Higher Education 24 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002)). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2869 IH (4) SCHOOL SHOOTING.—The term ‘‘school 1 shooting’’ means an event or occurrence— 2 (A) during which one or more individuals 3 were injured or killed by a firearm; and 4 (B) that occurred— 5 (i) in, or on the grounds of, a school, 6 even if before or after school hours; 7 (ii) while the victim was traveling to 8 or from a regular session at school; or 9 (iii) while the victim was attending or 10 traveling to or from an official school spon- 11 sored event. 12 SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT ON INDICATORS OF SCHOOL 13 CRIME AND SAFETY. 14 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Education, in 15 consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary 16 of Health and Human Services, shall publish not less fre- 17 quently than on an annual basis a report on indicators 18 of school crime and safety. Such report shall be produced 19 by the National Center for Education Statistics of the De- 20 partment of Education in consultation with the Bureau 21 of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice. Such 22 report shall include, at a minimum, an updated version 23 of the information provided in the National Center for 24 Education Statistics report NCES 2022–144 issued in 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2869 IH May 2022, and the data described in subsections (b) and 1 (d). 2 (b) STATISTICS ON SCHOOL SHOOTINGS.—In col- 3 lecting data on school shootings to be compiled in the an- 4 nual report described in subsection (a), the National Cen- 5 ter for Education Statistics shall collect at a minimum the 6 following data annually: 7 (1) The number of school shootings that have 8 taken place nationwide. 9 (2) Of the school shootings described in para- 10 graph (1), the number that were mass shootings. 11 (3) Of the school shootings described in para- 12 graph (1), the number that were suicides. 13 (4) Of the school shootings described in para- 14 graph (1), the number that were accidents. 15 (5) The number of people killed in each school 16 shooting, including— 17 (A) the number of people whose cause of 18 death was attributable to wound by firearm; 19 and 20 (B) the number of people having some 21 other cause of death. 22 (6) The number of people injured in each school 23 shooting, including— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2869 IH (A) the number of people wounded by fire- 1 arm; and 2 (B) the number of people injured in some 3 other manner. 4 (7) The time of the shooting and whether it oc- 5 curred during school hours. 6 (8) The demographics of each school, includ- 7 ing— 8 (A) the locale code of the school, as deter- 9 mined by the Secretary of Education; and 10 (B) student demographic data 11 disaggregated by— 12 (i) economically disadvantaged stu- 13 dents as compared to students who are not 14 economically disadvantaged; 15 (ii) each major racial and ethnic 16 group; 17 (iii) children with disabilities as com- 18 pared to children without disabilities; and 19 (iv) English proficiency status. 20 (9) The personal characteristics of each victim 21 in the shooting, including, at a minimum, the vic- 22 tim’s— 23 (A) age; 24 (B) gender; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2869 IH (C) race; 1 (D) ethnicity; and 2 (E) nationality. 3 (10) The personal characteristics of the shooter, 4 including, at a minimum the shooter’s— 5 (A) age; 6 (B) gender; 7 (C) race; 8 (D) ethnicity; 9 (E) nationality; and 10 (F) relationship to the school. 11 (11) Whether the shooting was determined to 12 be an accident, and if not, the motivation of the 13 shooter, including any real or perceived bias based 14 on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or sex (in- 15 cluding sexual orientation or gender identity). 16 (12) How the shooting was stopped, includ- 17 ing— 18 (A) whether the shooter was injured or 19 killed, and if so, by whom; and 20 (B) if not, what was the other outcome of 21 the incident (such as escape, arrest, or suicide). 22 (13) The number and type of firearms and am- 23 munition that were used in each shooting, includ- 24 ing— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 2869 IH (A) the make and model of the firearm; 1 (B) the manufacturer of the firearm; 2 (C) the make and model of the ammuni- 3 tion; 4 (D) the manufacturer of the ammunition; 5 (E) whether a large capacity ammunition 6 feeding device was present at the scene or used 7 during the shooting; and 8 (F) the number of rounds of ammunition 9 fired by the shooter over the course of the 10 shooting. 11 (14) Where each of the firearms used in each 12 shooting was obtained and how, including— 13 (A) whether the firearm was registered 14 where required; 15 (B) whether the firearm was purchased 16 from a licensed gun dealer or an unlicensed 17 sale; and 18 (C) the geographic location from where the 19 shooter obtained the firearm. 20 (15) If the original purchaser was not the 21 shooter, what was, if any, the original purchaser’s 22 relationship to the shooter. 23 (16) If the original purchaser was not the 24 shooter and the firearm was obtained from the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 2869 IH shooter’s home, the gun storage practices being used 1 in the home, and whether the gun owner was 2 charged with failing to properly secure his or her 3 firearm. 4 (17) Whether the school had one or more teach- 5 ers, as that term is defined in section 8553 of the 6 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 7 (20 U.S.C. 7943), who were armed, and if so, 8 whether such armed teacher or teachers stopped the 9 incident by shooting the shooter. 10 (18) How long did the shooting last (the ap- 11 proximate elapsed time between the first and last 12 shots fired). 13 (19) What was the response time of law en- 14 forcement. 15 (c) HISTORIC STATISTICS ON SCHOOL SHOOTINGS.— 16 The Secretary of Education shall direct the National Cen- 17 ter for Education Statistics— 18 (1) to collect, to the extent practicable, the data 19 required in subsection (b) for shootings that oc- 20 curred before the date of the enactment of this Act; 21 and 22 (2) to publish such data as revisions to the 23 most applicable annual reports on indicators of 24 school crime and safety issued by the National Cen- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 2869 IH ter for Education Statistics before the date of the 1 enactment of this Act. 2 (d) SAFETY AND PREVENTION.—In collecting data 3 on school shootings to be compiled in the annual report 4 described in subsection (a), the National Center for Edu- 5 cation Statistics shall collect, at a minimum, information 6 on the existence or absence of the following measures at 7 the time of the shooting at schools where a school shooting 8 occurred in the previous year: 9 (1) Physical security measures, including— 10 (A) building envelopes and interiors de- 11 signed to protect occupants from human 12 threats; and 13 (B) other physical security measures de- 14 signed to avert and restrict violence. 15 (2) Other types of security measures, including 16 measures designed to preserve open learning envi- 17 ronments that positively influence student behavior. 18 (3) A communication plan with local law en- 19 forcement. 20 (4) A response plan that includes coordination 21 with local agencies (law enforcement, fire depart- 22 ment, hospitals, etc.). 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 2869 IH (5) An active shooter response plan (including 1 the use of an alert system to notify students, faculty, 2 and parents or guardians). 3 (6) A trauma response plan to address trauma 4 resulting from the shooting, including coordination 5 with school-based counselors, other school mental 6 health professionals, and appropriate community 7 partners and organizations, such as community ac- 8 tion programs or agencies. 9 (7) Any other similar type of safety or preven- 10 tion measure in place at the time of the school 11 shooting. 12 (e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—In collecting data on 13 school shootings to be compiled in the annual report de- 14 scribed in subsection (a), any data disaggregation required 15 by subsection (b) shall not be required in the case where 16 such disaggregation would reveal personally identifiable 17 information about any individual. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:48 May 03, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2869.IH H2869 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS