The Financial Costs of Bullying, Violence, and Vandalism

By Rick Phillips

During times of national economic crisis, school climate issues such as bullying, violence, and vandalism can increase and intensify as economic and family stressors worsen. In addition, schools have fewer counselors, school resource officers, administrators, teachers, and funds available to address the problem. It’s a recipe for disaster.

School climate is a determining factor in a schools’ ability to deliver on their mission to provide a high-quality education for all students. However, the impact of school climate on a school’s budget is often largely ignored or underestimated, chiefly because there is no standardized way to track and assess the losses and costs associated with negative student behaviors.

Losses and Costs

As school bullying and violence increase, so do suspensions, expulsions, and alternative education placements. When students feel emotionally or physically unsafe, their attendance and grades can decline, leading to increased truancy and higher drop-out rates.

A 2009 study noted that 8% of middle school students reported skipping school at least once due to fear of bullying; 25% reported skipping class or going home “sick” to avoid encountering a bully (Perkins, Perkins, and Craig, 2009).

There is a financial consequence associated with absenteeism. One way to calculate this loss is to look at truancy rates. Truancy is defined as an unexcused absence of at least one day per month per truant student (so, each truant student is absent at least nine times in a nine-month school year). Truancies can then be multiplied by a school’s reimbursement rate [in most states, this is defined as the Average Daily Attendance (ADA) rate] to compute the average financial loss due to truancy.

For example, if a school has 1,000 students and a truancy rate of 6% (the national average), 60 students will be truant at least 9 times per year, resulting in 540 days of lost ADA funding. The average ADA rate is $40/day. When you multiply that rate by the 540 missed days, it’s staggering to see that our sample high school would lose $21,600 per year due to truancy.

There are both costs and losses associated with suspensions as well. Based on conversations with school administrators nationwide, we calculated an average cost of approximately $170 of combined staff time per incident that leads to a suspension. Assuming each suspension results in three days out of school (the average length of one suspension), there is a $120 loss of ADA funds per suspension ($40 ADA multiplied by three days). Combining the $170 cost with the $120 loss leads to an average negative financial impact of $290.

For our sample high school with 1,000 students, we apply a 6% suspension rate (the 2006 national average), and then multiply 60 students by $290 (financial impact per suspension). This results in an annual loss plus cost of $17,400 due to suspensions.

Expulsions are just as costly. As an example, we are using the same average administrative cost per expulsion ($170). Assuming a 2% expulsion rate (lower than average) for our sample school of 1,000 students, multiply 20 expulsions by $170 to get an annual cost of $3,400 for expulsions.

In addition, assuming the midpoint of the school year as the average expulsion date, multiply 90 days (180 student attendance days is the average length of a school year) by the ADA rate ($40) by the number of expulsions (20) to show an annual ADA loss of $72,000 due to expulsions for an average high school.

For our sample school, therefore, the total annual losses and costs due to expulsions is about $75,400.

Dropping Out

When students don’t feel safe at school, they can’t learn as effectively. In one study, 22% of fourth through seventh graders reported academic problems due to bullying (Hoover & Oliver, 1996). Academic problems and a fear of going to school can lead to a student’s decision to leave school prior to graduation.

Drop-out rates vary widely and are calculated in different ways. The national drop-out rates ranged from 7% to 55% for students who left without completing high school, as of 2009. Because most students who drop out leave in the middle of 10th grade, for our average school we postulated a total of 450 days of missed school per dropout and a rate of $40/day to calculate lost ADA funding due to dropping out.

Looking at our sample high school of 1,000, if the dropout rate is in the low part of the range—12%—we will multiply 12 by the ADA rate ($40) by 540 days. The annual loss, therefore, could total $2,160,000 due to students’ dropping out.

Mandatory Disciplinary Alternative Educational Placements

When violent or negative behaviors (being in possession or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, possessing weapons, engaging in fights/assaults) dictate that a student be placed in a continuation or pre-expulsion secondary school, the school or district pays. For Clear Creek Independent School District in Texas, the cost per student per year for one mandatory disciplinary alternative educational placement (MDAEP) in 2008–09 was $2,500.

Using this figure for our sample high school of 1,000, if 1% of students (10) require MDAEP, the cost is derived by multiplying 10 by $2,500, totaling $25,000.

Vandalism

When students don’t feel connected to their school, they are more likely to commit vandalism. Feelings of powerlessness, despair due to low social status, and anger or fear related to school experiences also lead students to vandalize school property. Perceptions of physical and emotional safety and belonging go hand-in-hand.

The average cost for an incident of vandalism (staff time, materials and replacement costs for equipment or repairs, combined) is $400. Some districts reported spending more than $500,000 on 1,248 repairs in the 2007–08 school year.

Assuming a conservative vandalism rate of one incident per week and multiplying that by the average cost of $400, our sample high school could incur an annual cost of $15,200 due to vandalism.

Putting it All Together

When we add up the losses and costs for this sample school, the totals are staggering. The total annual financial impact is $2,314,600.

How does your school compare? Can your school actually afford to cut violence-prevention and early intervention programs and staff?

Looking back to our sample school, if they were able to reduce their suspension rate from 6% to 3%, it would save $8,700 in one year alone. If the “sample school” also reduces its truancy rate from 6% to 3%, it would save an additional $10,800. In this way, many violence-prevention programs more than pay for themselves.

Administrators and school districts have a clear choice: pay the costs and incur the losses due to bullying, violence, and vandalism, or invest in fostering a more positive school climate, thereby reducing financial losses and costs.

Decreasing negative student behaviors is ultimately a cost-savings measure that helps schools accomplish the overall mission of ensuring that all students have the chance to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

Calculate Your Costs

We have developed an auditing tool, the School Climate Loss and Cost Calculator, to help administrators more accurately identify the losses and costs associated with and due to negative school climate. The calculator, available at no cost to schools through our Web site www.Community-Matters.org, uses data that most schools routinely track to make reasonable assessments of the financial losses and costs that schools incur each year due to student behavior.

The calculator leads the user through the process by using averages and statistical trends in an imaginary, sample high school. Although we have based our example on a high school, the calculator can be adjusted for any level, by ignoring any unneeded categories or adjusting figures to match an actual school’s. The calculator includes an active spreadsheet for the user to input a school’s actual or estimated data in order to make a more accurate assessment.

We all know that data drive decisions, especially in this fiscal climate, where every dollar’s use is hotly contested. This data, accessed via the calculator, will help administrators make a solid financial case for investing in prevention in order to foster a more positive school climate.

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Rick Phillips is the executive director of Community Matters, a nonprofit organization that has worked with more than 1,000 schools and youth-serving organizations across North America addressing youth empowerment and violence prevention with its Safe School Ambassadors program. Phillips is a nationally recognized educator, speaker, facilitator, and trainer. He is the author of Safe School Ambassadors: Harnessing Student Power to Stop Bullying and Violence.

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References

• Phillips, R., J. Linney, and C. Pack. 2008. Safe school ambassadors: Harnessing student power to stop bullying and violence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Hoover, J.H. and R. Oliver. 1996. The bullying prevention handbook. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.
• Perkins, W. H., J. Perkins, and David Craig. 2009. “Where does bullying take place among adolescents when they are at school?” Presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.