Framing School Securitization: A Mixed Methods Policy Analysis of The School Violence Prevention Program

This convergent mixed methods policy analysis of the School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) explores the assumptions that may be driving school securitization, a phenomenon where schools across the country have increasingly invested in security measures and police partnerships despite extensive research evidence demonstrating their use may undermine school cultures most conducive to learning and safety. Using data collected from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, guidance from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) which administers the SVPP grant, and data on school district grantees from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), I find the program misframes school securitization as an “evidence-based” practice, a claim that grantees implicitly and explicitly adopt. Findings also suggest that school district grantees frame their school security policies in ways that correspond with guidance from law enforcement and other intermediary organizations, as well as in ways that are contextually distinct, but that use race and class-neutral discourses.