Many factors go into assessing school safety, as Margaret Small and Kellie Dressler Tetrick note in their overview of "School Violence." The authors draw on data from the 2000 Annual Report on School Safety and Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2000 to answer questions such as the following: How much crime is occurring in the Nation's schools? Are schools more or less safe than in the past? Do students feel safe at school? What kinds of crimes are occurring?

Fortunately, communities across America are taking action to reduce school violence. "Creating Safe Schools" will require a comprehensive approach, such as those described and illustrated by Ira Pollack and Carlos Sundermann of OJJDP's National Resource Center for Safe Schools. While comprehensive safe school planning will not eliminate all campus violence, if properly conceived and implemented, it will foster a safer environment for students and their teachers.

"Conflict Resolution Education" offers a way of preparing youth for a less violent future—or rather, as Donna Crawford and Richard Bodine point out, it offers four approaches: process curriculum, mediation program, peaceable classroom, and peaceable school. An accompanying sidebar reports on "Peaceable Schools Tennessee," a particularly promising example of the last approach.

Publications and other resources designed to help prevent school violence and promote safe schools are described in this issue's In Brief section. It is hoped that the information provided throughout these pages will help make our Nation's schools the havens from violence they are meant to be.