Although 10 out of every 1,000 students were victims of serious violence at school in 1996, 26 out of every 1,000 were victims off campus, making schools still safer than their surrounding communities. What has increased over the last few years are the rampages or spree killings at schools. These killings increase public awareness of school violence through the media focus on them, thus creating a public perception that school violence is epidemic. Recognizing that school violence has been a growing problem, in 1994 Congress appropriated $20 million under the Safe Schools Act for grants to school districts with high violence rates. These grants were tailored to activities designed to reduce school violence. Although several studies of school-based violence prevention efforts are currently being conducted, no rigorous, long-term evaluations have been completed. Three categories of programs have predominated. They are school management-based strategies that emphasize discipline, behavior codes, alternative schools, and programs in cooperation with police; environmental modifications that include metal detectors, security guards, and after-school programs; and curriculum-based programs that teach life skills and conflict resolution through mediation. In recent years an even more comprehensive approach has been instituted. This is a public health approach that emphasizes primary prevention. It includes five features: community-based methods for problem identification and the development of solutions across population groups; health-event surveillance for collecting data on the nature of the health problem; epidemiological analysis to identify risk factors; intervention design and evaluation; and outreach/education/information dissemination. The ideal violence-prevention policy will likely differ for each school in accordance with conditions, preferences, and resources. 21 references