Over the past 8 years (through 2004), there has been a gradual movement to improve the security of Virginia schools, beginning in October 1998, when Federal funds were reallocated by the governor to increase the presence of uniformed law enforcement officers (School Resource Officers) in the State's middle and high schools. Since then, there have been a multitude of Federal, State, and local initiatives on school security. The four basic components of school security that have been targeted are site hardening, the employment of security personnel, violence-prevention programs, and intervention for students "at risk" of committing violence or criminal acts. This article explains why and how these security components have become stronger in Virginia schools over the past 8 years. Only the identified basic components of school security are considered, and the assessment of these efforts is mostly a description of efforts to make them stronger. There has been no adequate measure of the incidence of school crime and violence and only limited data on the fear of crime and violence. Although Virginia's school divisions have reported data on disciplinary actions, crimes, and violence since the early 1990s, questions about the accuracy, validity, and reliability of these data have precluded a comparison of the data across school divisions. Surveys conducted between 2000 and 2002 provided some evidence that school staff and students felt safe while at school. Another matter that should be addressed is who is responsible for school security at the local and State levels.