As of the end of the 2018-19 school year, a little more than half of U.S. public middle and high schools have established tip lines that students, families, and community members can use to report potential threats to student safety. In 2019, RTI International surveyed principals from 1,226 schools to learn more about how these tip lines work and what value, if any, they offer.
The tip line phenomenon is fairly new, with 25% of them being less than a year old and 60% being less than three years old at the time of the survey. Tip lines are most likely to be used in large, suburban, low-poverty schools. Most tip lines allow tips to be submitted by phone (57%) or through a website (56%). E-mail, texts, and apps are less commonly used. A majority (58%) are monitored 24/7 by school staff, a call center or vendor, or staff from the district or a public agency.
The most common reports (34%) involved incidents of bullying and harassment, followed by reports about drugs (14%) or suicidal ideation (11%). A majority of respondents said that the tip lines made the school more aware of potential safety issues, had prevented incidents of self-harm or suicide, allowed the school to respond more effectively to bullying, prevented violent incidents, and enabled the school to respond more effectively to student drug use. Among the challenges were the lack of actionable information in submitted tips, as well as a lack of awareness of the tip line and the submission of bogus tips.
Source: Planty, M., Banks, D., Lindquist, C., Cartwright, J., & Witwer, A. (2020). Tip lines for school safety: A national portrait of tip line use. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International.
