North Carolina school safety

The federal Civil Rights Data Collection asks every public school to report incidents — fights, threats, weapons, offenses against students. This page uses the 2021-22 collection to answer one narrow question about each school: did it report roughly what schools of its size and grade range report, or did it report almost nothing? That is a question about records. It is not a question about how safe a child is, and no number here should be read as one.

What stands out in the North Carolina files is how few of them fall apart. Of 2,765 schools in the state, 2,303 have a published safety score, meaning their records were complete enough to grade A or B and to compare. Ninety-five schools were graded D or E — reporting almost nothing when schools their size normally report several incidents or more. That is 3.4% of the state's schools, against 11.3% nationally.

The honest reading of that gap is about paperwork, not children. Schools are compared to about 1,500 schools nationwide closest to them in enrollment and grade level, and the comparison is not adjusted for state. When one state's records look cleaner than another's, what you are seeing is a difference in how districts fill out federal forms. A parent should take it as a reason to trust most of the North Carolina entries on this site, and nothing more.

Why most districts here have no rank

North Carolina has 348 school districts. Only 92 have enough scoreable schools to be ranked. A district needs a real set of gradeable records before a district-level number means anything, and small districts often do not have one. An unranked district is a district we do not have enough to say anything about.

Among the ranked districts, Columbus County Schools comes out safer than 85% of ranked US districts, with all 14 schools in its scored set complete enough to score. Watauga County Schools is safer than 84%, with 8 of the 11 in its scored set scoreable; Chatham County Schools, safer than 82%, 16 of 20; Cabarrus County Schools, safer than 80%, 35 of 42; Vance County Schools, safer than 79%, 15 of 16.

If your school shows no score, that is usually the method working. A C grade means the school reported almost nothing but is small enough that a genuine zero is ordinary — not evidence of safety, and not evidence against it. We publish a score only where we believe the record.

Safest ranked cities in North Carolina

Percentile is against all ranked U.S. cities (higher = safer). Only cities with ≥5 trustworthy-data schools are ranked. Home value is Zillow's ZHVI.

Safest ranked districts

Every North Carolina city with schools

Every North Carolina school district