Key Issues > Ensuring Access to Safe, Quality K-12 Education
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Ensuring Access to Safe, Quality K-12 Education

Public schools face a number of challenges in ensuring that all students have access to a safe, high-quality education.

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The U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies work to ensure that 50 million students in K-12 public schools have access to a safe, quality education. However, there are ongoing concerns about disparities in educational quality for low-income and other vulnerable students, as well as issues related to the safety and well-being of all students. Also, as COVID-19 affects schools with closures and transition to distance learning, stay informed about our ongoing oversight of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Low-income students, minority students, and students with special needs face challenges in accessing a quality education. These challenges include: 

Additionally, issues related to the safety and well-being of all students include improving:

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Looking for our recommendations? Click on any report to find each associated recommendation and its current implementation status.
K-12 Education: Characteristics of School Shootings

GAO-20-455: Published: Jun 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Jul 9, 2020.

We examined school shootings and found: Half were committed by current or former students Suburban and rural, wealthier, and low-minority schools had more school-targeted shootings; such shootings were the most fatal and most commonly committed by students Urban, poor, and high-minority schools had more shootings overall and more motivated by disputes; these shootings were often committed by no...

K-12 Education: Education Needs to Address Significant Quality Issues with its Restraint and Seclusion Data

GAO-20-345: Published: Apr 21, 2020. Publicly Released: Apr 21, 2020.

The Department of Education requires public school districts to biennially report incidents of restraint (restricting a student’s movement) and seclusion (confining a student to a space alone). Education’s data quality checks may not catch misreporting or statistical outliers: 70% of districts reported 0 incidents of restraint and seclusion, but Education’s quality check only applies to fe...

Foster Care: Education Could Help States Improve Educational Stability for Youth in Foster Care

GAO-19-616: Published: Sep 19, 2019. Publicly Released: Oct 2, 2019.

Youth in foster care may often change schools, which can impair academic achievement. Federal law seeks to improve their educational stability. For example, it requires states to ensure youth stay in the original school they attended before being placed with a new family, unless doing so isn’t in their best interest. State agency officials told us local staff turnover and the cost of transporti...

K-12 Education: School Districts' Efforts to Address Lead-Based Paint

GAO-19-461R: Published: Jul 9, 2019. Publicly Released: Jul 24, 2019.

The most common source of lead exposure for children comes from paint in buildings built before 1978—the year the government banned the sale of lead-based paint. In schools, lead dust can come from disturbing lead paint during renovations, deteriorating lead paint, and lead-contaminated soil. We surveyed schools across the U.S. on how they deal with lead paint. Among other things, we found Abo...

Special Education: Varied State Criteria May Contribute to Differences in Percentages of Children Served

GAO-19-348: Published: Apr 11, 2019. Publicly Released: Apr 24, 2019.

Nearly 7 million children between the ages of 3 and 21 received special education services during the 2015-16 school year under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That's about 13% of the total number of students enrolled in public school. But the percent of the population served under the act varies across states. We found that differences in states' eligibility criteria may contribu...

K-12 Education: Public High Schools with More Students in Poverty and Smaller Schools Provide Fewer Academic Offerings to Prepare for College

GAO-19-8: Published: Oct 11, 2018. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 2018.

Students in relatively poor and small schools had less access to high school courses that help prepare them for college, according to GAO's analysis of Department of Education (Education) data for school year 2015-16 (the most recent available). While most public high schools, regardless of poverty level, offered courses like algebra and biology, disparities in access were associated with school p...

K-12 Education: Lead Testing of School Drinking Water Would Benefit from Improved Federal Guidance

GAO-18-382: Published: Jul 5, 2018. Publicly Released: Jul 17, 2018.

We surveyed school districts across the country on testing for lead in drinking water in 2017. Based on our nationally generalizable survey, we estimate that: 41% of districts, serving 12 million students, had not tested for lead in the 12 months before completing our survey. 43% of districts, serving 35 million students, tested for lead. Of those, 37% found elevated levels and reduced or elimin...

K-12 Education: Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with Disabilities

GAO-18-258: Published: Mar 22, 2018. Publicly Released: Apr 4, 2018.

Black students, boys, and students with disabilities were disproportionately disciplined (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) in K-12 public schools, according to GAO's analysis of Department of Education (Education) national civil rights data for school year 2013-14, the most recent available. These disparities were widespread and persisted regardless of the type of disciplinary action, level of sc...

Youth with Autism: Federal Agencies Should Take Additional Action to Support Transition-Age Youth

GAO-17-352: Published: May 4, 2017. Publicly Released: May 4, 2017.

According to GAO's nationwide survey of school district special education directors, GAO estimates that about 85 percent of districts in school year 2015-16, provided youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) services such as instruction on life, social, and behavioral skills, as they transition from high school to adulthood. ASD is a group of complex developmental disorders characterized by diffi...

K-12 Education: Better Use of Information Could Help Agencies Identify Disparities and Address Racial Discrimination

GAO-16-345: Published: Apr 21, 2016. Publicly Released: May 17, 2016.

The percentage of K-12 public schools in the United States with students who are poor and are mostly Black or Hispanic is growing and these schools share a number of challenging characteristics. From school years 2000-01 to 2013-14 (the most recent data available), the percentage of all K-12 public schools that had high percentages of poor and Black or Hispanic students grew from 9 to 16 percent,...

Emergency Management: Improved Federal Coordination Could Better Assist K-12 Schools Prepare for Emergencies

GAO-16-144: Published: Mar 10, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 11, 2016.

The Departments of Education (Education), Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security (DHS), and Justice (Justice) support K-12 schools in preparing for emergencies with various resources, including training, technical assistance, and funding, but their efforts are not strategically coordinated. Since jointly issuing a Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans in...

Podcasts

Lead Testing in School WaterTuesday, July 17, 2018
K-12 Geography EducationThursday, October 15, 2015
Special EducationWednesday, April 24, 2019
  • portrait of Jacqueline M. Nowicki
    • Jacqueline M. Nowicki
    • Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security
    • nowickij@gao.gov
    • (202) 512-7215