Understanding Safety as a Driver of School Selection for Parents and Students: Lessons From New York City

• In Event: Parents' Perspectives and Concerns With School Choice

Abstract

Despite the well-documented significance of safety in parents’ school selections few studies have directly investigated parents’ definitions of safety in contexts where school choice is widespread. Even less is known about how parents attempt to gather information about the dimensions of safety they deem important. Moreover, students have been regularly overlooked as actors in school selections; their school choice preferences and behaviors can be critical determinants of their ultimate school destinations. In this paper, we respond to gaps in the school choice literature by examining both parents’ and students’ conceptions of safety when making school selections and by exploring how parents and students sought information about the dimensions of schools’ safety they had named as important to them.

Authors

• Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Seton Hall University

• Jennifer Jennings, Princeton University

• Sean Patrick Corcoran, New York University