As millions of students settle into a new academic year, the risks surrounding the school day extend well beyond the classroom.
Traffic crashes during common school commuting hours, pedestrian and cyclist deaths, serious incidents reported by schools, vaccination gaps and differences in high school sports protections all vary substantially across the United States.
A new analysis by H&P Law compared all 50 states across five measures of back-to-school safety, finding that South Dakota had the highest overall comparative risk, with a Back-to-School Risk Index score of 85.29. Missouri, Kentucky, Wyoming and Nebraska rounded out the five states with the highest overall risk.
At the other end of the ranking, New Jersey recorded the lowest comparative risk, followed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, Tennessee and North Dakota.
| Highest comparative risk | Lowest comparative risk |
|---|---|
| 1. South Dakota | New Jersey |
| 2. Missouri | Massachusetts |
| 3. Kentucky | Connecticut |
| 4. Wyoming | Tennessee |
| 5. Nebraska | North Dakota |
The rankings combine transportation, school safety, health and athletic-safety indicators rather than measuring a single form of danger. As a result, a high overall score does not mean every student in that state faces the same level of risk, nor does it predict whether an individual child will be injured.
Instead, the index highlights where several measurable risk factors overlap.
South Dakota Ranks Highest as Multiple Risks Combine
South Dakota’s place at the top of the ranking was driven by elevated results across several measures rather than one isolated statistic.
The state recorded 2.12 deaths per 100,000 public-school students during defined school commuting hours, more than three times the national rate of 0.65 per 100,000. South Dakota also recorded 2.12 pedestrian and cyclist deaths per 100,000 students.
School safety data added another layer of risk. The state recorded 41.8 serious school offenses per 1,000 students, while its statewide high school sports policies met only 43.6% of the safety framework evaluated in the analysis.
Several other states stood out on individual measures even when they did not rank first overall.
| Safety measure | State with highest or most notable result | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Back-to-School Risk Index | South Dakota | 85.29 |
| Commute-window fatality rate | Mississippi | 2.75 per 100,000 students |
| Serious school-offense rate | Louisiana | 70.4 per 1,000 students |
| Kindergarten MMR vaccination gap | Idaho | 21.5% |
| Lowest sports-safety policy coverage | Maine | 30% of framework met |
| Strongest sports-safety policy coverage | Georgia | 93.67% of framework met |
Louisiana recorded the highest serious school-offense rate in the study at 70.4 offenses per 1,000 students. Kentucky followed at 61.1, while Nebraska recorded 53.2 and Missouri recorded 46.0.
Those differences show why the overall ranking is broader than any one school-safety statistic.
Mississippi Has the Highest School-Commute Fatality Rate
Transportation accounted for 40% of the overall risk score, making the trip to and from school one of the largest components of H&P Law’s analysis.
The study reviewed traffic deaths involving children ages 5 to 17 during commonly traveled school hours: 6 a.m. to 8:59 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 5:59 p.m. on non-summer weekdays.
Nationwide, 323 children ages 5 to 17 died in traffic crashes during those hours in 2024, producing a rate of 0.65 deaths per 100,000 public-school students.
Four states recorded rates above 2 deaths per 100,000 students:
- Mississippi: 2.75 per 100,000
- Wyoming: 2.20
- South Dakota: 2.12
- Montana: 2.01
Mississippi’s rate was the highest in the country, based on 12 deaths during the study’s defined commuting window.
Raw totals, however, told a different story. Texas recorded 38 deaths, more than any other state, followed by California with 29 and Florida with 24. Because those states have much larger public-school populations, their per-student rates were lower than those recorded in several less populous states.
That distinction is particularly important when comparing states. A relatively small number of fatalities can produce a high rate in states with smaller student populations.
The commuting measure also has an important limitation: crashes occurring during typical school travel hours cannot automatically be classified as school-related crashes. Children included in the data may have been traveling somewhere other than school, and some crashes may have occurred on holidays or school closure days.
Most Children Killed in School-Bus-Related Crashes Were Not Bus Passengers
Federal transportation data add further context to the risk students face around school transportation.
Between 2015 and 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recorded 962 fatal school-bus-related crashes, resulting in 1,069 deaths.
Among the 204 school-age children killed, only 39 were occupants of school buses. Another 78 were riding in other vehicles, 77 were pedestrians, seven were cyclists and three were other nonoccupants.
That means 165 of the 204 school-age children killed in school-bus-related crashes were either outside the bus or traveling in another vehicle.
Illegal passing also remains widespread.
During the one-day 2026 National Stop Arm Violation Count, school bus drivers documented 56,024 illegal passes. Nearly 28,600 occurred during afternoon routes, compared with about 25,700 during morning routes.
Students walking or cycling to school face another set of obstacles. Parents reported at least one barrier to walking or biking at 76% of schools included in a national survey. Traffic conditions were identified as a problem at 39% of schools, while 30% cited missing sidewalks or crossing guards.
School Safety Data Show Large Differences Between States
The safety picture changes again once students arrive on campus.
During the 2021-22 school year, U.S. public schools recorded an estimated 857,500 violent incidents, with 67% of schools reporting at least one. That works out to roughly 19 violent incidents per 1,000 students nationally.
The federal data cover a range of events occurring in school buildings, on school grounds, on school buses and during school-sponsored activities, so the figure should not be interpreted as representing only the most severe forms of violence.
Among schools nationally:
- 61% reported at least one physical attack or fight without a weapon.
- 4% reported an attack or fight involving a weapon.
- Approximately 3,000 schools reported at least one hate crime.
- Weekly bullying was reported by 28% of middle schools, 15% of high schools and 10% of elementary schools.
H&P Law separately analyzed seven categories of serious offenses reported through the federal Civil Rights Data Collection.
Across approximately 48.2 million public-school students, those records contained 1,208,015 offenses, or about 25.1 offenses per 1,000 students.
Louisiana recorded the highest state rate at 70.4 per 1,000 students, followed by Kentucky at 61.1.
California had the largest raw number of documented offenses, at 170,661, but its much larger student population reduced the rate to 29.2 per 1,000 students.
Sports-Safety Protections Differ Sharply Across the Country
The return to school also marks the start of fall athletics for millions of teenagers.
High school sports participation reached a record 8,266,244 students during the 2024-25 academic year, an increase of 203,942 athletes in a single year.
But state policies designed to protect those athletes vary considerably.
The sports component of H&P Law’s analysis used the Korey Stringer Institute’s assessment of evidence-based state policies. The framework considers measures such as heat acclimatization, weather-related practice restrictions, access to cold-water immersion and protocols for rapidly cooling athletes experiencing heat illness.
Georgia had the strongest policy coverage at 93.67%, narrowly ahead of Florida at 93%. New Jersey followed at 85%.
At the opposite end:
| State | Sports-safety framework met |
|---|---|
| Maine | 30.0% |
| Mississippi | 32.38% |
| Minnesota | 33.75% |
| Nebraska | 36.0% |
| Montana | 37.8% |
These percentages measure statewide policy adoption, not whether every school complies with each standard or whether those policies ultimately prevent individual injuries.
Vaccination Gaps Add Another Dimension to Back-to-School Readiness
Vaccination coverage accounted for another portion of the overall ranking.
Nationally, the share of kindergartners up to date on the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine fell from 95.2% in 2019-20 to 92.5% in 2024-25.
Approximately 286,000 kindergartners remained at risk during the 2024-25 school year, according to the CDC data incorporated into the study.
Idaho had the largest vaccination gap, with 21.5% of kindergartners not up to date on MMR vaccination. Alaska followed at 18.8%, Minnesota at 13.5%, Colorado at 12% and Oklahoma at 11.3%.
Minnesota ultimately posted the highest health-and-readiness risk score because the state’s vaccination gap coincided with comparatively limited sports-safety policy coverage.
How the Back-to-School Risk Index Was Calculated
H&P Law converted each state’s underlying results into comparative risk scores ranging from 0 to 100 before combining five weighted indicators.
| Indicator | Weight |
|---|---|
| Commute-window fatality rate | 25% |
| Pedestrian and cyclist fatality rate | 15% |
| Serious school-offense rate | 25% |
| Kindergarten MMR vaccination gap | 15% |
| High school sports-safety policy gap | 20% |
Together, transportation accounted for 40% of the final score, school incidents represented 25%, and health and readiness measures accounted for the remaining 35%.
A score approaching 100 therefore does not mean a student has anything close to a 100% probability of experiencing harm. It represents how a state compares with the other states across the indicators included in the analysis.
The findings instead show how different safety pressures can overlap.
South Dakota ranked highest overall because elevated transportation rates, school incidents and gaps in sports-safety policies combined into one of the broadest risk profiles in the country. Other states stood out for individual concerns, including Mississippi for commute-time traffic deaths, Louisiana for reported school offenses, Idaho for its vaccination gap and Maine for limited sports-safety policy coverage.
At the opposite end, New Jersey’s combination of comparatively low transportation fatality rates, fewer serious school offenses and stronger sports-safety policies helped produce the lowest overall comparative risk in H&P Law’s nationwide analysis.
The broader data suggest that back-to-school safety cannot be reduced to what happens inside a classroom. For students across the country, measurable risks can begin during the morning commute and continue through the school day, the afternoon trip home and extracurricular activities after classes have ended.
