Ķvlog

School Climate & Safety Interactive

School Shootings in 2018: How Many and Where

February 01, 2018 | Updated: November 22, 2022 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Looking for the Latest Data?

We are continuing to track school shootings. Click below to visit our latest tracker or explore year-by-year data on school shootings since 2018 that resulted in injuries or deaths.

Visit Our 2025 Tracker Explore Data Since 2018

To bring context to the polarizing debates that surround school shootings, Education Week journalists, in 2018, began tracking shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths. That year, there were 24 such incidents. On this page, we document where they happened, how many people were killed or injured, and other key information.

A Reflection

As 2018 came to a close, Education Week’s Evie Blad looked back on lessons learned from a year of doing the heartbreaking work of updating this tracker, an accounting of school shootings in 2018 where individuals were injured or killed by gunfire. “The process of updating our tracker, which involves six people, has become a regular meditation on the complicated nature of school violence,” she wrote in an essay. Read more.

Behind the Numbers

To better understand how gun violence impacted students, Ķvlog, and communities in 2018, Education Week created an at-a-glance view of school shooting data. Read more.

Injuries & Deaths

24     School shootings with injuries or deaths

114     People killed or injured in a school shooting

35     People killed

28     Students or other children killed

7     School employees or other adults killed

79     People injured

Where the Shootings Happened

The size of the dots correlates to the number of people killed or injured. Click on each dot for more information.

About the Shootings

A previous version of this table included the age, sex, and status of the suspect(s). We are no longer tracking that information.

Methodology

Counting Incidents

This page refers to incidents that meet all the following criteria:

  • where a firearm was discharged,
  • where any individual, other than the suspect or perpetrator, has a bullet wound resulting from the incident,
  • that happen on K-12 school property or on a school bus, and
  • that occur while school is in session or during a school-sponsored event.

We do not track incidents in which the only shots fired were from an individual authorized to carry a gun on school property, such as a school resource officer, and who did so in their official capacity.

The numbers of incidents, injuries, and deaths reported in this tracker do not include suicides or self-inflicted injuries. While suicides and attempted suicides are serious issues of health and safety, many of the critical questions and debates that those incidents raise for Ķvlog and the broader public are often distinct from those generated by school shootings.

Counting Injuries & Deaths

Injuries included in this tracker may be major or minor. While we only track incidents resulting in at least one bullet wound, total injuries are not necessarily the result of gunfire.

The total number of people killed or injured does not include the suspect or perpetrator.

Sources

In addition to our own reporting, we rely on local news outlets, school and district websites, news alerts via online search engines, the , and the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s Naval Postgraduate School’s .

How to Cite This Page

School Shootings in 2018: How Many and Where (2018, February 1). Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from /leadership/school-shootings-in-2018-how-many-and-where/2018/02

Contact Information

For media or research inquiries about this page, contact library@educationweek.org.

See Also

Sign indicating school zone.
iStock/Getty

Reporting & Analysis: Evie Blad, Holly Peele | Design & Visualization: Stacey Decker, Hyon-Young Kim

Events

College & Workforce Readiness Webinar How High Schools Can Prepare Students for College and Career
Explore how schools are reimagining high school with hands-on learning that prepares students for both college and career success.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
GoGuardian and Google: Proactive AI Safety in Schools
Learn how to safely adopt innovative AI tools while maintaining support for student well-being. 
Content provided by 
Reading & Literacy K-12 Essentials Forum Supporting Struggling Readers in Middle and High School
Join this free virtual event to learn more about policy, data, research, and experiences around supporting older students who struggle to read.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

School Climate & Safety Opinion Behavioral Threat Assessment: A Guide for Educators and Leaders (Downloadable)
Two specialists explain the best course to prevent school violence.
Jillian Haring & Jameson Ritter
1 min read
Shadow on the wall of girl wearing backpack walking to school
iStock/Getty
School Climate & Safety Chicago Day Care Employee Detained by ICE as Children Arrive
ICE detained a Chicago day care worker during drop-off, alarming parents and witnesses.
3 min read
Maria Guzman, left, and Sergio Rocha, parents of young children, comfort each other outside of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center after federal immigration agents took a day care teacher Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Chicago.
Maria Guzman, left, and Sergio Rocha, parents of young children, comfort each other outside of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center after federal immigration agents took a day care teacher Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Chicago.
Erin Hooley/AP
School Climate & Safety New York City Is the Latest to Deploy Panic Buttons in Schools
The nation's largest district is the latest to adopt emergency alert technology.
4 min read
A faculty member at Findley Oaks Elementary School holds a Centegix crisis alert badge during a training on Monday, March 20, 2023. The Fulton County School District is joining a growing list of metro Atlanta school systems that are contracting with the company, which equips any employee with the ability to notify officials in the case of an emergency.
A faculty member at Findley Oaks Elementary School holds a Centegix crisis alert badge during a training on Monday, March 20, 2023. Emergency alert systems have spread quickly to schools around the country as a safety measure. The nation's largest district is the latest to adopt one.
Natrice Miller/AJC.com via TNS
School Climate & Safety Q&A Inside the Fear at Chicago Schools Amid Federal Immigration Raids
Sylvelia Pittman has never experienced something like the current federal crackdown in her city.
5 min read
Sylvelia Pittman stands for a portrait outside of Nash Elementary School in Chicago on Oct. 30, 2025.
Sylvelia Pittman stands for a portrait outside of Nash Elementary School in Chicago on Oct. 30, 2025. She spoke with Education Week about the fears she is grappling with regarding immigration raids and federal agents' increased presence near her school.
Jim Vondruska for Education Week