(TNND) — The FBI published a special report this week, "Crime in Schools," showing that roughly 1.3 million criminal incidents occurred over the last five years at schools.

The report covered the 2020-24 school years and offered high-level data for school safety policymakers.

There were about 1.5 million victims and about 1.2 million known offenders connected with the reported crimes, which didn’t necessarily take place during the school day.

A wide range of crimes were included in the report, including about 540,000 assaults, about 46,000 sex offenses and just over 200 homicides.

Overall, however, the vast majority of victims either weren’t hurt or suffered only minor injuries.

Other crimes listed included vandalism, drug or narcotics offenses, robbery, arson, kidnapping, bribery, forgery, prostitution and gambling, among others.

“Personal weapons,” meaning hands and feet, were the most commonly listed weapon types for incidents.

The age group with the highest number of victims was 19 or older. Among just victims under 18, the largest share was between 13 and 15.

Females accounted for the highest share of victims. But at 49.4%, the share of female victims just barely edged out the share of male victims.

The most reported race of both victims and offenders was white.

With schools starting back around the country, this report begs a crucial question: Are schools safe?

“I would say by and large schools are safe places,” said F. Chris Curran, an education scholar who researches school safety. “I think it's easy as parents and other stakeholders to see tragedies in the news, especially mass violence of school shootings, and to kind of take up an image of schools as unsafe. But by and large, the data would suggest that kids are very safe at school, at least as safe as they are outside of school and in many cases more safe. We know things like gun violence or students’ risk of losing their life to a firearm is higher outside of school than it is inside of school.”

Curran, the director of the Education Policy Research Center at the University of Florida, said some schools are safer than others.

There are schools that have a greater struggle with violence and misconduct.

But the day-to-day risks at most schools are low.

And Curran said safety risks don’t always stem from crime.

He said environmental hazards, such as lead in the drinking water or asbestos in an old school building, are also safety concerns.

“We have seen a slight uptick in the number of school shootings over the past couple years, but they still remain, luckily, very rare,” Curran said.

CNN tracking found 341 school shootings over the five-year period covered by the new FBI report, with an average of about 82 school shootings over the last three years, following a dip early in the pandemic with school closures.

But all of those weren’t the mass shootings that every parent fears. The CNN tracking counts any shooting where at least one person was shot, not including the shooter.

Curran, a former middle school science teacher, said assaults are more common in schools, though that might be as simple as two kids shoving each other. And that might not always be captured in data systems maintained by school districts, he said.

Tobacco use and vaping are also common concerns in schools.

“And so, to the extent that we think of that as a crime of underage possession or use of tobacco or vaping products, that's actually probably the most common occurrence in school,” Curran said. “Now, again, does that get classified as a crime always? Should it be classified as a crime when dealing with youth? Perhaps not. But that's actually one we see at the top of the list here in Florida.”

Dan Losen, the senior director for the education team at the National Center for Youth Law and another former public school teacher, approached the new FBI report from a civil rights perspective.

He said even the title of the report, "Crime in Schools," is misleading. And he said he hopes the report isn’t used as the basis of policies that take the perspective that crime in schools is getting worse.

Losen said the report is vague, simply including crimes occurring at “school locations” with no clarity on how many of those incidents happened during school hours or how many directly involved students.

“I get concerned when people claim that schools are dangerous, when they're the safest places for kids,” Losen said. “And sometimes data like these can be used to argue to add more police to schools ... and it can contribute to the criminalization of youth, especially youth of color and kids with disabilities."

Curran said any conversation about school safety needs to begin by talking about community safety.

Curran said a lot of issues that take place at schools originate outside the school grounds, whether it involves weapons coming onto campus or a conflict stirring on social media.

He also said parents can take a proactive approach to school safety. Talk to school officials about safety concerns like you would talk to teachers about academic concerns.

And volunteer in the classroom if teachers don’t have the resources they need.

“School safety is something that takes everybody involved,” Curran said. “And the more we talk about it and the more we work together on it, the more we can do to keep kids safe.”