MI SAFE-Schools

Abstract

The State of Michigan’s new safe storage law requires that all firearms in homes with children be securely stored. The law also requires that school districts communicate MDHHS secure storage materials with families. Ensuring that firearm owning adults adhere to the law will require effective communication of the new policy, access to safety devices and positive attitudes and norms related to secure storage. School-based secure firearm storage campaigns could be cost-effective to promote firearm safety through normalizing secure firearm storage and enabling coordinated communications between school personnel, parents and youth while serving as community hubs for disseminating safety resources. States across the country have adopted similar secure storage laws, few requiring school districts to communicate them. Yet, there is a lack of rigorous research assessing the implementation and effectiveness of school-based secure storage campaigns.

The purpose is to rigorously evaluate how Michigan schools are implementing the state’s new safe firearm storage dissemination requirement and to assess the effectiveness of different school-based messaging strategies, including the community-led, champion-supported approach developed by EGVMI, in improving secure firearm storage knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among parents and caregivers. This study also examines how implementation processes and local context shape the effectiveness of these strategies across diverse school environments.

The objectives of this study include: 1) Implementation evaluation in 30-40 schools across the state of Michigan using a stratified sampling frame; 2) conduct pre/post surveys and data extraction from school administrative records to assess attitudes, norms, and behaviors of secure firearm storage among adult family members and firearm-related incidents among students; 3) assess implementation components and outcomes (reach, adoption, acceptability) of SSC through implementation tracking, focus groups, and interviews; 4) conduct cost/benefit analysis. Using both qualitative and quantitative analyses, including mixed-effects modeling, the team will assess overall program effectiveness and implementation factors as it relates to both adult and student behavioral outcomes. This study is one of the first rigorous evaluations of school-based secure firearm storage campaigns and firearm-related outcomes. Upon completion of the study, the team will submit the data to the NACJD and leverage existing Michigan School Safety Initiative and National Center for School Safety networks to disseminate findings to inform best practices and generalizability of such campaigns in school settings state- and nation-wide.

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