Missouri ranks lasts in U.S. for Public School Safety

According to the 2025 WalletHub rankings, Missouri once again finds itself at the very bottom of the national list for public school safety.

The Show-Me-State finished dead last, marking the state's second consecutive year being highlighted as the worst school safety in the country.

For this year's data, WalletHub compared all states across two main dimensions of overall quality and safety. The company then used "32 relevant metrics" to calculate a comprehensive ranking for each state.

Some of the metrics used to determine public school safety included:

• Bullying incidence rate
• Youth incarceration rate
• Prevalence of armed high school students
• Student access to illegal drugs
• Number of students not attending school due to safety concerns

While Missouri received nearly middle-of-the-road marks in overall school quality (finishing in 33rd), drastic concerns in school safety resulted in Missouri receiving a failing grade.

WalletHub, in part, contributes to Missouri's poor public school rankings due to low spending, as the state falls in the bottom half in spending per student.