The audit looked at the state's schools in general, not focusing on individual districts. Auditors found significant weaknesses in how schools implement the Safe School's Act.

The audit shows 43 percent of school districts did not report any discipline incidents in one or more years.

"A school district that didn't record any discipline incidents for an entire school year, there were actually 3,400 incidents that should have been reported," said Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee.

Montee says the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) is to blame for a range of problems related to safety. The issues include: school districts not using the state violence hotline, unclear safety and discipline policies, and not implementing anti-bullying rules, as required by state law.

"You can't rely on any of the reports that are out there that tell you whether a not schools are safe," said Montee.

Montee said school districts need more guidance and oversight from the DESE. DESE says it is doing its job by reporting safety problems to the federal government.

"We do have a variation on how incidents are reported but I would say that serious incidents are all reported very accurately," said Bert Schulte of DESE.

"That report to the Federal Government only listed 9 fire arm incidents. When we looked at the data, we found 110, " said Montee.

Montee says DESE is not enforcing current policies, while DESE officials argue safety in schools is a local matter.

"More oversight is a possibility but I don't think oversight is ever going to establish the ideal circumstance. It all comes down to what happens at the local level," said Montee.

The State Auditor's Office says better coordination for the Safe Schools program is the best formula. DESE counters it would need more resources for that.