Washington DC - Schools are the third most common place for hate crimes to occur, the FBI and US Justice Department said Monday in a first-ever analysis of hate crimes within the school environment.

From 2018 to 2022, more than 30% of hate crime victims under 18 were targeted at school, which is also where nearly 36% of juvenile hate-crime offenders committed their offenses, the report found.

The number has been on the rise, the feds noted. Of 8,492 hate crimes reported in 2018, as many as 700, or 8.2%, were at school, according to the data.

That rose to 10% in 2019, fell to 3.9% during 2020 lockdown, and jumped back up to 7.2% in 2021. In 2022, that number rose to 10% out of the 13,346 hate crime offenses.

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Schools came in third behind hate crimes reported at residences and homes or on roads, highways, and alleys from 2018 to 2022. As many as one in 10 hate crimes occur at school, the FBI found.

The FBI defines a hate crime as a "committed criminal offense which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias(es) against a race/ethnicity/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, or gender identity."

The agency collected data "to better understand the scope of hate crime in our nation and the various facets of this unique crime phenomenon," the report said.

The crimes most frequently reported included intimidation, destruction, damage or vandalism, and simple assault, according to the feds.

Anti-Black hate crimes led the way with 1,690 reported offenses during the five-year time period under review, with 745 anti-Jewish offenses second, and anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in third place, with 342 offenses. Some attacks fell under more than one category.