The bill creates a legislative interim committee during the 2013 interim to study issues related to bullying in public schools. The interim committee shall report its findings and recommendations to the education committees of the senate and house of representatives, or any successor committees, on or before January 1, 2014.
The bill creates the school bullying prevention and education grant program (program) in the department of education (department) to allow eligible applicants to apply for grants to fund programs to reduce the frequency of bullying incidents. The bill creates the school bullying prevention and education board (bullying board) and prescribes its membership and terms of service. The bullying board shall solicit and review applications from eligible applicants for grants. Applying certain minimum criteria, the bullying board may award grants for periods of one to three years. The bullying board shall submit annually to the department a list of grant recipients and the amount to be awarded to each grant recipient. In selecting grant recipients, the bullying board, to the extent possible, shall ensure that grants are awarded to eligible applicants in a variety of geographic areas of the state.
The state board shall promulgate rules for the administration of the program. The bullying board shall report to the governor and to the education committees of the senate and the house of representatives, or any successor committees, concerning the effectiveness of the programs that are funded by grants from the program. The bullying board may recommend statutory changes relating to bullying prevention and education.
The school bullying prevention and education cash fund (cash fund) is established in the state treasury. The department may seek and accept gifts, grants, and donations from public and private sources to fund the program.
The department shall not be required to implement the program until such time as sufficient moneys are transferred or appropriated to the cash fund.
The program is repealed, effective July 1, 2016. Prior to said repeal, the bullying board shall be subjected to the sunset review process. The bill requires each local school district board of education's (local board's) bullying policy to include a requirement that the administration of each school of the school district shall maintain a record of each confirmed incident of bullying that occurs in the school. District charter schools and institute charter schools are also required to adopt and implement policies concerning bullying prevention and education.
The bill requires the dress code policy of each local board to encourage school pride and unity and promote uniformity of dress. Each principal of a public school, including a district charter school or institute charter school, shall annually report specific information concerning incidents of bullying that occurred at the school during the preceding school year.
Neither an officer of a board of education nor a teacher or administrator of a school, including a district charter school or institute
charter school, shall take any retaliatory action against a student who reports in good faith an incident of bullying. Each board of education and each district charter school and institute charter school shall ensure that each teacher receives professional development training at least every two years concerning how to prevent and address instances of bullying.
Except as prohibited by state or federal law, a school district, public school, district charter school, institute charter school, or board of cooperative services (BOCES), or a threat assessment team of a school district, public school, district charter school, institute charter school, or BOCES, may share information about a student's disciplinary history or other personal information with a school district, public school, district charter school, institute charter school, or BOCES, or with a threat assessment team of a school district, public school, district charter school, institute charter school, or BOCES, for the purpose of assessing the risk of bullying that the student may pose.
Each school, including a district charter school or an institute charter school, shall annually survey each student enrolled in the school concerning the student's impressions of the severity of bullying in the school. The administration of the student surveys shall comply with rules promulgated by the state board. The principal of each school shall report annually, in a manner and by a date specified by rule of the state board of education, summary information concerning the surveys.
Year
2011
Current status
- 02/10/2011 Introduced In House - Assigned to Education