Sec. 10-222d. Policy on bullying behavior.
Sec. 10-222d. Policy on bullying behavior. Each local and regional board of education shall develop and implement a policy to address the existence of bullying in its
schools. Such policy shall: (1) Enable students to anonymously report acts of bullying
to teachers and school administrators and require students to be notified annually of the
process by which they may make such reports, (2) enable the parents or guardians of
students to file written reports of suspected bullying, (3) require teachers and other
school staff who witness acts of bullying or receive student reports of bullying to notify
school administrators in writing, (4) require school administrators to investigate any
written reports made under this section and to review any anonymous reports, except
that no disciplinary action shall be taken solely on the basis of an anonymous report,
(5) include a prevention and intervention strategy, as defined by section 10-222g, for
school staff to deal with bullying, (6) provide for the inclusion of language in student
codes of conduct concerning bullying, (7) require each school to notify the parents or
guardians of students who commit any verified acts of bullying and the parents or guardians of students against whom such acts were directed, and invite them to attend at least
one meeting, (8) require each school to maintain a list of the number of verified acts of
bullying in such school and make such list available for public inspection, and, within
available appropriations, report such number to the Department of Education, annually
and in such manner as prescribed by the Commissioner of Education, (9) direct the
development of case-by-case interventions for addressing repeated incidents of bullying
against a single individual or recurrently perpetrated bullying incidents by the same
individual that may include both counseling and discipline, and (10) identify the appropriate school personnel, which may include, but shall not be limited to, pupil services
personnel, responsible for taking a bullying report and investigating the complaint. The
notification required pursuant to subdivision (7) of this section shall include a description
of the response of school staff to such acts and any consequences that may result from
the commission of further acts of bullying. For purposes of this section, "bullying"
means any overt acts by a student or a group of students directed against another student
with the intent to ridicule, harass, humiliate or intimidate the other student while on
school grounds, at a school-sponsored activity or on a school bus, which acts are committed more than once against any student during the school year. Such policies may include
provisions addressing bullying outside of the school setting if it has a direct and negative
impact on a student's academic performance or safety in school. Not later than February
1, 2009, each local and regional board of education shall submit the policy developed
pursuant to this section to the Department of Education. Not later than July 1, 2009,
each local or regional board of education shall ensure that the policy is included in the
school district's publication of the rules, procedures and standards of conduct for schools
and in all student handbooks.
(P.A. 02-119, S. 1; P.A. 06-115, S. 1; P.A. 08-160, S. 4.)
History: P.A. 02-119 effective July 1, 2002; P.A. 06-115 added annual notification requirement in Subdiv. (1), added
Subdiv. (9) re interventions, redefined "bullying" to include harassment and behavior on a school bus and added language
re policies to address bullying outside of the school setting, effective July 1, 2006; P.A. 08-160 added language re implementation of policy, deleted provision re use on and after February 1, 2003, amended Subdiv. (3) to require notification be in
writing, amended Subdiv. (4) to add exception re anonymous report, amended Subdiv. (5) to add language re prevention,
amended Subdiv. (7) to add language re notification by each school and invitation to attend at least one meeting, amended
Subdiv. (8) to add language re report to Department of Education, added Subdiv. (10) re identification of appropriate
personnel, redefined "bullying" to provide that acts may be committed against any student more than once and added
language re submission of policy to Department of Education and publication of policy by school district, effective July
1, 2008 (Revisor's note: In codifying section 4 of public act 08-160, a reference to "this act" was deemed by the Revisors
to be a reference to section 5 of that act and therefore cited as "section 10-222g").