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My professional perspective working as a lead teacher for four years is centered around supporting the overall success and development of students, teachers, and the school community. This Legal Guide Padlet is a resource for educators to ensure they follow the current legal requirements of cyberbullying at their schools. I chose this topic because close to 64% of students in Texas claimed to have been cyberbullied and explained that it negatively impacted both their feelings of safety and ability to learn at school (Faris, 2019). Which can also lead to 15% of students skipping school, the equivalent of 3 million kids (Faris, 2019). A school should be a safe environment for students to express themselves, outside factors like cyber bullying can affect their ability to learn and sometimes attend school. With an understanding of new laws and resources an educator can minimize cyberbullying.

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Cyberbullying holds great importance due to the consequences within the student learning environment, aspects such as student well-being, academic performance, school, climate, and beyond. The well-being of students take precedence as it can result in emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and severe instances, even suicide. It profoundly impact students' psychological health and is an necessity for educators to actively tackle and prevent cyberbullying.

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Given the ongoing challenges posed by social media, it is crucial for educators to incorporate digital citizenship as an essential component of every student's education. Instead of avoiding this digital realm, our approach should embrace it. Our goal should be to guide students in understanding the importance of digital ethics and etiquette. Numerous resources are available to facilitate discussion about cyberbullying and encourage students to commit to a pledge.

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"It always felt like a safe place." That's how my husband described the school he attended in Marshall County, Kentucky. Now, it was the latest school to become the scene of a mass shooting.

As public school educators and parents, my husband and I had dreamed about one day sending our daughter off to Marshall County Public Schools, but after the shooting we found ourselves suddenly fearing what had always been a safe, shared vision.

At the same time, we were still wrestling with the raw emotions and unresolved aftermath of a spate of student suicides that hit nearby schools years earlier. I couldn't help but think back to Bullitt East High, a school in another Kentucky district where we'd lived and where three teens had killed themselves within a year and a half. That loss of life rocked our entire community.

What we started to realize was that all three of the students who committed suicide at Bullitt and the school shooter in Marshall County had one thing in common - there was reason to believe they'd been cyberbullied.

Most of the time educators and parents don't know what goes on behind students' computer screens or mobile devices. All we have to go on is what they tell us. Proactively talking to kids about cyberbullying is, I think, the only way for parents and educators to figure out what's going on - and to get kids the help they may urgently need. It's not always easy, but as these tragedies drove home for me and my husband, it's critical. So here are three ways we can all begin doing our part:
Don't start from scratch - there are great resources out there
There are many resources available to help kickstart the conversation about cyberbullying. NEA offers a number of helpful resources like the Bully Free It Starts With Me toolkit. And I highly suggest encouraging students to take NEA's to stand up for bullied students.

Another NEA-endorsed tool, and one of my favorites, is Common Sense Media's Anti-Cyberbullying Toolkit for educators, Standing Up, Not Standing By . It provides unbiased info, trusted advice and innovative tools to help parents, educators and policymakers tackle digital citizenship.

Before using the tool with my students, I went through all of the videos and games to see what they were like. I tried to view them as if I were a student undergoing this education and I ended up learning quite a bit! Many of us educators and parents are not equipped with the vital information needed to empower students to deal with the struggles and challenges they face daily in this complex, ever-changing digital society. It made a huge difference both in educating myself and figuring out how to best teach these tough topics.
Push for digital citizenship in your curriculum
As educators we must figure out a way to make digital citizenship a piece of every student's education, just like math or science. We need to bring it to the forefront of education - we live in a digital world, and our schools should reflect that.

My way of coping with the tragedies in my community was to search for a solution. I decided to push for digital citizenship to be taught in our school system's curriculum, and I have been working to make it a reality ever since.
Get involved in and outside of school, and help educate policymakers
I'm a library media specialist, and I found that principals, administrators and especially our legislators don't know what should be expected of my role. They don't know what it is that we do, or that we're perfectly positioned to help curb cyberbullying by teaching digital citizenship. So I set out to change that.

I applied to be a member of every educational policymaking institution I could think of, whether at the local or state level. I was selected as a member of the Kentucky Department of Education Commissioner's Teachers Advisory Council, where I am able to freely express my school safety concerns and advocate for a digital citizenship curriculum to the Commissioner and highly-effective teacher leaders across the state. I also participated in the KDE Teaching and Learning Pathways Research Writing Team to promote digital citizenship as it relates to providing support to our growing diverse student population. I became a more active member of the Kentucky Education Association, which gave me many opportunities to push for a digital citizenship curriculum to be adopted into KEA's legislative platform.

This was my path - but you don't have to be a library media specialist to start speaking up! Find a path that works for you, and take that first step.

School tragedies are happening all too often and the loss of life we've witnessed in Western Kentucky is far from unusual. Instead of accepting these events as our new normal, we need to learn from them and work to prevent them. No one solution will solve everything, but progress has to start somewhere. Finding anti-cyberbullying resources to educate our students, teaching digital citizenship in our classrooms and advocating to policymakers are all ways to help keep our schools safer. When it comes down to it, our students are at school to learn and that won't happen if they don't feel safe.

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Tackling Cyberbullying in the Digital Era | NEA

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"It always felt like a safe place." That's how my husband described the school he attended in Marshall County, Kentucky. Now, it was the latest school to become the scene of a mass shooting.

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How Common Is Cyberbullying?

What Parents Need to Know

How Parents Can Help

Behaviors & Warning signs of Cyberbullying

"For more information on cyberbullying,  please refer to the article 'What to Know About Cyberbullying' on US News & World Report's website: https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/what-to-know-about-cyberbullyinghttps://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/what-to-know-about-cyberbullying

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Parents give their children lessons and rules to stay safe in the real world - look both ways before crossing the street, don't talk to strangers, always wear a helmet.

Yet when it comes to the online world, many parents are essentially putting their child behind the wheel of a car without instruction or supervision. So it's no surprise that many children and even adults are unprepared to deal with the realities of cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is generally defined as bullying or harassment that takes place over digital devices like computers, cellphones or tablets. It can happen over text, email, social media or gaming platforms. While some consider any incidence of online harassment to be cyberbullying, the Cyberbullying Research Center says that, like in-person bullying, cyberbullying is characterized by harm that is " willful and repeated."

How Common Is Cyberbullying?

A Pew Research Center survey in 2018 found that 59% of U.S. teens had experienced some form of online harassment, including receiving physical threats and being the victim of false rumors. But cyberbullying can begin long before high school.

Amy Riley, a school counselor for 16 years at Mercer County Intermediate School in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, says cyberbullying has been a near-daily concern among the students she works with in grades three through five.

"There wasn't a week that went by where there wasn't some accusation of cyberbullying we had to get involved in," Riley says of the 2021-2022 school year. "We have kids who have reported someone telling them how ugly they are, someone who told them to kill themselves online. I've heard from other counselors about kids who have created fake accounts just to bully other kids."

Some research indicates that cyberbullying decreased during the course of the pandemic. That could be because cyberbullying often occurs in tandem with face-to-face bullying, experts say. But as students return to in-person learning with higher levels of anxiety and other mental health challenges, parents and schools need to be prepared to support students facing online bullying and harassment.

What Parents Need to Know

"Students can't get away from it," says Green, who specializes in mental health and bullying prevention. "Cyberbullying is available 24 hours a day, and has this permanent quality where things get circulated and don't disappear. Oftentimes, it's also hidden and adults aren't aware in the same way they are of in-person bullying."

While a decade ago cyberbullying might have been confined to texts and emails, the proliferation of technology and social media use - including at younger ages - has made it far more pervasive. Parents should especially keep an eye on new social media platforms and apps, experts say.

"We find the biggest problems on emerging apps that become popular in a short amount of time and don't have the capacity to deal with all the people using it," says Justin Patchin, co-founder and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center and a professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. "Young people are going to be drawn to these new places and there are going to be problems - that's the nature of the beast."

Many children experiencing cyberbullying might not tell an adult that it is happening, so parents should look out for a number of warning signs. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, a child might be the victim of cyberbullying if certain behaviors are displayed, including:

Being nervous, sad or angry during or right after being online.

Becoming noticeably withdrawn from family or friends.

Losing interest in previously enjoyed activities.

Exhibiting changes in relationship to school, including a decline in grades, wanting to stay home or frequent requests to leave school because of illness.

Experts suggest that parents make conversations about online behavior a regular activity with their child. Asking questions, listening closely and refraining from judgment are important to developing open communication.

If your child is experiencing cyberbullying, the first step is to collect evidence by taking screenshots of the posts in question. Parents should also use the tools of the website or app where the bullying is happening. "Cyberbullying goes against all the rules of an app, so report it, and then block the person," Patchin says.

On the other hand, if parents discover their child is the one doing the cyberbullying, that may require an entirely different conversation.

"It's even more difficult to deal with those cases because it's hard for you to imagine your kid would do that," Patchin says. He recommends that parents approach these conversations calmly and with an open mind to get to the bottom of why a child engaged in bullying. In many cases, children may not realize the harm their actions can cause.

"They think it's joking around, so it is important to express to kids how it could be significantly impacting another child," Patchin says.

Parents have a number of tools they can use, from limiting screen time and which apps are accessible to their child to social media monitoring software. But most experts don't recommend spying on children.

"Instead of putting software on the device, have a network of friends and family that are hanging out online with your kids," Patchin says. "If I see you've posted something inappropriate on Instagram, I'll let your mom know. It really does take that real-life network to keep track."

How Schools Handle Cyberbullying

All 50 states legally require schools and districts to have anti-bullying policies, and almost all states now include cyberbullying in their legislation. But just because there's a policy doesn't necessarily mean there will be a guaranteed answer when it comes to cyberbullying.

"If the behavior is disrupting a student's ability to learn, or if a student isn't comfortable being in school, the school has the responsibility and authority to intervene," Patchin says.

But beyond that, how a school should get involved is tricky. And while there is a long history of case law surrounding in-person bullying, Patchin says there have not been many cyberbullying cases. "We know schools can intervene," he says. "We just don't know if they are required."

In school counselor Amy Riley's district in Kentucky, for example, the policy on cyberbullying applies only to abuse that occurs on school grounds or on school technology.

"It's really hard for us at the school level because when something happens outside of the school, we don't have a lot of power to discipline. The only way we can is if it's brought into the school," Riley says. Even then, the school is often limited to simply notifying parents.

School counselors like Riley are often a school's first line of defense for identifying cyberbullying, but many are overwhelmed with huge volumes of students. Riley was the sole counselor for 600 students at her school for 16 years, until the school recently hired a second counselor.

That deficit highlights the need for more counselors and mental health professionals in school settings, but Riley also believes having a social-emotional learning curriculum - even if led by teachers - is key to helping children understand responsible online behavior. She has partnered with local organizations, like the 4H, to offer schoolwide lessons on cyberbullying.

Along with the rise in cyberbullying, Riley says her district also saw an uptick in suicide threats. A study from Swansea University found that young victims of cyberbullying are twice as likely to attempt self-harm, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn of the increased risk of depression, anxiety and other mental health problems related to all forms of bullying.

Experts say school staff should be trained to recognize danger signs, which include students acting more reserved and withdrawn or not socializing during free time, like at recess. Riley also says adults need to take student comments about harm seriously.

"When kids say they are down and want to kill themselves, there can be a tendency to minimize those comments," Riley says. "In the cases we saw of those who made suicide threats, in almost every one there was some underlying issue and we were able to connect them to resources, which is so essential."

Resources for Parents and Students

For more information, check out these resources:

StopBullying.gov, managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides a good overview of the different forms of cyberbullying and approaches parents can take.

The Cyberbullying Research Center offers extensive information on cyberbullying prevention and support, including laws related to cyberbullying across the United States.

The National Bullying Prevention Center has a host of cyberbullying resources, including tips for parents.

Local public school districts often offer their own tools. For example, Boston Public Schools provides a hotline to report incidents of bullying.

Students looking for support can also reach out to a school counselor, librarian, or a trusted teacher.

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Parents give their children lessons and rules to stay safe in the real world - look both ways before crossing the street, don't talk to strangers, always wear a helmet. Yet when it comes to the online world, many parents are essentially putting their child behind the wheel of a car without instruction or supervision.

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Most Common Online Threats Students Face

Protect Students Online Beyond Traditional Cybersecurity

"To learn more about addressing digital threats that students face in online education, please refer to the article 'How to Address Digital threats Students Face in Online Education' on EdTech Magazine's website: https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2023/08/how-address-digital-threats-students-face-online-education"

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Technology Solutions That Drive Education

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Adopting digital learning in K-12 comes with potential threats to students. These threats can range from relatively innocuous digital distractions to cyberbullying and online predators.

Despite these risks, schools must continue to embrace educational technology. Digital learning is essential to prepare students for the requirements of living and working in the modern world. Additionally, digital tools provide a wealth of personalization and collaborative and accessible learning experiences for students and teachers.

The Most Common Online Threats That K-12 Students Face

Given the many benefits of online learning for students, striking a balance between digital learning risks and online safety is the goal. Some of the main threats students encounter in an online learning environment include:
Click the banner to learn how to protect K-12 students online from malicious actors.
Digital distractions: Students may find it tempting to engage in nonacademic activities during school learning hours, such as playing games or browsing social media. This can negatively impact their academic performance.

Inappropriate content: Internet access may expose students to inappropriate or explicit content. Exposure to such material may not only harm a child's psyche but also raise compliance issues for the student's school.

Cyberbullying: Students may be subjected to cyberbullying through social media, messaging apps, shared documents, online games and forums. Online harassment can have severe emotional and psychological effects on a targeted student. According to recent studies from the National Bullying Prevention Center, approximately 1 in 5 teens have been involved in cyberbullying, either as a victim, a perpetrator or a witness to such behavior.
DIVE DEEPER: What are KOSA and COPPA, and how do they impact student data privacy?
Online predators: Students can also be targeted by online predators who may attempt to establish inappropriate or harmful relationships with them.

Phishing and scams: Students might fall victim to phishing emails or fraudulent websites, which could lead to compromised personal information, identity theft or threats to the school's network.

Unauthorized access: If students don't properly secure their devices or accounts, unauthorized individuals might gain access to their personal information and school-related data.

Charlie Sander CEO, ManagedMethods

How to Help Students Avoid Deepfakes and Misinformation

Ideally, students should start learning about digital threats as soon as they begin using computing devices with internet access. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, schools should integrate digital citizenship into the kindergarten or first-grade curriculum. The organization advises schools to teach young learners to distinguish between online and offline activities, understand the importance of privacy and promote responsible communication in digital environments.

Some schools have digital citizenship classes in place that have improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years due to increased online exposure after COVID-19. Schools should also strive to teach older students to recognize deepfakes and misinformation.

Given how frequently students use social media, they should be encouraged to critically evaluate the authenticity of the content they encounter. According to Statista, 74 percent of social media users in the U.S. have been exposed to content that platforms have labeled as false - and this is just content that was flagged as such. Imagine how much questionable content has slipped through the net.

Better Protect Students Online Beyond Traditional Cybersecurity

Perhaps the biggest problem with K-12 cybersecurity protections today is the simple lack of awareness of just how exposed district information systems and data are.

At this point, all districts should have a firewall, web filter and anti-phishing safeguards (usually through Gmail or Outlook). Many think these three security measures are enough. Unfortunately, most districts don't realize that their security measures are insufficient until after an incident.

Here are three ways schools can reduce risks to students:

First, district leaders and technology teams need to adopt multilayered cybersecurity measures such as defense-in-depth and zero-trust approaches. While these security strategies do not prescribe specific tools or vendors, they are comprehensive approaches that can help keep organizations of all types and sizes more secure.

Next, end users should all know that they have the power to help keep their schools safe. Students should be taught how to identify and report potential phishing emails or online scams.

Finally, district leaders and cyber experts tend to focus on reducing cyber risks for higher-level users, such as superintendents and business managers. However, students and their school-provided accounts are also a target for criminals. Many incidents start with a compromised student account - whether via a phishing email, brute force attack or credential exposure - and then spread further into the district's information systems. So it's imperative for IT teams to keep student accounts safe.

It's deeply unfortunate that schools need to put so much of their limited resources toward online safety for their students. However, with the cyberattacks that schools and individual students are facing, we can't ignore the problem.

By providing comprehensive cybersecurity awareness and digital citizenship training, combined with tools and processes to secure data and protect students, we can create safer online learning environments for our community.

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How to Address the Digital Threats That Students Face in Online Education

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It's never too early to teach students how they can help shield their school from cyberattacks.

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Slide #6: Staff Development Requirements

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Slide #6: Staff Development Requirements

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Tex. Education Code § 37.001

State Administrative Law

Requires that state funded schools provide training in

Resolving student conflicts.

Preventing Bullying incidents.

Responding to Bullying incidents.

Reporting Bullying incidents with  the correct protocol.

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Texas Education Code Section 21.451 - Staff Development Requirements - 2017 Texas Statutes - Texas Statutes

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Title 2, Public Education; Subtitle D, Educators and School District Employees and Volunteers; Chapter 21, Educators; Section 21.451, Staff Development Requirements. Refreshed: 2019-07-21

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Slide #7: Bullying Prevention Policies and Procedures

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Slide #7: Bullying Prevention Policies and Procedures

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Bullying Prevention Policies and Procedures

Statutory Law

Tex. Education Code § 37.0832

Ensures schools understand

The definition of cyberbullying

Limitations in which a school can act on a cyberbullying incident

Their ability to create district wide policies to prevent cyberbullying

Texas Public Law. Texas Education Code Section 37.0832. Retrieved from https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._educ._code_section_37.0832

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Slide #8: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (2004)

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Slide #8: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (2004)

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Individuals With Disabilities Education Act

Constitutional Law

Ensures that students with disabilities are provided with equal opportunities and access to all educational programs and experiences without discrimination, which includes the prevention of harassment based on their gender, race, or academic abilities. This federal act also ensures that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate education that meets their learning abilities.

U.S. Department of Education. (1975). Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) - Statute, Chapter 33, Subchapter I, § 1400. Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/statute-chapter-33/subchapter-i/1400

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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

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§1400. Short title; findings; purposes

(a) Short title

This chapter may be cited as the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act".

Congress finds the following:

(1) Disability is a natural part of the human experience and in no way diminishes the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society. Improving educational results for children with disabilities is an essential element of our national policy of ensuring equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities.

(2) Before the date of enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142), the educational needs of millions of children with disabilities were not being fully met because-

(A) the children did not receive appropriate educational services;

(B) the children were excluded entirely from the public school system and from being educated with their peers;

(C) undiagnosed disabilities prevented the children from having a successful educational experience; or

(D) a lack of adequate resources within the public school system forced families to find services outside the public school system.

(3) Since the enactment and implementation of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, this chapter has been successful in ensuring children with disabilities and the families of such children access to a free appropriate public education and in improving educational results for children with disabilities.

(4) However, the implementation of this chapter has been impeded by low expectations, and an insufficient focus on applying replicable research on proven methods of teaching and learning for children with disabilities.

(5) Almost 30 years of research and experience has demonstrated that the education of children with disabilities can be made more effective by-

(A) having high expectations for such children and ensuring their access to the general education curriculum in the regular classroom, to the maximum extent possible, in order to-

(i) meet developmental goals and, to the maximum extent possible, the challenging expectations that have been established for all children; and

(ii) be prepared to lead productive and independent adult lives, to the maximum extent possible;

(B) strengthening the role and responsibility of parents and ensuring that families of such children have meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children at school and at home;

(C) coordinating this chapter with other local, educational service agency, State, and Federal school improvement efforts, including improvement efforts under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 [20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.], in order to ensure that such children benefit from such efforts and that special education can become a service for such children rather than a place where such children are sent;

(D) providing appropriate special education and related services, and aids and supports in the regular classroom, to such children, whenever appropriate;

(E) supporting high-quality, intensive preservice preparation and professional development for all personnel who work with children with disabilities in order to ensure that such personnel have the skills and knowledge necessary to improve the academic achievement and functional performance of children with disabilities, including the use of scientifically based instructional practices, to the maximum extent possible;

(F) providing incentives for whole-school approaches, scientifically based early reading programs, positive behavioral interventions and supports, and early intervening services to reduce the need to label children as disabled in order to address the learning and behavioral needs of such children;

(G) focusing resources on teaching and learning while reducing paperwork and requirements that do not assist in improving educational results; and

(H) supporting the development and use of technology, including assistive technology devices and assistive technology services, to maximize accessibility for children with disabilities.

(6) While States, local educational agencies, and educational service agencies are primarily responsible for providing an education for all children with disabilities, it is in the national interest that the Federal Government have a supporting role in assisting State and local efforts to educate children with disabilities in order to improve results for such children and to ensure equal protection of the law.

(7) A more equitable allocation of resources is essential for the Federal Government to meet its responsibility to provide an equal educational opportunity for all individuals.

(8) Parents and schools should be given expanded opportunities to resolve their disagreements in positive and constructive ways.

(9) Teachers, schools, local educational agencies, and States should be relieved of irrelevant and unnecessary paperwork burdens that do not lead to improved educational outcomes.

(A) The Federal Government must be responsive to the growing needs of an increasingly diverse society.

(B) America's ethnic profile is rapidly changing. In 2000, 1 of every 3 persons in the United States was a member of a minority group or was limited English proficient.

(C) Minority children comprise an increasing percentage of public school students.

(D) With such changing demographics, recruitment efforts for special education personnel should focus on increasing the participation of minorities in the teaching profession in order to provide appropriate role models with sufficient knowledge to address the special education needs of these students.

(A) The limited English proficient population is the fastest growing in our Nation, and the growth is occurring in many parts of our Nation.

(B) Studies have documented apparent discrepancies in the levels of referral and placement of limited English proficient children in special education.

(C) Such discrepancies pose a special challenge for special education in the referral of, assessment of, and provision of services for, our Nation's students from non-English language backgrounds.

(A) Greater efforts are needed to prevent the intensification of problems connected with mislabeling and high dropout rates among minority children with disabilities.

(B) More minority children continue to be served in special education than would be expected from the percentage of minority students in the general school population.

(C) African-American children are identified as having intellectual disabilities and emotional disturbance at rates greater than their White counterparts.

(D) In the 1998-1999 school year, African-American children represented just 14.8 percent of the population aged 6 through 21, but comprised 20.2 percent of all children with disabilities.

(E) Studies have found that schools with predominately White students and teachers have placed disproportionately high numbers of their minority students into special education.

(A) As the number of minority students in special education increases, the number of minority teachers and related services personnel produced in colleges and universities continues to decrease.

(B) The opportunity for full participation by minority individuals, minority organizations, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities in awards for grants and contracts, boards of organizations receiving assistance under this chapter, peer review panels, and training of professionals in the area of special education is essential to obtain greater success in the education of minority children with disabilities.

(14) As the graduation rates for children with disabilities continue to climb, providing effective transition services to promote successful post-school employment or education is an important measure of accountability for children with disabilities.

The purposes of this chapter are-

(A) to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living;

(B) to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected; and

(C) to assist States, localities, educational service agencies, and Federal agencies to provide for the education of all children with disabilities;

(2) to assist States in the implementation of a statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families;

(3) to ensure that educators and parents have the necessary tools to improve educational results for children with disabilities by supporting system improvement activities; coordinated research and personnel preparation; coordinated technical assistance, dissemination, and support; and technology development and media services; and

(4) to assess, and ensure the effectiveness of, efforts to educate children with disabilities.

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Section 1400 - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

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Statute/Regs Main " Statute " Subchapter I (Part A) " 1400§1400. Short title; findings; purposes (a) Short title This chapter may be cited as the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act".

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David's Law

Statutory Law

Tex. Educ. Code § 37.0832(a)(1).

Bullying now includes a single significant act or pattern of acts by one or more students against another student that exploits an imbalance of power and involves engaging in expression (written, verbal, or electronic) or physical conduct that:
(i) physically harms a student, damages a student’s property, or places a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s person or of damage to the student’s property;    (ii)  is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive enough that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student;
(iii)  materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a school or classroom; or     (iv)  infringes on the rights of the victim at school.

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Slide #10: Idea Public Schools Organization Policy P.#50

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Slide #10: Idea Public Schools Organization Policy P.#50

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Idea Public School Polices

Administrative Law

IDEA prohibits bullying as defined below, as well as retaliation against anyone who reports or is involved in an investigation of bullying.

Bullying is defined in state law as a single significant act or a pattern of acts by one or more students directed at another student that exploits an imbalance of power and involves engaging in written or verbal expression, expression through electronic means, or physical conduct that:

Has the effect or will have the effect of physically harming a student, damaging a student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s person or of damage to the student’s property;

Is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive enough that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student; or

Materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a classroom or IDEA; or

Infringes on the rights of the victim at school.

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COPPA is a federal regulation that imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age. This includes the implementation of the children's online privacy protection act of 1998, (15 U.S.C 6501, et seq.,) which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with personal information from and about children on the internet.

U.S. Government Publishing Office. (2013, January  17). Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved from https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-312

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COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.

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Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule ("COPPA")

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COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.

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Understanding the moral self-view as individual's standard of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable to do. Moral engagement is a person's commitment to positive social interaction and thoughtful care of others.

Moral Engagement & Bullying

Roles of Educators in Moral Engagement & Bullying

Addressing Bullying through Moral Engagement

"Preventing Bullying Through Moral Engagement- Research Summary."StopBullying.gov. Retrieved from https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/research-resources/preventing-bullying-through-moral-engagement-research-summary

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Understanding Moral Engagement

Moral self-view - or morality - is an individual's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable to do. Children and young people are still in the process of forming their beliefs and are influenced by the actions of the people around them. An individual's morals can be shaped by the actions and beliefs of people in their family, religious groups, culture, and in school and other social settings. Moral engagement is a person's commitment to positive social interactions and thoughtful care of others. Research has shown that there is a connection between an individual's moral self-view and their behavior. 1 Individuals who value and express empathy and concern for others, and who behave positively in social settings, display a sense of moral engagement.
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Moral Engagement and Bullying

Empathy and moral self-view play a role in an individual's potential for aggressive and bullying behavior, as well as in their capacity for positive social interactions. 2 An individual who is socially kind and ethical may be less susceptible to bullying because they behave civilly toward others. A student who is morally engaged may be bothered by the mistreatment of others and find it harder to ignore. Their concern may lead them to take action and address the bullying in some way or to reach out to a trusted advisor to help deal with the situation. A morally engaged individual - including students, teachers, coaches, counselors, educators, parents, extra-curricular staff, and faith-based leaders - can influence others through their positive social behavior.

The Role of Educators in Moral Engagement and Bullying

Because peer aggression and bullying commonly occur at schools, affecting students' wellbeing and learning environment, teachers, coaches, counselors, and other school staff have the important task of being role models for moral engagement and respectful behavior. Teachers' responses to bullying and other harmful acts send clear messages to students about acceptable and unacceptable behavior toward others. 1 In effect, not responding or intervening when bullying or aggressive behavior occurs can be perceived by students as silent agreement. When a teacher, coach, or school administrator consistently intervenes in bullying, it can positively influence the moral engagement of students by setting a standard for expected behavior. It also helps improve student peer relationships, which reduces moral disengagement and helps prevent bullying. 3

Teachers can also utilize social-emotional learning strategies in the classroom to help develop students' moral engagement. Through social-emotional learning, students can gain a deeper understanding of their own emotions and how those emotions relate to their behavior. Social emotional learning activities can help students build empathy, foster healthy relationships, and manage their feelings. In turn, this can help them become more socially confident and secure about themselves and in their relationships with others.

Addressing Bullying through Moral Engagement

To help prevent bullying, school staff can foster moral engagement and model pro-social behavior. They can implement successful bullying prevention and intervention strategies that are systematic and reliable, so everyone understands what bullying is and how it will be handled. This makes it clear to students that their teachers and other school staff are morally engaged and that bullying will be noticed and consistently addressed. When bullying occurs, teachers and school staff can defend the target of bullying by reinforcing their humanity and intrinsic worth, which helps to cultivate moral engagement and reduce victim blaming. 1 Another strategy is to provide individual support to targets of bullying, to help them address emotions and thoughts involved in the bullying situation. 1 Implementing moral engagement and bullying prevention and intervention strategies can promote a positive school climate, so everyone feels safer and more connected.

Source and Research Limitations

This research summary is based on the most up to date research on bullying and prevention, but it is important to note that this research has several important limitations. Most of the research is cross-sectional, which means it took place at one point in time. This type of research shows what may be related at that time, but cannot tell us which came first or if one caused the other to occur.

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Preventing Bullying Through Moral Engagement

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Moral self-view - or morality - is an individual's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable to do. Children and young people are still in the process of forming their beliefs and are influenced by the actions of the people around them.

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Establish A Bullying Prevention Policy

Educate Students, Teachers, & Parents About Bullying

Create a Safe Reporting System

Take All Reports Seriously

Provide Support To Victims

Involve Parents and Guardians

Train Staff & Teachers

Conduct Regular Surveys and Assessments

Peer Mediation and Conflict Resolution

Consistent Consequences

Monitor Online Behavior

Regularly Review and Update Policies

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This video is Top 10 Ways forms of Cyberbullying and provides steps and ways principals can stop and make an effective change on cyberbullying in schools.

Identifies 10 steps/techniques to reverse cyberbullying.

Provides links to other resources to fight cyberbullying.

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Cyber-bullying Facts – Top 10 Forms of Cyber Bullying

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Rawhide. (2019, March 22) Teen Cyberbullying and Social Media.

Retrieved from https://www.rawhide.org/blog/infographics/teen-cyberbullying-and-social-media-use-on-the-rise/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjrvpBRC0ARIsAFrFuV88gQfPl2OUrTBoKr2jQq_YqWchYXeC-gZkx7gWhNXeXu0S4hF2esQaAo2LEALw_wcB

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With high online activity, teens either witness cyberbullying, are a victim, or become a perpetrator. Cyberbullying is on the rise, impacting many lives.

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Top 10 ways to stop cyberbullying. Retrieved from https://usa.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/top-10-ways-to-stop-cyberbullying

Idea Public Schools. (2023-2024, July). Idea Public Schools Student Handbook Freedom from Bullying. (P.50) Retrieved from https://ideapublicschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/23-24-FL-Student-Handbook-Eng-Version-Board-Approved.pdf

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With cyberbullying on the rise around the world, it’s important to understand what it is, what it looks like and how to prevent and stop it. Click to read more.