Harassment, intimidation and bullying in schools

I. Wyoming State Legislature II. Prohibiting Harassment, Bullying and Intimidation III. Student Action Elements Updates/Changes IV. Incident Elements Updates/Changes 1

On March 2, 2009, the Wyoming State Legislature passed HB 223 – Safe Schools Climate Act 2

The act required that school districts implement district policies prohibiting harassment, bullying and intimidation at school, as prohibited by law under the enacted legislation, as of December 31,

“Harassment, intimidation or bullying” means any intentional gesture, any intentional electronic communication or any intentional written, verbal, or physical act that a reasonable person under the circumstances should know will have the effect of: 4

(A) Harming a student physically or emotionally, damaging a student's property or placing a student in reasonable fear of personal harm or property damage 5

(B) Insulting or demeaning a student or group of students causing substantial disruption in, or substantial interference with, the orderly operation of the school; or 6

(C) Is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment for a student or group of students 7

Districts will be obligated to report incidents which meet the definitions of the Safe School Climate Act on the WDE636 data collection 8

For the school year, districts must report bullying and cyber bullying as a: THREAT/INTIMIDATION (TRE), physical or verbal threat or intimidation 9

The following additional added valid values will be added to field 104, Incident Type: HAR – Harassment BUL – Bullying CBL - Cyber Bullying These added values will be optional for the collection and required for the collection. 9

(34) Student-level data elements (29) Required elements (2) Optional elements (3) Conditional elements 10

Update on Student IDEA, Field #13 At the time of the incident, did this student have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) under IDEA? 11

Update on Student Ethnicity, Field #12 changed to 30 Through 35 Previous Options: A - Asian or Pacific Islander B – Black H – Hispanic I - American Indian or Alaskan Native W - White

NEW OPTIONS: (30) Asian Race, Yes or No (31) Black Race, Yes or No (32) Indian Race, Yes or No (33) Pacific Islander Race, Yes or No (34) White Race, Yes or No (35) Hispanic Ethnicity, Yes or No

(18) Incident data elements (17) Required elements (1) Conditional element 12

Update NRI, Minor Offenses Formally Known as: Non-Reportable Incident (NRI) This includes incidents such as chewing gum, spitting in halls, might include toy guns if they are non- authentic replicas and are not used in a threatening manner Or; 13

Any minor incident resulting in disciplinary action not classified previously, including but not limited to littering, note passing, loitering and any other minor district-defined offenses not included in any of the incident types. NOTE: Administrators need to consider age and developmentally appropriate behavior before using this incident code 14

The collection will open on June 1, 2010 and close on July 2,

If you have any questions regarding this training or the Safe Schools Climate Act and model policies, please do not hesitate to contact: Nathaniel Castellanos at or or; Leslie Zimmerschied at or 15