PETITION OF:

Chapter 71 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:

Section 90. Prevention of Bulling

The following words and phrases, as used in this section, shall have the following meaning unless context requires otherwise:(a) "bullying" shall include all forms of harassment and shall be defined as repeated acts, either physical, verbal, written or otherwise, directly or indirectly committed against the will of an individual which causes distress to that individual and/or the loss of esteem, sense of self worth, or damage to the psyche to that individual.

The Department of Education, or its successors or assigns, is required to create mandates to all educational systems within its realm of authority to establish a plan which has the objective to establish and maintain an environment for students which is safe, conductive to learning, positive and free of disruption and bullying, in particular. At a minimum, this plan is to incorporate the following features which will be uniformly applied in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and are described in more detail below: a framework for antibullying policy of no tolerance, a hierarchy for responsibilities and accountability for teachers and administrators, a method for identification and measuring the students'

environment at school and in after school environments, a curriculum and continuing professional education on bullying, reporting requirements, safe havens to mitigate legal exposure, a process for improvements and enhancements.

(a) Framework - All districts will establish an antibullying policy which has zero tolerance. Students and their parents or guardians will be required to review and acknowledge a standard Code of Conduct at the beginning of each year, which sets the expectations for behavior and establishes guidelines for disciplinary action. Such Code of Conduct will be applicable in all situations between one or more students regardless of where they occur, whether written, oral or physical in nature. For documented violations of this Code of Conduct, a graduated "4 strike"

system will be established as follows:

(i) First offense - Notification of student and parent and corrective action meeting to be held

(i) Second offense - One day automatic suspension

(ii) Third offense - One week automatic suspension

(iii) Fourth offense - expulsion for the balance of the school years

(b) Responsibility and Accountability - The DOE will establish a clear hierarchy of responsibility of implementation of this legislation.

Superintendents in each district are to be ultimately responsible, followed by the priority positions of administrators for each school.

Administrators will be accountable for meeting minimum standards and such evaluation will be a component of each administrator's overall evaluation.

The DOE will be required to create disciplinary actions for those administrators in each school district which fail to meet the standards set by the DOE, including grounds for dismissal under certain circumstances.

(c) Identification and ongoing measurement of the environment - Standardized surveys of students are to be developed for various grade levels (1-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12), and are to be completed in October, February and May of each year. Results are to be compiled by an independent agency and results and rankings made available to the public.

Corrective action reports are to be issued by those schools in the bottom 25% of the Commonwealth.

(d) Bullying curriculums and continuing education for educators - The DOE will issue guidelines to its constituents requiring a certain minimum number of hours of the annual curriculum be dedicated towards educating students on the effects of bullying. Administrators and educators are to be required to receive a minimum of 8 hours per year on topics related to bullying.

(e) Reporting and meeting requirements - The DOE will establish guidelines for administrators and educators to report documented events. In addition, administrators will be required to communicate to both students and parents on the results of the surveys and the school rankings against other schools in town and the Commonwealth as a whole. Students will have a requirement to meet with guidance counselors a minimum of 3 times per school year. The DOE will develop a standard "report card" for each student and each educator will be required to include their assessments on the mental health aspects of each student as part of their semester report cards. Bullying and socialization are to be directly addressed. Educations are to have a minimum of 3, thirty-minute mandatory conferences with parents to review report cards and such conferences will include feedback from guidance counselors.

(f) Safe havens from legal exposures - Administrators and educators are the de facto fiduciaries of students. Meeting the objectives of fiduciary responsibilities is addressed in the other subsections. Safe havens are to be established to protect these individuals from litigation provided they have complied with Commonwealth guidelines, are not grossly negligent in their duties, recognizing that they are not psychological professions and their assessments are essentially their opinions.

(g) Process improvements - The DOE will have the responsibility of process improvements. The DOE should work with specialty agencies and community organizations to develop pilot programs whose successes will be duplicated in other districts.

Subparagraphs (a), (b), and (f) shall become effective on September 1, 2007

Subparagraphs (c) and (e) shall become effective on January 1, 2008

Subparagraph (d) shall become effective on August 31, 2007

Subparagraph (g) shall become effective on August 31, 2008

All other provisions of this act shall become effective upon its passage