HF 187 (LSB 1275YH (6) 85)

HOUSE FILE 187

BY  HUNTER, LENSING, WESSEL-KROESCHELL, ANDERSON, BEARINGER, T. TAYLOR, ABDUL-SAMAD, MASCHER, THOMAS, GAINES, M. SMITH, KELLEY, MURPHY, STUTSMAN, DAWSON, FORBES, WOOD, OLDSON, MUHLBAUER, HEDDENS, and GASKILL

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the prevention of bullying in school districts and accredited nonpublic schools and including effective date provisions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 256.9, Code 2013, is amended by adding the following new subsection:
   NEW SUBSECTION.  63.  Develop and make available to school districts and accredited nonpublic schools, training information and materials which schools, school employees, and parents may use to recognize and appropriately address harassment and bullying, including cyberbullying, as defined in section 280.28. In developing the training information and materials, the director shall consult with entities that include but are not limited to the departments of human services, public health, and public safety, education stakeholders, parent-teacher organizations, and other interested stakeholders. School districts shall dedicate at least one day of professional development to providing such training to practitioners, and shall incorporate the information and materials in the school district’s employee training program, which shall be provided to full-time and part-time school employees, to volunteers who have significant contact with students, and to persons the school district has contracted with to provide services to students. Such information shall supplement and not supplant any bullying or harassment information and materials already provided by a school district, or any efforts by a school district’s school improvement advisory committee, or any local community campaign of awareness relating to bullying and harassment. Training information and materials developed and made available by the director pursuant to this subsection shall include or provide for the following:
   a.  Developmentally appropriate and age-appropriate strategies to prevent bullying and harassment among students in school and outside the school setting.
   b.  Developmentally appropriate and age-appropriate strategies for immediate and effective interventions to stop bullying and harassment.
   c.  Information regarding the interaction and relationship between students committing acts of bullying or harassment, students against whom such acts are directed, and witnesses of such acts.
   d.  Research findings on bullying and harassment, such as information about the types of students who have been shown to be at risk for bullying or harassment in the school setting.
   e.  Information on the frequency and nature of cyberbullying, as defined in section 280.28.
   f.  Internet safety issues as they relate to cyberbullying as defined in section 280.28.
    Sec. 2.  Section 256.16, subsection 1, Code 2013, is amended by adding the following new paragraph:
   NEW PARAGRAPH.  d.  Require, beginning July 1, 2014, students to successfully complete training on how to prevent, recognize, address, and stop bullying and harassment behaviors, and provide students with information on the effects of bullying and harassment.
    Sec. 3.  Section 257.9, subsection 7, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   7.  Professional development supplement state cost per pupil.
   a.  For the budget year beginning July 1, 2009, for the professional development supplement state cost per pupil, the department of management shall add together the professional development allocation made to each district for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2008, pursuant to section 284.13, subsection 1, paragraph “d”, Code 2009, and divide that sum by the statewide total budget enrollment for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009.
   b.  The professional development supplement state cost per pupil for the budget year beginning July 1, 2010, and succeeding budget years
 
beginning before July 1, 2013, shall be the amount calculated by the department of management under this subsection for the base year plus an allowable growth amount that is equal to the professional development supplement categorical state percent of growth, pursuant to section 257.8, subsection 2, for the budget year, multiplied by the amount calculated by the department of management under this subsection for the base year.
   c.  The professional development supplement state cost per pupil for the budget year beginning July 1, 2013, shall be the amount calculated by the department of management under this subsection for the base year, plus twenty dollars, plus an allowable growth amount that is equal to the professional development supplement categorical state percent of growth, pursuant to section 257.8, subsection 2, for the budget year, multiplied by the amount calculated by the department of management under this subsection for the base year.
   d.  The professional development supplement state cost per pupil for the budget year beginning July 1, 2014, and succeeding budget years, shall be the amount calculated by the department of management under this subsection for the base year plus an allowable growth amount that is equal to the professional development supplement categorical state percent of growth, pursuant to section 257.8, subsection 2, for the budget year, multiplied by the amount calculated by the department of management under this subsection for the base year.
    Sec. 4.  Section 257.10, subsection 10, paragraph a, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   a.
  (1)  For the budget year beginning July 1, 2009, the department of management shall divide the professional development allocation made to each district for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2008, pursuant to section 284.13, subsection 1, paragraph “d”, Code 2009, by the district’s budget enrollment in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009, to determine the professional development supplement cost per pupil.
   (2)  For the budget year beginning July 1, 2010, and succeeding budget years
 
beginning before July 1, 2013, the professional development supplement district cost per pupil for each school district for a budget year is the professional development supplement district cost per pupil for the base year plus the professional development supplement state allowable growth amount for the budget year.
   (3)
  (a)  For the budget year beginning July 1, 2013, the professional development supplement district cost per pupil for each school district for a budget year is the professional development supplement district cost per pupil for the base year plus the professional development supplement state allowable growth amount for the budget year, plus twenty dollars.
   (b)  For purposes of determining the amount of a budget adjustment pursuant to paragraph “b” of this subsection, for a school district which calculated allowable growth for the budget year beginning July 1, 2013, pursuant to this subparagraph (3), the department of management shall subtract twenty dollars from the school district’s professional development supplement district cost per pupil for the budget year beginning July 1, 2013, prior to determining the amount of the adjustment.
   (4)  For the budget year beginning July 1, 2014, and succeeding budget years, the professional development supplement district cost per pupil for each school district for a budget year is the professional development supplement district cost per pupil for the base year plus the professional development supplement state allowable growth amount for the budget year.
    Sec. 5.  Section 280.12, subsection 2, paragraph f, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   f.  Harassment or bullying prevention goals, programs, training, and other initiatives.

Each committee shall develop by July 1, 2014, a plan for counseling the victims of bullying and harassment and the victims’ families, and the school district or school shall post the committee’s plan on the school district or school internet site. The school district and school shall include the plan in its comprehensive school improvement plan submitted pursuant to section 256.7, subsection 21.
    Sec. 6.  Section 280.28, subsections 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7, Code 2013, are amended to read as follows:
   1.  Purpose —— findings —— policy.  The state of Iowa is committed to providing all students with a safe and civil school environment in which all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect. The general assembly finds that a safe and civil school environment is necessary for students to learn and achieve at high academic levels. Harassing and bullying behavior can seriously disrupt the ability of school employees to maintain a safe and civil environment, and the ability of students to learn and succeed.

Cyberbullying is an especially insidious form of bullying that occurs most often outside school, but nonetheless affects the school process, impeding the ability of students to learn and succeed. School districts and schools should be wary of a bully’s ability to use technology to reach a broad audience, frequently anonymously. Therefore, it is the policy of the state of Iowa that school employees, volunteers, and students in Iowa schools shall not engage in harassing or bullying behavior.
   4.  Programs encouraged.  The board of directors of a school district and the authorities in charge of each accredited nonpublic school are encouraged to establish programs designed to eliminate harassment and bullying, including cyberbullying, in schools. To the extent that funds are available for these purposes, school districts and accredited nonpublic schools shall do the following:
   a.  Provide training on antiharassment and antibullying policies
 
relating to the policy adopted pursuant to subsection 3 to school employees and volunteers who have significant contact with students.
   b.  Develop a process to provide school employees, volunteers, and students with the skills and knowledge to help reduce incidents of harassment and bullying, including cyberbullying.
   5.  Immunity.  A school employee, volunteer, or student, or a student’s parent or guardian who promptly, reasonably, and in good faith reports an incident of harassment or bullying,
 
including but not limited to cyberbullying, in compliance with the procedures in the policy adopted pursuant to this section, to the appropriate school official designated by the school district or accredited nonpublic school, shall be immune from civil or criminal liability relating to such report and to participation in any administrative or judicial proceeding resulting from or relating to the report.
   6.  Collection requirement.  The board of directors of a school district and the authorities in charge of each nonpublic school shall develop and maintain a system to collect harassment and bullying incidence data
 
on reported incidences of harassment and bullying, including but not limited to cyberbullying, brought to the attention of the school district or school.
   7.  Integration of policy and reporting.  The board of directors of a school district and the authorities in charge of each nonpublic school shall integrate its antiharassment and antibullying
 
the policy
 
adopted pursuant to subsection 3 into the comprehensive school improvement plan required under section 256.7, subsection 21, and shall report data collected under subsection 6, as specified by the department, to the local community.
    Sec. 7.  Section 280.28, subsection 2, Code 2013, is amended by adding the following new paragraph:
   NEW PARAGRAPH.  0a.  “Cyberbullying” means harassment or bullying which occurs through electronic means.
    Sec. 8.  Section 280.28, subsection 2, paragraph a, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   a.  “Electronic” means any communication involving the transmission of information by wire, radio, optical cable, electromagnetic, or other similar means. “Electronic” includes but is not limited to communication via electronic mail, internet-based communications
 
communication, pager service,
 
internet site, cell phones
 
phone, and electronic text messaging
 
or other social media.
    Sec. 9.  Section 280.28, subsection 2, paragraph b, unnumbered paragraph 1, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   “Harassment” and “bullying”, which shall include cyberbullying, shall be construed to mean any electronic, written, verbal, or physical act, gesture, or conduct toward a student which is based on any actual or perceived trait or characteristic of the student and which creates an objectively hostile school environment that meets one or more of the following conditions:
    Sec. 10.  Section 280.28, subsection 3, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   3.  Policy.  On or before September 1, 2007
 
2014, the board of directors of a school district and the authorities in charge of each accredited nonpublic school shall adopt a policy declaring harassment and bullying, including cyberbullying, in schools, on school property, and at any school function, or school-sponsored activity regardless of its location, in a manner consistent with this section, as against state and school policy.

The policy shall specify procedures for proper reporting and investigation of allegations of harassment or bullying, including cyberbullying, based on the conditions specified in subsection 2, paragraph “b”. The board and the authorities shall make a copy of the policy available to all school employees, volunteers, students, and parents or guardians and shall take all appropriate steps to bring the policy against harassment and bullying, including cyberbullying, and the responsibilities set forth in the policy to the attention of school employees, volunteers, students, and parents or guardians. Each policy shall, at a minimum, include all of the following components:
   a.  A statement declaring harassment and bullying, including cyberbullying, to be against state and school policy. The statement shall include but not be limited to the following provisions:
   (1)  School employees, volunteers, and students in school, on school
 
grounds or property, or at any school function or school-sponsored activity shall not engage in harassing and bullying, including cyberbullying, behavior.
   (2)  School employees, volunteers, and students who are not in school or on school grounds or property shall not engage in harassing or bullying behavior that meets either of the conditions specified in subsection 2, paragraph “b”, subparagraph (1) or (2).
   (2)

(3)  School employees, volunteers, and students shall not engage in reprisal, retaliation, or false accusation against a victim, witness, or an individual who has reliable information about such an act of harassment or bullying, including cyberbullying.
   b.  A definition of harassment and bullying, including cyberbullying, as set forth in this section.
   c.  A description of the type of behavior expected from school employees, volunteers, parents or guardians, and students relative to prevention measures, reporting, and investigation of
 
an allegation of harassment or bullying, including cyberbullying.
   d.  The consequences and appropriate remedial action for a person who violates the antiharassment and antibullying policy.
   e.  A procedure for reporting an
 
alleged act of harassment or bullying,
 
including cyberbullying; including the identification by job title of the school official responsible for ensuring that the policy is implemented, and the identification of the person or persons responsible for receiving reports of
 
alleging harassment or bullying, including cyberbullying.

   f.  A procedure for the prompt investigation of complaints, either identifying the school superintendent or the superintendent’s designee as the individual responsible for conducting the investigation, including a statement that investigators will consider the totality of circumstances presented in determining whether conduct objectively constitutes harassment or bullying, including cyberbullying, under this section.
   g.  A procedure for reporting to the school district superintendent, the superintendent’s designee, or the authorities in charge of the school, an alleged incident of cyberbullying. If an electronic device provided by the school was used in an alleged cyberbullying incident, the superintendent, the superintendent’s designee, or the authorities may require the student suspected of the cyberbullying to return the device to the school and may report the incident to local law enforcement. The superintendent, the superintendent’s designee, or the authorities shall report the incident to local law enforcement if school-provided electronic devices were not used in the alleged incident.
   h.  A procedure for the prompt investigation by the school district superintendent, the superintendent’s designee, or the authorities in charge of the school, of an alleged act of harassment or bullying, including cyberbullying.
   i.  A procedure for recommending that available community mental health care options be provided to a student, if deemed appropriate, based upon the results of an investigation conducted pursuant to paragraph “h”.
   g.

j.  A statement of the manner in which the policy will be publicized.
    Sec. 11.  Section 282.18, subsection 5, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   5.  Open enrollment applications filed after March 1 of the preceding school year that do not qualify for good cause as provided in subsection 4 shall be subject to the approval of the board of the resident district and the board of the receiving district. The parent or guardian shall send notification to the district of residence and the receiving district that the parent or guardian seeks to enroll the parent’s or guardian’s child in the receiving district. A decision of either board to deny an application filed under this subsection involving repeated acts of harassment
 
or bullying, including cyberbullying, as defined in section 280.28, of the student or serious health condition of the student that the resident district cannot adequately address, is subject to appeal under section 290.1. The state board shall exercise broad discretion to achieve just and equitable results that are in the best interest of the affected child or children.
    Sec. 12.  Section 284.6, subsection 3, Code 2013, is amended to read as follows:
   3.  A school district shall incorporate a district professional development plan into the district’s comprehensive school improvement plan submitted to the department in accordance with section 256.7, subsection 21. The district professional development plan shall include a description of the means by which the school district will provide access to all teachers in the district to professional development programs or offerings that meet the requirements of subsection 1. The plan shall align all professional development with the school district’s long-range student learning goals and the Iowa teaching standards. The plan shall indicate the school district’s approved professional development provider or providers.

The plan shall provide, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2013, and each fiscal year thereafter, an amount of time for professional development equivalent to the amount of time the school district provided for professional development for teachers for the 2012-2013 school year plus the equivalent of at least one additional contract day.
    Sec. 13.  PRACTITIONER PREPARATION PROGRAM PLANS FOR TRAINING RELATING TO BULLYING AND HARASSMENT.  Each practitioner preparation program approved pursuant to section 256.7, subsection 3, shall develop a plan for training that meets the requirements of section 256.16, subsection 1, paragraph “d”, as enacted in this Act. The plan shall be submitted to the state board of education for approval by January 1, 2014. If the initial plan is not approved by the state board, it shall be returned to the program by March 29, 2014, with a description of the plan’s deficiencies. The program may submit a revised plan to the state board by April 29, 2014. If the revised plan is not approved by the state board, the state board shall reevaluate its approval of the practitioner preparation program.
    Sec. 14.  EFFECTIVE DATES.  The following provision or provisions of this Act take effect on the following dates:
   1.  The section of this Act amending section 257.9, subsection 7, and the section of this Act amending section 257.10, subsection 10, take effect upon enactment for the computation of state school aid for budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2013.
   2.  The section of this Act amending section 280.28, subsection 3, takes effect July 1, 2014.
EXPLANATION
   This bill expands current Code provisions relating to the definition of bullying and to harassment and bullying policies each school district and accredited nonpublic school is required to adopt; requires the director of the department of education to develop and make available to school districts and accredited nonpublic schools training information and materials which schools, school employees, and parents may use to recognize and appropriately address bullying and harassment, including cyberbullying; directs approved practitioner preparation programs to require, beginning July 1, 2014, students to successfully complete training on how to prevent, recognize, address, and stop bullying and harassment behaviors, and to provide students with information on the effects of bullying and harassment; and provides for an additional day of professional development. 
   The bill increases the professional development supplement categorical state cost per pupil and the professional development supplement district cost per pupil under the school aid formula to provide school districts with funding for an additional day of professional development which school districts must include in their district professional development plan. The bill also provides that for purposes of determining whether a school district will receive a budget adjustment based on whether its unadjusted professional development supplement district cost for a budget year is less than 100 percent of the base year, the department of management shall subtract $20 from the school district’s professional development supplement district cost per pupil for the budget year beginning July 1, 2013. These provisions take effect upon enactment for the computation of state school aid for budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2013.
   The additional professional development day the school aid formula moneys pay for must be used to provide training on how to recognize and appropriately address harassment and bullying behavior, including cyberbullying.
   In developing the training information and materials, the director must consult with related state agencies and education stakeholders. School districts must incorporate the information and materials in their employee training programs, which shall also be provided to volunteers and other service providers who have significant contact with students.
   The training information and materials must include or provide for developmentally appropriate and age-appropriate strategies to prevent or stop bullying and harassment among students within and outside the school setting; information regarding the interaction and relationship between students committing acts of bullying or harassment, students against whom such acts are directed, and witnesses of such acts; research findings on bullying and harassment, such as information about the types of students who have been shown to be at risk for bullying or harassment in the school setting; and information on the frequency and nature of cyberbullying and on internet safety issues.
   School districts and accredited nonpublic schools must utilize their school improvement advisory committees’ recommendations to determine harassment or bullying prevention goals, programs, training, and other initiatives. Each committee must develop by July 1, 2014, a plan for counseling the victims of bullying and harassment and the victims’ families, and the school district or school must post the plan on its internet site. The school district and school shall include the plan in the annual comprehensive school improvement plan it submits to the department.
   The general assembly’s findings are updated to provide that cyberbullying is an especially insidious form of bullying that occurs most often outside school, but nonetheless affects the school process, impeding the ability of students to learn and succeed.
   The bill makes a number of changes in Code section 280.28, which prohibits harassment and bullying in schools, requires schools to adopt a policy, and provides for immunity for a school employee, volunteer, or student, or a student’s parent or guardian who promptly, reasonably, and in good faith reports an incident of harassment or bullying.
   The bill modifies the definition of “harassment” and “bullying” to add gestures to the behaviors which may create an objectively hostile school environment, and to include cyberbullying in the definition. The bill also expands the definition of “electronic” to include communication via internet site or other social media. The bill defines “cyberbullying” as harassment or bullying by electronic means.
   Effective July 1, 2014, the policy school districts and accredited nonpublic schools must adopt on or before September 1, 2014, must include cyberbullying. The bill expands policy requirements to add school grounds to the areas where school employees, volunteers, and students are prohibited from engaging in harassing and bullying behavior, and further prohibits such persons from engaging in harassment or bullying behavior off school property or grounds if the behavior places the student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s person or property or has a substantially detrimental effect on the student’s physical or mental health.
   Under the bill, the policy must also include a procedure for reporting to the school district superintendent, the superintendent’s designee, or the authorities in charge of the school, an alleged incident of cyberbullying. If an electronic device provided by the school was used in an alleged cyberbullying incident, the superintendent or designee or the authorities may require the student suspected of the cyberbullying to return the device to the school and may report the incident to local law enforcement. If the alleged incident did not involve a school-provided electronic device, the superintendent or designee or the authorities shall report the incident to local law enforcement.
   The policy must also include a procedure for the prompt investigation, by the school district superintendent, designee, or the authorities in charge of the school, of an alleged act of harassment or bullying; as well as a procedure for recommending that available community mental health care options be provided a student, if deemed appropriate, based upon the results of an investigation.
   A provision that allows a parent to appeal to the state board of education a school board’s denial of an open enrollment application is amended to add denial of an application involving repeated acts of bullying, including cyberbullying, to the types of school board decisions which may be appealed. 
   Finally, the bill directs each approved practitioner preparation program to develop a plan for training students on how to prevent, recognize, address, and stop bullying and harassment behaviors, and provide students with information on the effects of bullying and harassment. The plan must be submitted to the state board for approval by January 1, 2014. If the initial plan is not approved by the state board, it shall be returned to the program by March 29, 2014, with a description of the plan’s deficiencies. The program may submit a revised plan to the state board by April 29, 2014. If the revised plan is not approved by the state board, the state board shall reevaluate its approval of the practitioner preparation program.