School Bullying: Legal Protections for Vulnerable Youth Need to be More Fully Assessed June 11th, 2012

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the nature and extent of protections available to students who are bullied depend on the laws and policies where they live or go to school. Education and Justice have taken important steps in assessing how federal civil rights laws can be applied and Education has completed a study of state bullying laws, but neither agency has assessed state civil rights laws and procedures as they may relate to bullying.

More information about state civil rights laws and procedures is a key missing link that is needed by administration officials and decision makers alike, to assess the extent of legal protections available to students who have been bullied. Furthermore, while multiple efforts to collect information about bullying have been under way for several years, the prevalence of bullying of youths in certain vulnerable demographic groups is not known. A greater effort by key federal agencies to develop more information about the extent to which a broader range of demographic groups are subject to bullying and bullying-related discrimination would better inform federal efforts to prevent and remedy bullying. This information, together with an assessment of federal and state legal protections, could also aid policymakers in determining whether additional actions are needed to protect vulnerable groups of youths who are most often the target of school bullying.

To allow for a more comprehensive assessment of federal and state efforts to address bullying, our report includes recommendations to Education to compile information about state civil rights laws and procedures that relate to bullying and to develop procedures to routinely inform individuals who file complaints of discrimination stemming from bullying about the potential availability of legal options under their state's anti-discrimination laws; and to Education, HHS, and Justice to develop information about bullied demographic groups in their surveys of youth and to use this information and other information from studies of state bullying and civil rights laws to assess the extent to which legal protections against bullying exist for vulnerable demographic groups.
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