Anti-bullying law in New Jersey schools

On January 6, 2011 Govern Chris Christie signed one of the toughest laws relating to School-Place anti-bullying. Schools are now required, by law, to set up mandatory procedures to detect, monitor, investigate, report, and discipline those who commit " bullying" acts. This Statute now holds school administrators with the responsibility of protecting our children. This act strengthens enforcement efforts, and calls for revisions to NJSA 18A:37-2 (" Prohibiting harassment, intimidation and bullying on school property, at school-sponsored functions and on school buses") to add harassment and intimidation as a basis for suspension of a student who is a bully.

The Statue makes two major expansions to the existing anti-bullying law:

First, the definition of harassment now includes: intimidation and bullying for events that occur off school grounds, or behavior that substantially disrupts the orderly operation of the school or the rights of students and actions that cause physical or emotional harm or create a hostile educational environment.

Second, the district now must implement certain procedures and report itself to be in compliance. Those new procedures include:

• appointing an anti-bullying coordinator in each school district and a rigorous reporting protocol for cases of harassment.
• training administrators, school board members, principals, teachers, staff and contracted service providers, such as cafeteria servers, on anti-bullying measures.

The State Department of Education will review each school district, and give it a grade based upon it's compliance and efforts. These grades will be posted on your districts' school website.

The Statute also considered bullying in the form of emails, texts and other forms of electronic communication.

For more information on New Jersey's Anti-Bullying Act in your schools, , or if your child has been bullied, please do not hesitate to contact Mark Law Firm, LLC by filing on the "contact us" page on this website, or call us at 908-626-1001 or 973-440-2311.