Education New State Law Requires Parents Be Alerted of Alleged Bullying Within 24 Hours

BY ALEXIS GUSTIN agustin@loudounnow.com

A new state law that went into effect July 1 changes the timeline for when parents are notified of alleged bullying incidents involving their child at school.

The new law requires principals or their designee to notify the parents of students involved in an alleged bullying incident at school within 24 hours of learning about the allegation. The law requires School Boards to enforce it by requiring princi- pals to report to parents.

Division Director of School Administration Doug Fulton said although the division’s current practice has been to notify parents within 24 hours of any incident that involves a student, the new law is specifically about bullying.

He said the division’s answer to the 24hour notification requirement specifically in regard to bullying will be to send a letter, likely by email, to all of the parents with students involved to let them know that their student might be involved in a