School districts in Northern Virginia to start new year with changes to bullying notifications

ASHBURN, Va. — Loudoun County Public Schools is working to revise its policy to reflect a new law on how to address alleged cases of bullying.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Virginia) signed SB 1072, which “requires each local school board to require the principal of each public school or his designee to notify the parent of any student who is involved in an alleged bullying incident of the alleged incident within 24 hours of learning of such allegation.”

The previous law only required the principal to notify parents about the investigation in an alleged incident within five school days of when they first found out.

LCPS Director of School Administration Douglas Fulton said the notification, whether by phone call or email, begins no matter if administrators learned about it during school hours or not.

“I think one of the challenges our administrators will face is the 24-hour notice and since students have access to us 24/7 now, the challenge is ‘When am I aware I have to send that notice?’” Fulton told WUSA9. “We’ve let administrators know that when you first become aware, you’re going to generate that email and that response from the parent saying that you received it, and we’re going to follow up on the next available school day.”

LCPS Director of Student Mental Health Services Jennifer Evans said counselors are going to take additional training this week as part of their professional development day. Part of the notification is to include a letter with resources to help the child.

“Sometimes they [counselors] will get emails from parents and students over the weekend after-hours saying this happened,” Evans said. “Their response is to immediately notify the administrator, respond to the parent with the letter, so we are responding in the 24 hours.”

The policy to include the new notification change will be reviewed in a school board meeting next month.

LCPS received more than 300 reported cases of bullying, cyberbullying, and Title IX violations last year. Officials said because of the pandemic and a different coding system before 2020, it’s hard to compare the number to previous school years.

“I don't know that bullying is getting worse,” Evans said. “I think relationship skills and navigating disagreements have become more of a concern especially coming from a pandemic.”

The school district says not all reported cases rise to the level of bullying, and in some cases, there are disagreements that require students and families to meet. However, there are cases when disciplinary actions including suspension are an option. One extreme option is moving someone to a different school, which didn’t happen last school year, according to Fulton.

If the bullying behavior persists, Evans said they can steps including keeping the students separated.

Above all, administrators stress the goal is prevention. The comprehensive plan to address bullying includes bullying prevent programs in different capacity at all grade levels and peer programs in high schools. The peer programs involve up to 20 students at each high school where they volunteer and are trained in behavioral support.

“They help not only with their own peers but go in the middle and elementary schools with campaigns,” Evans added.

With the start of the new school year, Fulton also emphasized how parents should let schools go through the process to review incidents. He encourages parents to sit down with their child and talk to them about how to behave.

“I do think we have to be careful because there is sometimes a risk of over labeling a student as a bully when we’re going through that process when we don't become bullies by labeling a kid a bully,” Fulton included. “They're all our kids. At no point can we distance ourselves from anybody.”