Asbury Park presents anti-bullying self‑assessment, SSDS safety counts and an improvement plan

Acting Director of Student Services (presenting) Miss Baez told the Asbury Park Board of Education that the district’s 2023–24 self‑assessment under the Anti‑Bullying Bill of Rights Act produced a district average score of 59, down from 68 in 2022–23, and that the district has prepared an improvement plan to address gaps.

Why it matters: The self‑assessment and the state SSDS (School Safety Data System) reports are used to track incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) and other safety incidents across schools; the district described both its findings and a multi‑part corrective plan to raise compliance and reduce incidents going forward.

Baez said the 2023–24 assessment showed individual school differences (Asbury Park High School: 48; Bradley: 64; Thurgood Marshall: 67; a district average of 59). On incident follow‑ups she said, "during that time, you had 18 that were investigated; 8 were confirmed and 10 were unfounded" (referring to the 2023–24 reporting year). The presentation listed common reasons some elements were marked "not met" or "partially met," including failures to assess certain programs and approaches, inconsistent discussion of the district’s HIB policy with students, the school safety team not meeting twice a year in all buildings, failure to provide HIB policy information to contracted staff and volunteers, and instances where parent notifications or the completion of investigations within the 10‑school‑day standard were not recorded.

For the current school year (first reporting period, September–December 2024) the district presented SSDS counts by building and categories. The presenter defined the category "incidents" to include violence, vandalism, substances and weapons and said the second category, "other," includes cutting class, leaving class and defiant or inappropriate conduct. Baez reported the district’s period totals and said, comparing apples to apples with the prior year, the first period incidence totals had declined in several buildings. She provided a school‑level breakdown for that reporting period and said the district total trend went down from 22 to 16 incidents in the comparable period; she noted the SSDS count for "other" incidents was higher but attributed progress to code‑of‑conduct changes and increased use of positive interventions.

Improvement plan and next steps: Baez described steps already underway and planned: HIB specialists will create and implement action plans for each item identified as not meeting requirements; the specialist and acting director will meet monthly to track progress; the acting director will continue to monitor a HIB checklist/tracker; the district is integrating anti‑bullying instruction into health classes; and the district will sustain prevention‑first counseling and PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) across buildings. Baez named the district’s HIB/guidance leads by building as part of staffing adjustments: Beverly Gills (high school), Brian Hackett (Bradley) and Joanne Major Phillips (Bradley/Marshall coverage), and she said the district will add other evidence‑based programs (for example, Lifelines and youth mental health first aid) in the 2025–26 rollout timeline.

Board members asked procedural questions about timelines and whether investigations were completed within regulatory timeframes. Baez acknowledged specific procedural shortfalls in 2023–24 (noting missed required meetings and failure to complete some notifications and investigations within ten school days) and said the monthly action‑plan reviews are intended to address those process gaps.

Ending: The board accepted the report and requested continued monthly updates on the HIB tracker and SSDS counts; the district said it will return with documented action‑plan status updates and evidence of completed trainings and parent‑notification improvements.