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Bill would let perpetrators seek school reassignment as part of discipline; principals seek NDE-approved shortcut for clearly unsubstantiated bullying claims
Summary
AB 48 would allow a student who perpetrated a substantiated bullying incident to request reassignment as part of discipline and preserve victims’ right to request reassignment; Clark County principals urged a Department of Education‑approved process to quickly resolve clearly unsubstantiated reports.
The Assembly Education Committee heard presentations on Assembly Bill 48, which would let a student found to have committed a substantiated bullying or cyberbullying incident request a change of school assignment as part of the disciplinary process, rather than leaving reassignment as an option only for the victim.
Brad Keating, assistant superintendent for community partnerships and government relations in Clark County, told the committee that under current statute bullying and cyberbullying are defined in NRS 388.122 and NRS 388.123 and are protected by categories including race, national origin, religion, gender identity and disability. Keating said Clark County’s data show thousands of reported incidents over recent years: he cited 5,769 reported incidents in 2024–25, down from 10,636 in 2023–24 and 11,518 in 2022–23. Cyberbullying reports were 607 in 2024–25, Keating said, versus 1,194 the prior year.
Keating said AB 48 would allow perpetrators to request reassignment when an incident is substantiated, and it would continue to allow victims to request reassignment; if both parties request reassignment the bill would bar assigning both to the same school. Jeff Horn, executive director of the Clark County Association of School Administrators and Professional Technical Employees, told the committee that roughly 40% of reported incidents in the prior year were marked unsubstantiated and that administrators spend many hours investigating reports that are later ruled unsubstantiated. Horn said district principals are working with NDE to develop a policy or process to identify at the outset which allegations can be quickly classed as unsubstantiated so administrators can focus time on substantiated cases and student supports.
Committee members asked how reassignment would interact with protections for students in foster care, whether discipline records follow students to a receiving school, how reassignment affects activities-eligibility rules (NIAA), and whether reassignment would create opportunities for retaliation or repeated placements. Nathaniel Waugh, director of government relations for the district, said the district does not intend to change foster‑student continuity protections and that an administratively transferred student’s disciplinary history would be visible to the receiving school in the district information system.
Susan Keema of the Nevada Association of School Superintendents and Stephen Cohen, speaking for the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities (testifying as an individual), said they support the bill as drafted or with the Clark County/NDE conceptual amendment to address unsubstantiated complaints at the outset. No organizational opposition testified at the hearing.
The committee closed the hearing after public testimony; no committee vote was recorded at the hearing.
