Galloway schools report 11 confirmed HIB cases for Sept–Dec 2024; district SSDS score remains 75

Miss Burgess, the district's director of student services, presented the Student Safety Data System (SSDS) report for report period 1 (September–December 2024) at the Galloway Township Board of Education meeting on June 9, 2025. The district reported 11 confirmed harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) cases, 18 alleged HIB reports that did not meet the statutory threshold for confirmation, nine incidents of violence, one incident of vandalism and two substance offenses during that period.

Burgess told the board that the numbers she was presenting are districtwide and cover all schools. “Everything that you see listed on this slide is information that we are required to report, as a result of the anti bullying law,” she said. She said each allegation arrived on the district HIB reporting form and was investigated under district policy and the code of conduct.

The presentation laid out how the district handled complaints and supports: every allegation received a preliminary review and, when warranted, a full investigation. Burgess said district staff applied the same disciplinary and support procedures to preliminary investigations and confirmed HIB cases. She credited universal (tier 1) prevention work with lowering case counts compared with the prior year and said she was “really pleased” to report a drop in cases for the 2024–25 school year compared with 2023–24.

Quantitative details Burgess cited for report period 1 (Sept–Dec 2024): 9 incidents of violence, 1 incident of vandalism, 2 substance offenses, 0 weapons incidents; 11 confirmed HIB investigations and 18 allegations that were investigated but not confirmed. The district logged 107 trainings and 155 programs across buildings during that four-month period.

The SSDS presentation also listed the anti-bullying specialists and investigators assigned by building for the period (the slide named each school’s designated investigator and noted that some staff later changed during the school year). For the 2023–24 school-year HIB self-assessment—the annual assessment the state uses to compute school and district HIB scores—Burgess reported the district’s official score as 75 out of a possible 78, a figure she said matched the prior year’s overall district score.

Board members moved to affirm the HIB determinations later in the meeting under agenda item 10.1; the motion passed on roll call. After the presentation, board members and the superintendent thanked Burgess; the board noted that this was Burgess’s last meeting and thanked her for her years of service.

The district’s SSDS report is a state-required public disclosure under the anti-bullying law and is intended to show report counts, investigation outcomes and the preventative programs the district uses. The board took no additional, separate action beyond affirming the HIB determinations on the public agenda.