Student services director: bullying incidents low but tracking and prevention will be expanded

Megan Bushnell, the district’s student services director, presented the annual bullying and harassment report and described both the district’s data and planned next steps to prevent and respond to incidents.

Bushnell said the district recorded 5,265 entries in Educators Handbook during the prior year and noted that improved tracking has increased the number of minor incidents captured. She said 64 incidents were logged under the district’s LEA bullying definition, two were recorded as cyberbullying and 21 were categorized as discriminatory harassment.

Bushnell said the district adopted a state-model bullying policy and plans to train faculty and staff on the clarified definition so incidents are categorized consistently. Her recommended next steps include teaching the district’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum (the 7 Mindsets program) with fidelity K–12, expanding counselor programming, strengthening reporting and restorative practices, and implementing a CCP (Contact Consult Plan) so the student-services director, principals and counselors can coordinate responses.

Board members asked whether more minors are being recorded because behavior is increasing or because of improved tracking; Bushnell and others said improved entry into Educators Handbook likely explains much of the rise in minor incident counts. Board members also discussed whether district-level referrals are consistently captured and suggested staff follow up to include district-office referral flags in the data.

Bushnell offered to update the report and re-share data with the board and to consult with the Educators Handbook vendor about adding district-referral tracking fields.