An Act relative to the enforcement of anti-bullying policies in our schools

This bill strengthens Massachusetts' existing anti-bullying laws by making it illegal to retaliate against students or staff who report bullying or participate in investigations. It also requires school plans to include mandatory counseling for both victims and perpetrators, while ensuring parents are informed about bullying prevention curricula and how to report incidents. To improve oversight, the legislation changes bullying incident reporting from an annual schedule to a quarterly one and expands the scope of reportable events to include any reported incident rather than only those that are substantiated. Finally, the bill establishes a pilot program to assign dedicated anti-bullying officers to the five schools with the highest number of reported incidents to assist with investigation and response.