Bullying and Cyberbullying Prevention

Each school district must create, maintain, and implement a policy on bullying which must be:
on file with the State Board of Education,
published on the school district’s website, and
included in the student handbook. This policy on bullying shall be based on the State Board of Education’s template for a model bullying prevention policy.

The School Code provides that no student shall be subjected to bullying via transmission of information from a school computer, a school computer network, or other similar electronic school equipment. “Bullying” includes “cyber-bullying” and means any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act or conduct, including electronic communication, directed toward a student or students that has or can be reasonably predicted to have the effect of placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s or student’s person or property, causing a substantially detrimental effect on the student’s physical or mental health, substantially interfering with the student’s academic performance, or substantially interfering with the student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or privileges provided by a school.
The statute also creates the Illinois Bullying and Cyberbullying Prevention Fund, from which the State Superintendent of Education may provide a grant to a school district, charter school, or non-public, non-sectarian elementary or secondary school to support its anti-bullying programming.