I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2682
To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish
a grant program that will support efforts at the State level to establish
anti-bullying task forces to study, address, and reduce bullying in elemen-
tary and secondary schools, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL7, 2025
Mr. K
RISHNAMOORTHI (for himself, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. NORTON, Mr. TONKO,
Mr. S
OTO, and Ms. SHERRILL) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
of 1965 to establish a grant program that will support
efforts at the State level to establish anti-bullying task
forces to study, address, and reduce bullying in elemen-
tary and secondary schools, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘STOP Bullying Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 5
The Congress finds the following: 6
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(1) Nearly 1-in-5 K–12 students have reported 1
being bullied at school, accounting for more than 2
10,000,000 students across the country. 3
(2) Since most instances of bullying take place 4
on school grounds, school staff and teachers play an 5
instrumental role in bullying prevention. 6
(3) According to the NCES, 68 percent of 7
grade 6–12 students who are bullied face repeated 8
incidents over multiple days, and many have re-9
ported negative impacts on their physical health as 10
a result of being bullied at school. 11
(4) Research shows that engaged educators who 12
are supportive of all students help to reduce the 13
overall presence of bullying and harassment on 14
school grounds. 15
(5) Marginalized students face high rates of 16
bullying, with studies showing that 71 percent of 17
Jewish families have experienced antisemitism at 18
school, 78 percent of Sikh students have been bullied 19
at school, 83 percent of LGBTQ+ students have 20
been harassed or assaulted at school, and 44 percent 21
of teenagers with developmental disabilities have 22
been bullied at school. 23
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(6) Hostile school environments have a detri-1
mental effect on the academic success and health of 2
students. 3
(7) 56 percent of bullying incidents are never 4
reported to an adult, inhibiting school systems in ad-5
dressing hostile environments and supporting the 6
well-being of all students. 7
(8) Governments and educators in every State 8
have a responsibility to ensure State and local edu-9
cation systems have processes in place for students 10
to be able to learn in a safe environment, regardless 11
of their actual or perceived race, color, national ori-12
gin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender iden-13
tity, or religion. 14
SEC. 3. STATE ANTI-BULLYING TASK FORCE REQUIRE-15
MENT. 16
Subpart 2 of part F of title VIII of the Elementary 17
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7881 18
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘SEC. 8549D. STATE ANTI-BULLYING TASK FORCE GRANTS. 20
‘‘(a) A
NTI-BULLYINGTASKFORCEGRANTPRO-21
GRAM.—The Secretary shall carry out a program to make 22
grants to each State to establish and implement a task 23
force to study, address, and reduce bullying in elementary 24
schools and secondary schools. 25
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‘‘(b) USE OFFUNDS.—Each State task force estab-1
lished under a grant under this section shall use the grant 2
funds to conduct a study on bullying in the elementary 3
schools and secondary schools of such State that in-4
cludes— 5
‘‘(1) policies of the local educational agencies in 6
such State with respect to bullying; 7
‘‘(2) teacher, parent, and student education 8
with respect to bullying; and 9
‘‘(3) the incidents of student violence and self- 10
harm as a result of bullying. 11
‘‘(c) M
EMBERSHIP.— 12
‘‘(1) C
HAIR.—Each Chief Education Officer of 13
a State shall designate one individual to serve as the 14
chair of the task force of such State. 15
‘‘(2) C
OMPOSITION.—Each State shall des-16
ignate at least one individual from each of the fol-17
lowing categories to serve on the task force of such 18
State: 19
‘‘(A) At least one teacher at elementary 20
schools and secondary schools selected in con-21
sultation with the union or association rep-22
resenting educators. 23
‘‘(B) At least one school administrator. 24
‘‘(C) At least one parent of students. 25
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‘‘(D) At least one K–12 student. 1
‘‘(E) At least one guidance counselor. 2
‘‘(F) At least one child psychologist. 3
‘‘(G) At least one school psychologist. 4
‘‘(H) At least one paraprofessional. 5
‘‘(I) At least one lawyer. 6
‘‘(J) At least one representative from a 7
community-based organization who specializes 8
in providing supportive services to students who 9
identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, 10
or queer. 11
‘‘(K) Professionals who specialize in pro-12
viding support services to students who identify 13
as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. 14
‘‘(L) At least one individual from the State 15
Education Agency office focused on school im-16
provement and school climate. 17
‘‘(M) Additional individuals, as determined 18
by the chair of the task force. 19
‘‘(3) T
ERMS OF MEMBERS .— 20
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each member of a 21
task force of State shall be appointed for the 22
duration of the existence of such task force. 23
‘‘(B) V
ACANCIES.—A vacancy on a task 24
force shall be filled in the manner in which the 25
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original designation was made under paragraph 1
(2). 2
‘‘(4) D
ISCRETIONARY COORDINATION .—A task 3
force of a State may coordinate activities under this 4
section with other boards and commissions of such 5
State. 6
‘‘(d) R
EPORT TOCHIEFEDUCATIONOFFICER.— 7
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 8
the date on which the State submits the study re-9
quired under subsection (b), the State task force of 10
such State shall submit a final report to the Chief 11
Education Officer of such State and the Secretary of 12
Education containing— 13
‘‘(A) the annual findings and conclusions 14
of the task force; 15
‘‘(B) the recommendations of the task 16
force for legislation or administrative actions; 17
and 18
‘‘(C) best practices with respect to bullying 19
in elementary schools and secondary schools 20
that includes recommendations for how— 21
‘‘(i) to address and reduce bullying; 22
‘‘(ii) to best educate all relevant 23
school staff on recognizing bullying; and 24
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‘‘(iii) parents can best address and 1
discuss with their children the early warn-2
ing signs of bullying. 3
‘‘(2) P
UBLICATION.—Each State task force 4
shall make the final report submitted under para-5
graph (1) publicly available.’’. 6
Æ
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