HB 45 Summary

• Removes the phrase "whether verbal or physical" from reporting requirements, requiring school employees, students, and volunteers to report incidents of harassment, intimidation, or bullying to appropriate school officials.

• Expands the definition of "harassment, intimidation, or bullying" to explicitly include "electronic" communications alongside written and oral communications and physical acts.

• Maintains four criteria for determining harassment, intimidation, or bullying: physically harming or damaging student property, substantially interfering with education, creating an intimidating or threatening educational environment, or substantially disrupting school operations.

• Requires that the communication or act be undertaken with the intent of threatening, intimidating, harassing, or frightening the student for it to qualify as harassment, intimidation, or bullying.