HARRISBURG – A measure to require parental notification of bullying in schools has been signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro. The proposal, part of House Bill 1505, was included in a larger piece of legislation on school governance. The legislation would require schools to establish a procedure for investigating all alleged bullying and cyber-bullying incidents and to immediately notify parents and legal guardians of any student involved after a bullying incident has been confirmed. Because many children are not comfortable discussing these incidents, many parents are unaware that their child is involved in a bullying incident until it’s too late. While some schools already notify parents of bullying, not all do. Bill supporters say we can be sure that parents in every corner of the state must be made aware of incidents that allow them to help their kids before it’s too late. The legislation also expands employee training to include suicide prevention and cyber-bullying and requires schools to report AI-involved digital offenses and forgery to the state Department of Education.
