125th MAINE LEGISLATURE
		LD 1237		LR 614(07)
	An Act To Prohibit Bullying in Schools
	Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment "   "
	Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
	Fiscal Note Required: Yes
Fiscal Note
State Mandate - Unfunded
State Mandates
	Required Activity				Unit Affected	Local Cost
	Requires school boards, when amending its policies and procedures that address bullying, to include the following:				School	Significant statewide
	~  procedures for students, school staff, parents, guardians and others to report incidents of bullying including anonymous reporting of bullying;
	~  procedures for prompt investigating and responding to incidents of bullying including written documentation of reported incidents and the outcome of the investigation;
	~  procedure for appealing a decision to take or not take disciplinary action;
	~  procedure to remediate any substantiated incident of bullying;
	~  process to communicate measures being taken to ensure the safety of the targeted student and to prevent further acts of bullying.
	Requires the annual dissemination of the written policy to students, parents, guardians, volunteers, administrators, teachers and school staff; posting of policy on the school administrative unit's publicly accessible website; and inclusion of the policy, in detail, to the student handbook.
	Requires superintendent to address every substantiated incident of bullying.
	Requires local school administrative units to provide professional development and staff training in the best approaches to implementing the anti-bullying policy.
	The required local activities in this bill may represent a State mandate pursuant to the Constitution of Maine.  Unless General Fund appropriations are provided to fund at least 90% of the additional costs or a Mandate Preamble is amended to the bill and two-thirds of the members of each House vote to exempt this mandate from the funding requirement, municipalities may not be required to implement these changes.
Fiscal Detail and Notes
	Additional costs to the Department of Education to create a model policy on bullying, harassment and sexual harrassment by January 1, 2013 and to create a procedure under which material incidents of discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, cyberbullying and bullying are reported to the department can be absorbed within existing budgeted resources.