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HB91

08RS

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Includes opposite chamber sponsors where requested by primary sponsors of substantially similar bills in both chambers and jointly approved by the Committee on Committees of both chambers. Opposite chamber sponsors are represented in italics.


HB 91 (BR 499) - M. Cherry, L. Clark, T. Edmonds, D. Graham, K. Hall, R. Henderson, M. Marzian, R. Palumbo, J. Richards, T. Riner, T. Thompson, R. Webb

     AN ACT relating to the safety, learning, and well-being of students.
     Amend KRS 158.440 to identify the Golden Rule as the model for improving attitude and the rule for conduct for all public school students; require school districts to have plans, policies, and procedures dealing with measures for assisting students who are engaging in disruptive and disorderly behavior, including harassment, intimidation, or bullying of another student; amend KRS 158.441 to define "harassment, intimidation, or bullying"; allow civil exchange of opinions or debate or cultural practices protected under the state or federal Constitution to be included in areas exempt from definition of "harassment, intimidation, or bullying"; amend KRS 158.148 to require school districts to formulate a code of acceptable behavior and discipline that embraces the Golden Rule as the model for improving attitude and the rule for conduct for students; require the code of acceptable behavior to prohibit harassment, intimidation, or bullying of a student and include procedures for identifying, reporting, investigating, and responding to complaints, a strategy for protecting complainants from retaliation, a process for annually discussing the code and the consequences of violating the code with students and their parents or their legal guardians; require school districts to provide training on the code of acceptable behavior to school employees who have direct contact with students, if funds are available; require district to incorporate information regarding the Golden Rule and the code of acceptable behavior in employee training manual; require school councils that are proposing to adopt an instructional program or curriculum designed to instruct students on issues regarding harassment, intimidation, or bullying to afford parents the right to inspect and review the instructional material and to address the council on the proposal prior to its adoption; offer parents and legal guardians the opportunity to opt out their students from programs or curriculum regarding harassment, intimidation, or bullying; specify that students who are opted out shall remain subject to the policy that prohibits harassment, intimidation, or bullying; amend KRS 158.150 to include the breaking of the Golden Rule through student harassment, intimidation, or bullying as a cause for suspension, expulsion, or other appropriate disciplinary action; amend 158.444 to require local school districts to report to the Kentucky Department of Education all incidents where a student has been disciplined for harassment, intimidation, or bullying three times in a single semester or where an individual has been the object of three or more documented incidents of harassment, intimidation, or bullying in a single semester; create a new section of KRS 158 to require that all student data collected that is related to harassment, intimidation, or bullying be subject to the confidentiality provisions of both the federal and the Kentucky Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and afford parents the right to inspect or challenge student records as permitted under those provisions; require individual student data collected that is related to harassment, intimidation, or bullying to be placed in the student's disciplinary record; create a new section of KRS 158 to provide immunity to school employees or students from a cause of action for damages arising from reporting in good faith a student's disruptive or disorderly behavior if school and district procedures are followed regarding the report; make technical corrections; identify this Act as The Golden Rule Act.

HB 91 - AMENDMENTS


     HFA (1, D. Floyd) - Retain original provisions; require local school districts to provide training to victims of bullying for victim empowerment.

     HFA (2, D. Floyd) - Require a local school district to provide information and assistance on how to respond to and avoid instances of bullying to students who have been subjected to bullying.

     HFA (3, M. Cherry) - Include cyberbullying in the definition of student harassment, intimidation, or bullying; include electronic communication as a method of student harassment, intimidation, cyberbullying, or bullying.

     SCS/LM/CI - Replace provisions of the bill with the following: Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to require school personnel to report incidents of student offenses under KRS Chapter 508, criminal harassment, or harassing communications to law enforcement, with a requirement that the incident be investigated; amend KRS 158.444 to create a data collection system for the reporting of incidents of student offenses under KRS Chapter 508, criminal harassment, or harassing communications, with monthly reporting of the number and types of incidents reported; amend KRS 158.148 to require updating of student discipline codes to include material relating the taking, reporting, or investigation of complaints of student offenses under KRS Chapter 508, criminal harassment, or harassing communications, with provision for the protection of complainants and the distribution to the updated provisions of the code to students, parents, and school personnel; amend KRS 525.070 relating to harassment to prohibit certain activity when done by a student; amend KRS 525.080 relating to harassing communication to prohibit certain activity when done by a student.

     CCR - Cannot agree.

     FCCR - Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to require school personnel to report incidents of student felony offenses under KRS Chapter 508 to law enforcement and parents of students involved; amend KRS 158.444 to require a local school district to include in its statewide data report all incidents in which a student has been disciplined by the school for a serious offense, including the nature of the offense, and all incidents in which a student has been charged criminally for any offense identified in KRS Chapter 508 or in Section 4 of this Act that occurred on school premises, on the school bus, or at school functions; require the Kentucky Department of Education to submit to the Office of Education Accountability and the Education Assessment and Accountability Review Committee an annual statistical report, rather than a monthly statistical report, to include the number and types of incidents of violence or assault against school employees and students, possession of guns or other deadly weapons on school property or at school functions, and possession or use of alcohol, prescription drugs, or controlled substances on school property or at school functions; require the annual statistical report to include monthly data and cumulative data for the reporting year; set the reporting period as an academic year, delivered by August 31 of each year; amend KRS 158.148 to require the Kentucky Department of Education, in consultation with various professional agencies, to develop or update as needed, a model policy to be distributed to schools by August 31 of each even-numbered year, beginning August 31, 2008; amend KRS 525.070 to identify specific activities done by a student as harassment; amend KRS 525.080 to identify specific activities done by a student as harassing communication.

     (Prefiled by the sponsor(s).)

     Jan 8-introduced in House
     Jan 10-to Education (H)
     Jan 14-posted in committee; posting waived
     Jan 15-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
     Jan 16-2nd reading, to Rules; floor amendment (1) filed
     Jan 17-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Friday, January 18, 2008
     Jan 28-floor amendments (2) and (3) filed
     Jan 29-3rd reading, passed 96-0 with floor amendments (2) and (3)
     Jan 30-received in Senate
     Feb 1-to Judiciary (S)
     Mar 5-taken from committee; 1st reading; returned to Judiciary (S)
     Mar 6-taken from committee; 2nd reading; returned to Judiciary (S)
     Mar 13-reported favorably, to Rules with Committee Substitute ; posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Thursday, March 13, 2008; 3rd reading, passed 35-0 with Committee Substitute
     Mar 14-received in House; to Rules (H)
     Mar 19-posted for passage for concurrence in Senate Committee Substitute
     Mar 21-House refused to concur in Senate Committee Substitute
     Mar 24-received in Senate
     Mar 27-posted for passage for receding from Senate Committee Substitute ; Senate refused to recede from Committee Substitute ; Conference Committee appointed in Senate
     Mar 28-Conference Committee appointed in House
     Apr 2-Conference Committee report filed in House and Senate; Conference Committee report adopted in House and Senate; Free Conference Committee appointed in House and Senate; Free Conference Committee report filed in House and Senate; Free Conference Committee report adopted in Senate; Bill passed 30-3; bill reconsidered; Bill passed 34-2; received in House; Free Conference Committee report adopted in House; Bill passed 91-4
     Apr 14-enrolled, signed by Speaker of the House
     Apr 15-enrolled, signed by President of the Senate; delivered to Governor; signed by Governor (Acts Ch. 125)

Vote History
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