Dignity for All Students Act A Must Read by All Parents

Please let all of your friends know about this:

 

The New York State
Dignity for All Students Act (Dignity Act):5‐24‐12
Guide for School Administrators &Faculty

 

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/dignityact/documents/DignityForAllStudentsActGuidance_POSTING.pdf

As of July 1st 2012, the Dignity for all Students Act is being enforced in New York State. I have attached the 80 page document which all parents should make them selves familiar with. Below I have touched on the general essence, but it should be read buy all. It encompasses many slurs that occur in school everyday to all types of children not just the obvious abuses. The law covers everyone and is intended to keep all children in a safe environment at school, free of name calling, sarcastic remarks, or more physical actions, from other children as well as teachers, administrators in short, anyone employed in the school district. Please make sure to discuss this with your children as well, not just from a victim's point of view, but make sure they are aware that if they are trading nasty things about someone in their class and that child hears it, he/she can make a complaint that will need to be investigated, and reports must be filed, by law. While I know that here in the Plainview OldBethpage neighborhood, there is no child or teacher that would ever ever do this, but I think it's not a bad topic for discussion anyway. We all know that kids, parents and teachers, not meaning to be, can be very mean, sarcastic or demeaning to or about other children. It is a call for all to step our of our petty, ridiculing and teasing ways.

Overview:
In all cases, schools should have well-publicized policies prohibiting harassment and
procedures for reporting and resolving complaints that will alert the school to incidents
of harassment.
When responding to harassment, a school must take immediate and appropriate action
to investigate or otherwise determine what occurred. The specific steps in a school’s
investigation will vary depending upon the nature of the allegations, the source of the
complaint, the age of the student or students, involved, the size and administrative
structure of the school, and other factors. In all cases, however, the inquiry should be
prompt, thorough, and impartial.
If an investigation reveals that discriminatory harassment has occurred, a school must
take prompt and appropriate steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment,
eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from
recurring. These duties are a school’s responsibility even if the misconduct is also
covered by an anti-bullying policy, regardless of whether a student has complained,
asked the school to take action, or identified the harassment as a form of discrimination.
Appropriate steps to end harassment may include separating the accused harasser and
the target, providing counseling for the target and/or harasser, or taking disciplinary
action against the harasser. These steps should not penalize the student who was
harassed. For example, any separation of the target from an alleged harasser should be
designed to minimize the burden on the target’s educational program (e.g., not requiring
the target to change his or her class schedule).
In addition, depending on the extent of the harassment, the school may need to provide
training or other interventions not only for the perpetrators, but also for the larger school
community, to ensure that all students, their families, and school staff can recognize
harassment if it recurs and know how to respond. A school also may be required to
provide additional services to the student who was harassed in order to address the
effects of the harassment, particularly if the school initially delays in responding or
responds inappropriately or inadequately to information about harassment. An effective
response also may need to include the issuance of new policies against harassment
and new procedures by which students, parents, and employees may report allegations
of harassment (or wide dissemination of existing policies and procedures), as well as
wide distribution of the contact information for the district’s Title IX and Section 504/Title
II coordinators.

Suzala