A Content Analysis of Illinois School Bullying Policies

Overview

Bullying remains a serious concern for children and adolescents. However, each jurisdiction in the United States addresses bullying differently. Some states offer model school policies, require bullying prevention programs, or have specific regulations. While each jurisdiction differs, most states require that school districts implement a bullying policy to investigate and respond to bullying.^[1] The U.S. Department of Education developed a framework of 13 common components of bullying state laws, policies, and regulations to help describe and compare how states address bullying.^[2]

Within the state of Illinois, there are laws and policies addressing bullying. Illinois provides clear definitions for bullying and cyberbullying and includes 12 of the 13 components of state anti-bullying laws and regulations. In its policy toolkit, Illinois provides school district policy handbooks with requirements for how to address bullying.^[3] There are required elements that bullying policies must adhere to and policies are reviewed by the Illinois State Board of Education every two years.^[4] The current study reviewed compliance among a stratified random sample of school districts across Illinois.

Specifically, we examined if a school district included the full requirements of the bullying policy on their school webpage or provided a link to the policy through their school district website. We then looked at this coding (i.e., school included the full policy or not) in relation to rates of bullying within each school district. This study has implications for the importance of school bullying policies and for the implementation of these policies.

Background

In the United States, an estimated one of five high school students report being bullied at school.^[5] Bullying includes repeated, unwanted aggression (that can be in physical, verbal, relational, and cyber forms) from peers with a power imbalance that is perceived or observed.^[6] Bullying victimization can result in serious detriments to one’s social and emotional well-being, physical and mental health, and academic performance.^[7] Thus, it is imperative that schools implement policies and programs that make schools safer and prevent bullying.

Each jurisdiction in the United States addresses bullying differently. Some states offer model school policies, require bullying prevention programs, or have specific regulations. While each jurisdiction differs, most states minimally require that school districts implement a bullying policy to investigate and respond to bullying.^[8] The U.S. Department of Education developed a framework of common components of bullying state laws, policies, and regulations. It included 13 elements to help describe and compare how states address bullying.^[9] For more information on these 13 components and how Illinois addresses them, please visit: https://www.stopbullying.gov/resources/laws/illinois

Common Components of Bullying State Laws:

1. Prohibiting statement- included in Illinois
2. Definition- included in Illinois
3. Scope- included in Illinois
4. Protected groups- included in Illinois
5. District policy requirement- included in Illinois
6. Reporting and investigations- included in Illinois
7. Consequences- included in Illinois
8. Communication of policy- included in Illinois
9. Safeguards and supports- included in Illinois
10. Review and update of local policies- included in Illinois
11. Prevention education- included in Illinois
12. Staff training- included in Illinois
13. Parent engagement- included in Illinois

In Bullying Prevention, Statute 105 ILCS 5/27-23.7 (Education: School Codes), Illinois requires school districts, charter schools, and non-public, non-sectarian schools to educate students, parents, and school personnel on prohibited bullying behaviors, and to create, maintain, and implement a bullying prevention policy. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) provides a toolkit with guidance on policy requirements and these policies are reviewed every two years.^[10]

Current Study

Although Illinois has specific laws to address bullying, it is important to assess school compliance with those laws. The current study assessed a stratified, random sample of 400 schools representing Northern, Southern, and Central regions, as well as Cook County, including Chicago. For each school, we found the bullying policy in either the school handbook or the district handbook. We then examined the policy compliance (i.e., included the full policy with all 12 components in the state statute or not) of schools in relation to rates of bullying.

Method

A list of all schools in Illinois was generated by Illinois Report Card (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). We then removed schools that did not have middle (6-8) or high school grades (9-12). Stratified random sampling was used to select 400 schools from four regions and one county (i.e., 100 schools from the Northern, Central, and Southern regions and 100 schools from Cook County). We searched for each school’s student handbook on their school website. If the school’s handbook did not provide a bullying policy, then we searched the school district’s student handbook.

Regions were based on the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) map (see Figure 1). We examined: 1) Cook County (Region 1); 2) Northern Illinois (Region 2); 3) Central Illinois (Regions 3 and 4, which are North-Central and South-Central); and 4) Southern Illinois (Region 5). For this report, Regions 3 and 4 in the IDHS map were combined into “Central Illinois.”

Figure 1

Regions According to IDHS

Coding System

A content analysis was conducted; each handbook was coded in the following manner:

• 1= the entire bullying policy, with all required statute components was included in the student or policy handbook by the school or school district.
• 2= the entire policy with all statute components was not provided in the handbook by the school or school district (e.g., only parts of it were included, or no policy was publicly available).

Links with Bullying Data

Schools were matched with data from the 2022 Illinois Youth Survey,^[11] a survey conducted statewide every two years. Rates of bullying were calculated based on self-reported responses of students.

Types of Bullying Included

• Verbal bullying. (“During the past 12 months, has another student at school bullied you by calling you names?”)
• Threats of bullying. (“During the past 12 months, has another student at school threatened to hurt you?”)
• Physical bullying. (“During the past 12 months, has another student at school bullied you by hitting, punching, kicking, or pushing you?”)
• Cyber bullying. (“During the past 12 months, has another student at school bullied, harassed, or spread rumors about you on the Internet, social media, or through text messages?”)

Students answered these questions with a yes/no response. These data were aggregated at the school level for analyses.

Results

A total of 400 schools were randomly selected from the four regions in Illinois. There was a mix of middle and high schools within each region (for a total of 41% middle schools and 59% high schools in this sample). As shown in Figure 2, 100 schools were selected from each region.

Figure 2

School Type by Region

Each region represented a diverse number of counties. Across the state, schools from 96 of 102 counties were represented (94%). The number of counties in each region, as well as the number of counties represented in this random selection, are listed in Table 1.

Of the schools that were selected, 149 schools also participated in the Illinois Youth Survey. Depending on the type of bullying, some regions had higher rates of bullying prevalence than others (see Table 2). The regions with the highest and second highest prevalence for each form of bullying are bolded in the table below. Central and Southern Illinois schools reported the highest and second highest rates of bullying across forms.

Of the 400 schools, 241 schools (60%) were in compliance. Their entire bullying policy, with all statute components, was found in the school or district online handbook. However, as shown in Figure 3, 159 schools (40%) had incomplete information and were not in compliance. Schools received an incomplete code when they had only partial information or no policy at all.

Figure 3

Coding Results of Bullying Policies

As shown in Figure 3, among schools that had the full policy in their student handbook (n = 241), the majority had it in the district handbook (n = 169, 70%) compared to those having it in the school handbook (n = 72, 30%). Among schools that did not have the full policy (n = 159), the majority had their incomplete policy information in the school handbook (n = 99, 62%) compared to the district handbook (n = 60, 38%).

Figure 4

Coding Results by School or District Handbook

Coding Results by Region

Among schools in Cook County and the Northern and Southern regions, a greater proportion complied and had the full bullying policy than those that were incomplete (see Figure 5).

Figure 5

Coding Results by Region

Next, we examined differences in the percentages of bullying prevalence by policy coding (i.e., complete versus incomplete). As shown in Figure 6, rates of bullying appeared higher in schools with incomplete bullying policies than in schools with complete bullying policies.

Figure 6

Bullying Prevalence by Policy Coding

We conducted independent sample t-tests to examine if there were statistically significant differences in the mean level rates of bullying prevalence between schools with complete versus incomplete policies. Differences were statistically significant for three of the four types of bullying (see Table 3). School districts with incomplete policies had significantly higher rates of verbal, threat, and cyber bullying compared to school districts with complete policies. There was not a statistically significant difference for rates of physical bullying (p = .151).

Discussion & Implications

Only a small majority of schools in this study included the full bullying policy (i.e., the entire bullying policy, inclusive of all required statute components) in their school or district handbook (60%). This highlights the need for the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to continue working with schools and districts around bullying policy inclusion and implementation. ISBE requires school districts to file their policies annually, and it conducts a review biennially.^[12] More guidance may be necessary, especially at the school level.

When we examined policies by region, Central Illinois schools showed the greatest need for support. These counties constituted the largest proportion of schools not in compliance (i.e., not fully providing the policy with all required statute components in the handbook by the school or school district). Additionally, the youth within these schools reported high rates of all forms of bullying. Percentages of students experiencing bullying was highest in Central Illinois for three of the four forms of bullying compared to other regions.

Finally, when we related our policy coding to rates of bullying, we found that schools with complete bullying policies had significantly lower rates of verbal, threat, and cyber bullying victimization. This means that schools that were missing policy components or did not have a bullying policy were more likely to have higher rates of bullying.

Study findings highlight the importance of schools having full policies included in their school or district handbooks. These policies may help reduce rates of bullying, although more rigorous research testing the direct impact of school policies is necessary. An important limitation to note is that less than half of the randomly selected schools for a policy review also completed the Illinois Youth Survey. Future researchers should consider randomly selecting from school districts that completed the Illinois Youth Survey for more complete data linking policy compliance and rates of bullying. Also, the current study combined NorthCentral and South-Central regions of Illinois as “Central Illinois.” Given that our findings highlighted this region as an area of greater need for supports, future researchers may wish to tease apart these areas for a more nuanced look at areas within Central Illinois. Finally, future research is also needed to assess the difference between having a policy and the implementation of these policies within schools.