Incident Reporting Guidance

Incident Reporting & Incident Reporting Forms

Guidance

Any student who believes he or she has been the target of unresolved, severe, or persistent harassment, intimidation, or bullying, or any other person in the school community who observes or receives notice that a student has or may have been the target of unresolved, severe, or persistent harassment, intimidation, or bullying, may report incidents verbally or in writing to any staff member.

1.All staff, students, and parents need to know where to easily find the district’s Incident Reporting Formform, how to complete it and where to return it to report harassment, intimidation or bullying.

2.The sample Incident Reporting Form on the OSPI web sitemay be modified and adapted for a specific district or school. However, modifications should not so much that it inhibits actual reporting.

NB: An email, phone call, letter, conversation or other medium of reporting might also be considered an “Incident Report” for purposes of investigation and intervention.

3.Every staff member, including subs, temps or volunteers, needs to know how to intervene in HIB, support targeted students and complete Incident Reporting Forms if necessary.

4.Parents/families and students also need to know where to find and how to complete an Incident Reporting Form.

5.In a school with a well implemented bullying prevention-intervention program, there would likely be very little HIB to report. .

6.In such a school, staff would know policies & procedures, and would use appropriate on-the-spot, classroom and school-wide interventions.

7.In that school, very few Incident Report Forms would likely go to the principal/designee.

8.However, if situations are severe, persistent, can’t be resolved, or the staff person doesn’t know what to do next, then the incident and the Incident Reporting Form should be referred to the principal or the principal designee.

9.When an incident gets to the unresolved/severe/persistent threshold, and goes to the principal/designee, it requires an investigation.

10.The principal/designee then has two (2) school days to contact families to let them know, five (5) school days to complete the investigation, two (2) school days after the completed investigation to contact families and inform them of the outcome, and within five (5) more school days, to implement whatever corrective actions are warranted.

11.NB: Incident Reporting Forms can also be submitted anonymously. Gather whatever information might be useful for future reference. Investigations might take a very short time.

Parents/families can also submit an Incident Report Form. If this is the case, an investigation is in order.

12.The compliance officer should collect copies of the Incident Reporting Forms, whether they result in an investigation or not.