School-Family Subgroup Report

School-Family Subgroup Report

Report to the State Anti-HIB Work Group

School-family Communication Sub-group

June 6th 2012

Co-chairs: Adie Simmons (OEO), Pat Smithson (OSPI)

Group members: Novella Frasier, State PTA President/parent, Derek Bryant ,Gig Harbor parent, Brian Hardcastle, Assistant Principal, Tumwater, Trise Moore, Director of Family Community Partnership,Federal Way Public Schools, Denise Fitch, Program supervisor, OSPI.

Parent Focus Groups

The School-family Communication Sub-group set out to get parent input regarding the topic of how school personnel should inform parents and families about anti-HIB policies/procedures and how they should involve parents in improving school climate. The Sub-group conducted 2 focus groups with parents whose students had been HIB victims – four parents attended the first group meeting on Tumwater and seven attended the second in Federal Way. Focus group participants were randomly selected from the Office of the Education Ombudsman’s data base.

Parent participants represented the following school districts: Seattle,Federal Way, , Lake Stevens, Snoqualmie Valley, Kent, Olympia, Gig Harbor, Marysville, Puyallup, Tacoma, Renton.

Parent discussion centered on the following questions and making recommendations:

  • How should school districts inform parents about their anti-HIB policy and procedures?
  • How should school districts involve parents in improving the school climate for students?

Here is an aggregated list of their recommendations for school districts:

  • Set up a 1-800 hot-line number or an app that parents whose kids tell them are being bullied can access to get information, assistance and provide input. Bullying victims can access this too.
  • Mail district policy/procedures and incident report samples to all parentsin the district with a sheet that parents need to return signed.
  • Host community meetings to inform parents and others of proactive measures the school district is taken to prevent HIB or how they will respond if a student is bullied.
  • Create easy-to-find anti-bullyingpages in the school district’s website that includes the district HIB policy, an electronic version of the reporting form (so it can filled out and submitted on-line)and information of what the district will do to respond to an HIB report.
  • Set up a standing school district Parent Policy Council to help with policy implementation and review what works and what doesn’t.
  • Collect data regarding school climate from parents and students via survey monkey.
  • Create anti-HIB posters and place them in all school buildings and district offices.
  • Create a training video for educators.
  • Have students create an anti-HIB video to be shown in the school’s internal circuit frequently.
  • School Districts should assign and train a “Safety Person” in every building for students to talk to. This person would be the anti-HIB expert and act as a victim’s advocate.
  • Incident reports should be placed on student’s records file.
  • Emphasis on positive school climate and adults modeling respect will help to decrease bullying.
  • Host principal and staff forums at all ESDs.
  • Peruse You Tube for videos regarding bullying in school to use in classrooms.
  • Show anti-HIB videos in the school hallways during conferences.
  • Districts should make student safety plans a part of their anti-HIB protocol.

OEO Electronic Newsletter

The May issue of OEO’s monthly electronic newsletter, focused on HIB topics. This electronic publication has a readership of 4,000 parents and educators across the State. Readers provided input and comments on how school districts should inform families about HIB policies and procedures.

Here is their input:

  • Schools do not normally train staff on how to investigate HIB cases. All staff needs to be trained on HIB matters and how to work with families.
  • Districts should make sure that everyone student who has been bullied knows how to fill out an incident report and there is a safe place for collecting those reports.
  • Districts should collect data of their incident reports and the result of the investigations. This will tell them: who are the targets, who are the bullies, who are repeatedoffenders, who are the witnesses and how the situation got resolved.
  • A packet of anti-HIB information should be given to every parent whose student has filled out an incident report. The packet should include directions as to how to and to whom report bullying.
  • Develop anti-bullying materials for parents i.e. posters, handouts, brochures, newsletters, etc.
  • Provide intensive training to compliance officers and inform parents their name and contact information.
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