Preventing and Addressing Cyberbullying in K-12 Schools

This report examines district initiatives aimed at preventing and addressing cyberbullying. Research indicates effective cyberbullying policies include a definition, communication plan, training and preventive education, response procedures, and counseling referrals for students involved in the incident and their families.

All profiled districts’ websites contain procedures that align with these recommended components, which administrators publish to communicate their cyberbullying initiatives and policies to the district community. By providing the language and protocol to address cyberbullying incidents in district policies, administrators clearly define how the outlined parameters function to maintain a safe and supportive school environment.

Through exploring profiled district initiatives, this brief discusses the key components needed to design and implement comprehensive preventative cyberbullying programs. Download the full report or explore the main takeaways below.

Implement SEL and digital citizenship to prevent cyberbullying

Teachers at District B, District C, and District D frame SEL discussions and activities around the CASEL model and focus on how to practice the five competencies—self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness offline. Digital citizenship instruction reinforces these competencies, emphasizing the importance of interacting respectively and responsibly in virtual environments.

Administrators at these three profiled districts report that combining these two initiatives both prevents students from harming each other online and equips students to handle cyberbullying incidents responsibly, thus promoting a positive school culture. To ease the implementation of these two initiatives, teachers at District B and District C use lesson plans and training modules from a vendor—Common Sense.

Build a sustainable social-emotional learning strategy: Use our toolkit to assess and aid the implementation of social-emotional learning (SEL) initiatives in place across your district.

Form extracurricular programs for peer-to-peer training on prevention

To maximize student understanding and engagement in prevention strategies, administrators at District A, District C, and District E operate extracurricular programs that educate and empower students to combat cyberbullying together. While each program operates differently, all three of their mission statements center around fostering a safe, supportive, and positive school culture where students feel a sense of belonging and part of a community.

Contacts at these profiled districts report that creating peer-to-peer training programs promotes student leadership and autonomy in curbing cyberbullying and similar social issues affecting students.

Connect with students in need of support

In standardized mental health check-ins, identify students in need of support and determine if cyberbullying contributed to their distress.

Twice a month, teachers at District D gather responses via an online form that asks students how they feel that day. If students indicate feeling unhappy, teachers connect with them or refer them to school counselors. If cyberbullying caused the student’s distress, these check-ins allow teachers to learn of those cyberbullying incidents. Further, the two-week interval between the check-ins grants teachers time to intervene as needed before collecting a new set of data.

Apply multi-tiered remediation strategies

These strategies aim to focus on preventing future cyberbullying incidents instead of relying on punitive or exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspension). To effectively respond to cyberbullying incidents, administrators should implement tiered remediation strategies that promote student accountability and community building.

Contacts at District B, District C, District D, and District E report a successful response to cyberbullying incidents focuses on corrective behavior for both the target(s) and aggressor(s) to uncover the underlying intent behind the actions, address the emotional and mental impact, and prevent repetition. Multi-tiered systems allow administrators to focus on the needs of each student involved and issue an individualized course of action that prevents repetition.

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