CHICAGO – Today, Governor JB Pritzker signed State Representative Margaret Croke’s legislation to strengthen and expand Illinois’ cyberbullying statute into law. The legislation, which passed out of the General Assembly during the spring session with strong bipartisan support, updates existing cyberbullying statute to expand the definition of bullying to add additional protected characteristics, create new requirements for the Illinois State Board of Education to collect data about the issue, and guarantee parents and guardians are notified about incidents within 24 hours when it occurs.
“Our students deserve policies around cyberbullying that reflect the reality we live in today, and that’s why I championed legislation this session to update our existing statute and improve protections for our young people. I am so proud to see this important bill signed into law by Governor Pritzker today and am grateful for the strong bipartisan support it received earlier this spring from my colleagues in the House and Senate,” said State Representative Margaret Croke. “We know that cyberbullying can have a huge impact on youth mental health, and now we can help our institutions better address instances of cyberbullying, and understand when and why they occur so we can prevent them in the first place. Today is a good day for our students, parents, and schools, and I look forward to seeing this new law’s impact in the years to come.”
Among other components, the legislation expands the definition of bullying to add academic status, pregnancy, and homelessness as additional protected characteristics. It also requires the Illinois State Board of Education to collect annual data reports from all school districts, both public and private, that use non-identifiable data to report each bullying incident and the action taken. This reporting requirement would be in place for six years. It also requires schools to notify parents within 24 hours of a bullying incident as well as all threats, suggestions, or instances of self-harm as the result of bullying involving their child – whether they are the bully or the victim – and requires the school to exhaust all notification methods in those 24 hours.
As social media has grown in usage, it has contributed to worsening mental health among adolescents — especially among teenage girls, and studies from Pew Research show that nearly half of all teenagers have faced bullying or harassment online. Suicide has become the second-highest cause of death in the country among people ages 15-24, showing the importance of ensuring our policies can help keep our students safe.
The legislation goes into effect immediately.