To adequately create policies to prevent bullying, state legislation frequently begins by defining what exactly bullying means. The most significant recent addition to the typical definition of bullying involves "cyber bullying" via electronic communication. Pennsylvania's legislation, for example, includes the word "electronic" in the first line of its definition. Texas names specific media, such as the Internet and text messaging in defining bullying. Recent legislation in many states focus on cyber bullying because it is often anonymous and therefore especially prevalent and hurtful.
Because schools in the United States are typically run at the local level, most pieces of legislation leave the role of formulating specific bullying rules and procedures to the school districts. The State of Connecticut's Act Concerning the Strengthening of School Bullying Laws, for example, requires each school district to create procedures reporting and responding to acts of bullying. While Connecticut requires each district to submit its plan to the state Department of Education, some other states, like Oklahoma, don't mandate that their education department play a role in district policy development.
Most school bullying laws also include a clause that requires school employees to report incidents of bullying when they see them. North Carolina's School Prevention Act mandates that all school employees report bullying. Importantly, the bill also requires employees to report incidents of bullying between employees or between students and employees, to create a completely bullying-free atmosphere that extends to staff and students alike. Other states, like Oklahoma, passed laws with similar requirements.
To ensure educators have the most up-to-date information and research about bullying, most laws also require or suggest some sort of teacher and staff training on bullying. Both Connecticut and North Carolina, among other states, require staff training on bullying at regular intervals. This includes full disclosure of any changes in a district's bullying policy. While some states might not explicitly require by law that districts train their staffs on bullying, many individual districts create such requirements as part of their comprehensive anti-bullying strategy.