Cyberbullying: off-campus acts: model policy.

Assembly Member Lowenthal's cyberbullying legislation directs the California Department of Education to develop a model policy addressing off-campus cyberbullying incidents that create hostile educational environments. The policy, to be completed by June 2026, will provide guidance to school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools serving grades 4-12 on responding to severe or pervasive cyberbullying occurring outside school hours.

The model policy framework incorporates existing approaches including Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, restorative justice, trauma-informed practices, and social-emotional learning to help students understand their actions' impacts and repair harm to the school community. While local educational agencies must adopt cyberbullying policies by July 2027, they retain flexibility to either implement the state's model or develop their own with stakeholder input. The legislation specifies that agencies face no liability for declining to address off-campus incidents.

Local educational agencies must post their adopted policies on both district and individual school websites. The bill includes provisions for state reimbursement of implementation costs if determined to be a state mandate by the Commission on State Mandates. This maintains consistency with existing procedures for funding state-required local programs.