ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Three years ago, Florida passed a law requiring schools to better identify and report instances of bullying. However, data indicates that schools are providing unreliable data and are not identifying bullying.
For two consecutive years, almost half of the state’s school districts have reported less than 10 bullying complaints, the Miami Herald reports. For example, the state’s largest district, Miami-Dade, reported just seven cases in 2008-09. However, the following year, it reported 802; officials say the first year’s data only reflected instances of bullying where police were involved.
One problem, according to officials, is that filling out the paperwork to report bullying has been confusing .
Florida’s schools reported 6,134 bullying incidents last year. It is estimated that 13 million students are victimized in the United States each year.
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