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Each October, individuals and organizations nationwide work together to raise awareness of bullying during , an initiative of the PACER Center. Whether you are an educator, education leader, parent, or other community member, you can take action to prevent bullying and harassment by fostering a culture of caring and respect in your school, home, and community. Use the resources below to support your efforts.Ìý

Resources for Educators

The resources from StopBullying.gov address detection, preventive strategies, and effective responses. How do you know if a child is being bullied? Keep an eye out for these . Need to know what actions to take? Review these and . "Bullying: A Module for Teachers," from The American Psychological Association, includes a useful tip sheet, "," that addresses beliefs about school bullying not supported by current research.ÌýIt's also important to knowÌýthe bullying hot spots within schools in order to prevent it.

Bullying Prevention Curriculum

Visit the websites below to find videos, activities, and lesson plans you can use in the classroom:

• and from Not in Our School (in partnership with ).
• from Teaching Tolerance.
• from the Anti-Defamation League.
• from Facing History and Ourselves.
• from Common Sense Media.
• from Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
• from teacher.org.

For more planning tips, the following Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú posts are good to reference:

• Research-Backed Approaches to Preventing Bullying, by Todd Finley (2016)
• Teaching Students How to Confront Insults, by Richard Curwin (2015)
• Leverage Inquiry Projects to Combat Bullying, by Suzie Boss (2015)
• Tool or Weapon? Addressing Cyberhate in the Classroom, by Jinnie Spiegler (2015)

Student Voice and Leadership

PACER’s five-step guide, , provides helpful information on working with students to plan bullying prevention events. The PACER Center's web pages on and showcase examples of actions taken by students and schools to prevent bullying.

For more inspiration, check out these examples of student voice and leadership from Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú:

• Empowering Students to Curb Bullying, byÌýJinnie Spiegler (2017)
• 5-Minute Film Festival: Turning Bystanders Into Upstanders, by Amy Erin Borovoy (2015)
• Students Break the System of Bullying in English Class, by Rebecca Grodner (2014)
• Bullying Prevention: Students Share Dos and Don’ts, by Maurice Elias (2014)

Resources for Parents

"" from NSCC includes guidelines for parents to help children feel safe and create positive environments for children. To better understand what parents should expect from schools and what parents can do, read "What Can Be Done to Stop Bullying?" from NBC News' Education Nation.Ìý

Communicating With Schools

GreatSchool's "" details specific questions parents can ask principals or other school leaders about how a school handles issues like social and emotional learning; teaching respect; and preventing bullying, harassment, and exclusion. The "" from Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center contains "" for parents needing to communicate with schools about bullying incidents, including templates for parents of children with special needs.

Cyberbullying

What are some ways you can initiate conversations with your children about cyberbullying?

Common Sense Media's provides comprehensive parent guides on everything parents need to know, organized developmentally by age and stage. If you are a parent of a teen, you may also want to review their "," newly updated for 2016. In addition, the downloadable tip sheet, "," from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the "" page from StopBullying.gov include advice on specific actions parents and caregivers can take.

For more ways to take action against cyberbullying, take a look at these resources from Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú:

• Online Pressures and Unhappy Children, by Amy Williams (2016)
• 4 Digital Safety Tips for Summer Break, by Josh Work (2015)
• What Bullying Looks Like in the Digital Age and How to Prevent It, by Amy Williams (2014)

School-Wide and District-Wide Approaches

Consider scheduling a staff viewing of the film "." has developed a that includes an in-school public viewing license, as well as a number of helpful tools and resources, including "." You can gather information to assess your current school climate with a tool such as the from the NSCC. There are several websites that have compiled examples of successful anti-bullying approaches. Character Education Partnership has collected examples of promising anti-bullying practices from various schools in ""; a searchable database includes more anti-bullying ideas that have been successful at other schools. The website for ASCD's The Whole Child initiative includes . Finally, check out "Successful Community Efforts to Prevent Bullying" where Becki Cohn-Vargas shares anti-bullying efforts thatÌýinclude students, faculty, parents, and the larger community.

Restorative Justice

Restorative-justice approaches focus on repairing damage, rather than on blame or punishment. In "Restorative Justice: Resources for Schools," Matt Davis has collected several guides for implementing restorative-justice programs and links to helpful resources and articles. "Using Dialogue Circles to Support Classroom Management," a resource from Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú's Schools That Work, explores how dialogue circles, as part of the restorative-justice program at Glenview Elementary School in Oakland, California, have helped to build collaboration, respect, and positive behavior among students. Another useful source of information on this topic is the .

For more school-wide strategies, check out these other posts from Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú:

• Hard Steps Not Yet Taken: Ending Bullying in Our Schools, by Maurice Elias (2015)
• 8 Tips for Schools Interested in Restorative Justice, by Fania Davis (2014)
• Upstander Schools: What's "Othering" Got to Do With It? by Mishy Lesser (2014)
• 6 Essential R’s to Reduce School-Wide Bullying, by Michele Borba (2014)
• 5 Ways to Stop Bullying and Move Into Action, by Becki Cohn-Vargas (Updated 2014)

Social and Emotional Learning

Organizations such as the have a number of well-researched reports and other resources on their website to combat school bullying. Download and read the full 2009 CASEL report, "."

Cultivating Empathy

Programs like that teach perspective-taking skills and empower children to fight cruelty with empathy and kindness have shown effectiveness in decreasing aggression and increasing pro-social behaviors among students. The Empathy 101 videos, tips, and school examples from include ideas for cultivating empathy in the classroom and at home. For more ideas about how you can foster environments of kindness, empathy, and connection, both inside and outside the classroom, check out VideoAmy's "Five-Minute Film Festival: Nine Videos on Kindness, Empathy, and Connection" and Lisa Currie's "Why Teaching Kindness in Schools Is Essential to Reduce Bullying" from Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú. Parents may want to explore Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú's curated list of blogs, articles, and videos for parents about fostering kindness and empathy (as well as resilience, perseverance, and focus) in children: "A Parent's Resource Guide to Social and Emotional Learning."

Diversity and Inclusion

StopBullying.gov describes for bullying, including information about at-risk populations such as and . At the website for GLSEN, you'll find a wealth of for addressing anti-LGBT bullying and harassment; make sure to download GLSEN's report "."ÌýThe from The BULLY Project includes resources for educators and parents related to children with special needs.

For more ideas on addressing issues of diversity and inclusion, join the conversation in Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú's community. Conversations such as "Bullying and Students With Disabilities," "Please Call Me Jason: Supporting Our Transgender Students," and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell in Our Schools" are good places to start. Also see these posts on Â鶹´«Ã½Èë¿Ú:

• Schools Struggle to Support LGBTQ Students, by Emelina Minero (2018)
• How to Respond When Students Use Hate Speech, byÌýRichard Curwin (2017)
• Rejecting the ‘Mean Girl’ Framework, byÌýLaura Thomas (2017)
• What Is Identity-Based Bullying—and How Can I Stop It?, byÌýJinnie Spiegler (2016)
• Heteronormativity in Schools, by Jason Flom (2014)
• Helping Students With Identity Secrets, by Richard Curwin (2014)
• Silence is Not Golden: Speaking Up and Coming Out as a Teacher, by Christopher R. Friend (2014)
• Addressing Bullying of Students With Disabilities, by Maurice Elias (2012)

Suicide Prevention

"," an issue brief from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), discusses the relationship between bullying and suicide among children and adolescents, including recommendations, with a special focus on LGBT youth. Initiatives like focus on crisis and suicide prevention among kids in the high-risk LGBT student population. All teachers should review the .