I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4756 

To require reporting of bullying to appropriate authorities and assist with 

equal protection claims against entities who fail to respond appropriately 

to bullying, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 29, 2014 

Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself and Mr. MICHAUD) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

A BILL 

To require reporting of bullying to appropriate authorities 

and assist with equal protection claims against entities 

who fail to respond appropriately to bullying, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bullying Redress and 

5 Verified Enforcement Act’’ or the ‘‘BRAVE Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 

2 Title IX of the Elementary and Secondary Education 

3 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.) is amended by in4 serting after section 9534 the following: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 9534A. BULLYING. 

6 ‘‘(a) OFFICIAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 

7 ‘‘(1) REPORT OF BULLYING.— 

8 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara9 graph (B), a local educational agency shall re10 quire an employee of the local educational agen11 cy who becomes aware of bullying to report to 

12 the individual designated under paragraph (2) 

13 by not later than 7 business days after becom14 ing aware of such bullying a description of— 

15 ‘‘(i) the acts that constituted bullying; 

16 ‘‘(ii) if the bullying included a ref17 erence to or was motivated by an actual or 

18 perceived protected characteristic of the 

19 victim, such protected characteristic; and 

20 ‘‘(iii) the response to such bullying by 

21 employees of the local educational agency. 

22 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding sub23 paragraph (A), in the case of an employee of a 

24 local educational agency who is informed of bul25 lying by a student attending a school served by 

26 the local educational agency, but the student reVerDate Mar 15 2010 22:09 Jun 03, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4756.IH H4756

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1 quests that such bullying not be reported by the 

2 employee, the employee shall not be required to 

3 report such bullying under subparagraph (A). 

4 ‘‘(2) RECEIPT OF REPORTS.—A local edu5 cational agency shall designate an individual to re6 ceive reports of bullying and shall inform each em7 ployee of the local educational agency of the contact 

8 information of the individual so designated. 

9 ‘‘(3) REPORTING TO THE LOCAL EDUCATIONAL

10 AGENCY.—Not later than 60 days after the date of 

11 the receipt of a report under paragraph (1), the in12 dividual designated under paragraph (2) shall in13 form all employees of the local educational agency of 

14 the acts described and the response by employees of 

15 the local educational agency and shall exclude any 

16 personally identifiable information of any student in17 volved. 

18 ‘‘(4) PUBLICLY AVAILABLE QUARTERLY RE19 PORTS.— 

20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara21 graph (B), a local educational agency shall pub22 lish and make available to all students served 

23 by the local educational agency and parents of 

24 such students a report on a quarterly basis 

25 that— 


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1 ‘‘(i) summarizes the bullying reported 

2 since the previous quarterly report; 

3 ‘‘(ii) summarizes the responses by em4 ployees of the local educational agency to 

5 such bullying; 

6 ‘‘(iii) excludes any personally identifi7 able information of any student involved; 

8 and 

9 ‘‘(iv) informs the public of the right to 

10 file a complaint under subsection (b)(2). 

11 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—A local educational 

12 agency shall not publish a report under sub13 paragraph (A) in a case in which such publica14 tion would reveal personally identifiable infor15 mation about an individual student. 

16 ‘‘(5) ANNUAL POLICY REVIEW.—Each local 

17 educational agency shall review, on an annual basis, 

18 the policies on bullying for schools served by the 

19 local educational agency. 

20 ‘‘(b) FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT.— 

21 ‘‘(1) CONDITION OF FEDERAL FUNDING.—As a 

22 condition of receiving funds under this Act, a local 

23 educational agency shall— 


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1 ‘‘(A) annually certify to the Secretary in 

2 writing that such local educational agency has 

3 complied with this section; and 

4 ‘‘(B) together with such certification, sub5 mit the 4 most recent quarterly reports pub6 lished preceding such certification pursuant to 

7 subsection (a)(4). 

8 ‘‘(2) FEDERAL RECEIPT OF COMPLAINTS.—The 

9 Assistant Secretary who serves as the head of the 

10 Office of Civil Rights for the Department of Edu11 cation shall— 

12 ‘‘(A) establish a procedure for a student of 

13 a local educational agency, a parent of such 

14 student, or another appropriate individual to 

15 submit to the Assistant Secretary a complaint 

16 relating to a failure to comply with this section; 

17 and 

18 ‘‘(B) publish such procedure on the Inter19 net website of the Department of Education. 

20 ‘‘(3) FEDERAL RESPONSE TO COMPLAINTS.— 

21 After receiving a complaint pursuant to paragraph 

22 (2), the Assistant Secretary shall— 

23 ‘‘(A) investigate such complaint to deter24 mine if a local educational agency failed to com25 ply with this section; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) if such local educational agency is de2 termined under subparagraph (A) to have failed 

3 to comply with this section— 

4 ‘‘(i) withhold further payment of 

5 funds under this Act to such local edu6 cational agency; 

7 ‘‘(ii) issue a complaint to compel com8 pliance of such local educational agency 

9 through a cease and desist order; or 

10 ‘‘(iii) enter into a compliance agree11 ment with such local educational agency to 

12 bring it into compliance with this section, 

13 in same manner as the Secretary is authorized 

14 to take such actions under sections 455, 456, 

15 and 457, respectively, of the General Education 

16 Provisions Act. 

17 ‘‘(4) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

18 ABOUT COMPLAINTS.—Not later than 60 days after 

19 receiving a complaint pursuant to subsection (b)(2), 

20 the Assistant Secretary shall make available on the 

21 Internet website of the Department of Education in22 formation about such complaint, which shall— 

23 ‘‘(A) if the bullying included a reference to 

24 or was motivated by an actual or perceived proVerDate Mar 15 2010 22:09 Jun 03, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4756.IH H4756

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1 tected characteristic of the victim, include a de2 scription of such protected characteristic; and 

3 ‘‘(B) exclude any personally identifiable in4 formation of any student involved. 

5 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

6 ‘‘(1) BULLYING.—The term ‘bullying’ means 

7 any severe, pervasive, or persistent electronic, writ8 ten, verbal, or physical act by one student or a 

9 group of students toward another student during 

10 school hours and on school premises, or at a school11 sponsored activity outside of school hours, that 

12 causes— 

13 ‘‘(A) harm to or reasonable concern for the 

14 person, property, or mental health of such other 

15 student; or 

16 ‘‘(B) such other student to withdraw from 

17 or avoid benefitting from the services, activities, 

18 or opportunities offered by the school. 

19 ‘‘(2) PROTECTED CHARACTERISTIC.—The term 

20 ‘protected characteristic’ includes race, color, sex, re21 ligion, national origin, disability, gender, gender 

22 identity, and sexual orientation.’’. 

Æ 


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