Supporting the ‘Jessica Logan Act’ in Ohio

Supporting the ‘Jessica Logan Act’ in Ohio

Ohio has state legislation in place to bring awareness to bullying, harassment, and intimidation with the goal of creating a safer environment for all students.

Keeping students safe from online dangers is crucial, especially as they use technology for online learning and socializing. Ohio’s anti-bullying laws help protect students against risks encountered online, at school, or during a school sponsored activity. Due to increased internet use amongst students and a rise in online harassment, Ohio has strengthened its law to address cyberbullying in the Jessica Logan Act (H.B. 116).

What is bullying?

Ohio’s state legislation (H.B. 276), defines bullying as, “harassment, intimidation, or bullying as an intentional written, verbal, or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once and the behavior both (1) causes mental or physical harm to the other student, and (2) is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for the other student.”

The Jessica Logan Act expands the definition to include cyberbullying by “specifically including acts committed through the use of a cell phone, computer, pager, personal communication device, or other electronic communication device.”

What does this legislation require schools to do?

“Ohio schools must establish a policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation, or bullying [which shall be developed] in consultation with parents, school employees, school volunteers, students, and community members. The policy requires school districts, community schools, STEM schools, and education service centers to:

Expand their existing student anti-bullying policies to cover incidents of harassment, intimidation, or bullying that occur on school buses.
Update anti-bullying policies to prohibit harassment, intimidation, or bullying by electronic means (cyberbullying).
Specify that anti-bullying policies must include: (1) a statement providing for possible suspension of students who engage in cyberbullying, (2) means for making anonymous reports of incidents, (3) disciplinary procedures for students who make false reports, and (4) strategies for protecting other persons (in addition to the victim, as in pre-existing law) from harassment or retaliation after a report has been made.
Specify that the process that must be developed for educating students about its anti-bullying policy, if state or federal funds are appropriated for that purpose, must consist of annual, age-appropriate instruction that includes a discussion of consequences for violating the policy.
Make available to students and parents an explanation of the seriousness of cyberbullying (Legislative Service Commission -2- Sub. H.B. 116) and annually issue a written anti-bullying policy statement to be sent home to parents.
Specify that it is a student’s ‘custodial’ parent or guardian who must be notified of and have access to reports of a bullying incident.
Provide training on their anti-bullying policies as a part of the in-service training required for all teachers, administrators, counselors, nurses, and school psychologists.
Grant residency status, for purposes of in-state tuition, to students who completed their homeschooling in Ohio and re-establish domicile in Ohio to enroll in a state institution of higher education, regardless of their residence prior to enrollment.”

Education solutions that support this law

Find out how our education solutions support this law, helping to create a safer online environment for all students.

NetSupport School – In-school classroom management

For over 32 years, NetSupport School is the market-leading multi-platform Classroom Management software solution for schools, supporting teachers with a wealth of assessment, monitoring, collaboration and eSafety features – to support effective learning in a safe environment.

Authorized/restricted website and application lists can ensure students are focused and help minimize student distraction and access to inappropriate content.
Monitor students’ current Internet use by viewing real-time thumbnails of their PCs to ensure they are on task – plus, teachers can create a record of Internet history use to be printed or saved for later reference.
Real-time keyboard monitoring provides a simple view of each active student and their current keyboard input – a crucial aspect in detecting e-safety issues and can be used to identify inappropriate behavior.
Teachers can show their screen or a student’s screen to demonstrate positive digital interactions while promoting appropriate technology use, helping to create good digital citizens.
Student feedback mode allows teachers to gauge students’ wellbeing and get insight into whether they need extra support.
The Technician Console allows schools to apply ‘always on’ internet, application, printing policies and more.

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classroom.cloud - Online teaching and learning

classroom.cloud provides a range of features to help teachers manage and control online class behavior (helping to keep students focused and safe), plus a set of simple yet effective teaching tools to support engaging and meaningful learning – whether it’s taking place in school or remotely at home.

Teachers can show their screen to demonstrate positive digital interactions while promoting appropriate technology use, helping to create good digital citizens.
Monitor students’ screens to see what they’re typing and who they’re collaborating with in real time to ensure they’re on task and remain focused on the lesson.
‘Allowed’ and ‘restricted’ website/application lists help teachers provide a safe learning environment by ensuring students can only access relevant websites and are shielded from unsuitable content during lesson time.
Keyword monitoring (powered by over 14,000 phrases covering a range of eSafety topics) helps to provide insight into trending issues – plus, schools and districts can also add their own keywords.
Word cloud of trending topics helps teachers to quickly spot trends and identify potential risks – with detailed reporting to further protect students.
Identify and support vulnerable students with the contextual intelligence Risk Index. This assesses the context and history of a student’s current activities (the device used, time of day, websites visited, and applications used) and considers them alongside any previous alerts they may have triggered.
Keeping track of events is super easy, as all new events are flagged as being ‘new’ and progress can be marked to ensure all supporting staff are aware.
Choose your monitoring settings to reduce false alarms by excluding certain applications and websites (including Microsoft Teams) from being monitored to focus on more high-risk areas.
Keeping things super secure is a breeze with two levels of staff access to ensure only authorized users have access and control over online safety settings.
Set monitoring hours to specify when students are being monitored, for example, only during school hours, at all times when using their school devices, or only on the school network.

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NetSupport DNA – IT Management with school-wide eSafety

In addition to providing IT Management tools, NetSupport DNA also includes a built-in internet safety toolkit as standard to help enhance schools’ internet safety policies. It provides the tools needed to identify students at risk, prevent them being exposed to inappropriate online content, encourage greater digital citizenship, and fulfil a school’s internet safety duties – all in line with ISTE guidance.

Keyword and phrase monitoring tool allows schools to quickly gain insights into what students are typing, searching for, or copying online – and it’s available in multiple language packs.
Innovative word cloud helps to easily highlight trending topics across the school – while appropriate staff are alerted through email, real-time pop-ups or summary reports, prompting them to review the triggered event.
Contextual intelligence-based Risk Index automatically flags high-risk events and vulnerable students, creating a risk index number for each event, based on sophisticated contextual intelligence risk analysis.
‘History of Concerns’ is available to help identify students that were flagged as vulnerable or at-risk, ensuring they have extra support.
Report a concern allows students to reach out for support in confidence to a teacher they trust, and teachers can also add any concerns they have about a student.
Age-appropriate Internet monitoring tools ensure students are using the Internet properly with age-appropriate profiles – creating a safer Internet with parameters to allow students the flexibility to learn about the online world in safety.
Apps and games can also be blocked or restricted to help schools add an extra layer of security and keep students on task. The application metering reports reveal application use, helping to ensure usage complies with school policy.