Arlington Public Schools is implementing a modernized bullying-prevention curriculum beginning next month.
The curriculum, which rolls out on Oct. 1, will include the following lesson topics.
- Understanding Bullying Behavior: Definitions, types, impact and APS Student Code of Conduct
- Understanding Identity: Concept of identity, recognizing and valuing similarities and differences
- Practicing Upstanding Behavior: Reporting bullying and strategies for being an upstander
“We heard from parents and students that this is a need for us to provide more instruction on, more resources,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said at a School Board meeting on Thursday.
The coursework aligns with requirements from the Virginia Department of Education, school officials said.
School counselors, psychologists and social workers will be responsible for delivering the lessons to students, Durán said.
In the school system’s 2025 Your Voice Matters student survey, only 57% of 4,200 responding students reported that, when they had been bullied at school, an adult at the school did something to solve the problem. And only 49% of total students said that if they experienced bullying, they had bothered to report the matter.
APS officials say that, according to Virginia law:
“Bullying is any aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate or humiliate the victim; involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim; and is repeated over time or causes severe emotional trauma. ‘Bullying’ includes cyber bullying. ‘Bullying’ does not include ordinary teasing, horseplay, argument or peer conflict.”
Also at the Thursday meeting, School Board members set in place the 2025-26 audit program. Board member Mary Kadera noted one of the areas that auditor Alice Blount-Fenney will explore is consistency in applying student-conduct requirements.
“Bullying will be one piece of that,” Kadera said.
“The fact that this is part of our audit activities underscores the seriousness with which the School Board takes those concerns,” she added.
