Many Massachusetts school districts are failing to investigate allegations of bullying or implement safety measures for students as required by state law, according to a new report from the Northeastern University School of Law.
The report highlighted dozens of cases from 2024 and 2025 where local schools failed to investigate bullying complaints in time or at all, while often leaving students who were the focus of the allegations without any internal support.
The report, presented last week to education advocates, found the state Department of Early and Secondary Education is plagued by monthslong delays responding to complaints from parents or caregivers. The report also revealed troubling disparities, including students of color and those with disabilities being more likely to be victims of alleged abuse.
The findings are adding to concerns among child advocates that the state is failing to protect children more than 15 years after the state passed a law following the suicide deaths of two young people linked to bullying. The law, widely hailed as the nation’s most ambitious antibullying law, mandated annual training of all school staff and curriculum for all schoolchildren aimed at recognizing, reporting and stopping bullying.
John McKenna, who teaches special education at UMass-Lowell, told GBH News he hoped the new report would spur changes both in local schools and at the state level.
“All kids should be able to feel safe … and fully benefit from the academic and social activities at school,’’ he said. “There does need to be a system of oversight and compliance that’s accessible. Right now in Massachusetts, we still really don’t have that.”
State officials from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, known as DESE, said they have been working to improve oversight of bullying prevention by increasing staffing and drafting new procedures for complaints.
“DESE is committed to working with districts to create welcoming and inclusive schools for all students, as well as holding districts accountable when they fall short,” spokeswoman Jacqueline Reis said in an emailed statement.
The study was conducted by students at Northeastern University School of Law in collaboration with Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a Boston-based nonprofit focused on removing barriers to education.
Diana Santiago, legal director for the children’s advocacy group, said she will consider using aspects of the Northeastern study to press for changes in the 2010 state law that the group helped create. Among recommendations, the report proposed improving training for school staff and setting timing requirements to support victims.
“It just isn’t fair that it should fall to families to raise these issues of noncompliance when the districts should be following the law,” Santiago told GBH News.
State law defines bullying as any repeated hostile behavior against a student that interferes with their learning or violates their rights. The law includes not just physical bullying but also written, verbal and cyberbullying.
Schools are required to investigate allegations and inform parents of alleged victims and perpetrators. Each school is also mandated to adopt their own antibullying policies and plans, including how they will protect students who have been targeted by bullies.
But many schools are not complying with the law. Northeastern found dozens of examples, including a case in Marblehead’s middle school in 2024, where a student with emotional and learning disabilities was allegedly harassed repeatedly with gay slurs and profanity.
The school determined it was not bullying. But the report noted after a parent complained to the state education department’s oversight arm, the Problem Resolution System, state investigators decided the situation did meet the definitions of bullying and required action.
Marblehead school officials did not respond to a request for comment. But the report said the district agreed to retrain its middle school administrators on its bullying procedures. It also was ordered by the state to develop a safety plan for the student and update its bullying prevention policies.
Parents or caregivers can file complaints with the state’s Problem Resolution System if they feel that their local schools are failing to address an allegation of bullying or comply with other mandates of the state law. But the wait for students in general education can take five to nine months to complete, the report found.
During a presentation of the report last week, Northeastern law students said these delays, “undermine remedies for students and erode trust amongst parents.”
The report also criticized the state bullying oversight process for being overly complex for many parents to understand.
“Many caregivers retain advocates, including attorneys, to help them navigate it,” the report stated. “This tends to limit PRS (Problem Resolution System) access to families with higher socioeconomic status.”
The report also questioned whether state data is accurately capturing all the problems.
During the 2023 and 2024 school years, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education noted local districts reported more than 8,000 bullying allegations each year. That amounts to about 1% of the state’s public school population.
But a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 16% of students in Massachusetts reported having been bullied on school property in 2023, the report said.
“That gap raises a question: Is bullying rare, or are our systems failing to capture it?” said Mark Tagliamonte, one of the Northeastern students who helped draft the report.
Are you a parent or student who has a story to tell about bullying in the schools? Please reach out to us at investigations@wgbh.org.
