Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) Translated Resources

On August 31, 2016 Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia released a joint statement to assist schools and districts in complying with the New York State Dignity for All Students Act (DASA). Please visit the Attorney General’s website to view the full press release and accompanying materials.

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has translated the following resources about DASA into the top ten languages spoken by the State’s English Language Learner/Multilingual Learner population, available at the links below:

Harassment Know Your Rights Flyer

NYSED has created a one-page flyer summarizing key district and school responsibilities, and parent and student rights under DASA.

Incident Reporting Form

This Incident Reporting Form is part of a package of resources attached to the joint statement and press release, and was designed collaboratively by the New York State Office of the Attorney General (OAG) and NYSED’s Office of Student Support Services. It is a model form intended to help schools develop procedures to collect reports of bullying, discrimination, harassment, or cyberbullying against students. Schools are required to collect information about DASA incidents in writing, but they are not required to use this particular form to collect such incidents. When the Office of Student Support Services receives a DASA incident report about a district that has neither posted its own DASA incident form on its website nor otherwise distributed such a form to the individual making the DASA report, NYSED often provides a copy of this form to the individual for reference and use in documenting the incident.

List of School Responsibilities

The List of School Responsibilities is also part of the packet of resources contained in NYSED’s and OAG’s joint statement and press release. This form is distributed to parents and students who ask about the process for reporting an incident that they believe may violate DASA. It is often helpful for parents and students to know what they may request and expect their school to provide under DASA when they want to report an offensive incident that they have witnessed or experienced.