Dignity For All Students Act

New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act, also known as The Dignity Act, and most commonly referred to by its acronym, DASA, is legislation in the U.S. state of New York, established to provide a school environment free of discrimination and harassment/ It was signed into law by former Governor David Paterson on September 13, 2010 but was not implemented in schools districts statewide until July 1, 2012. This act was first introduced to the New York State Senate in 1999 by Senator Thomas Duane. "The Act to support student’s mental health at school and during school related events. It enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy for student discrimination, harassment, intimidation, taunting and bullying.

"The Dignity Act (Education Law §11[7]) defines "harassment" in terms of creating a hostile environment that unreasonably sustainably interferes with a student’s educational performance, opportunities or benefits, or mental, emotional or physical well-being or conduct, verbal threats, intimidation or abuse that reasonably causes or would reasonably be expected to cause a student to fear for his or her physical safety." This act holds students liable for making comments, either in person, on paper or through the internet on a student’s race, color, weight, ethnicity, religion, religious practices, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender or sex. The most important factor when deliberating if an act is harassment is a student’s intent. The Dignity Act states bullying is the intent to cause another individual pain and/or misery. This act establishes a precedent to follow throughout elementary and secondary schools in New York State and provides a response for the "…large number of harassed and stigmatized students from skipping school and engaging in high risk behavior." In order to have a standardized response from all schools, The Dignity Act outlines the proper protocol to follow.

The laws enforced by The Dignity for All Students Act ordered school districts to "revise their codes of conduct and adopt policies intended to create a school environment free from harassment and discrimination." All schools must partake in a professional training seminar on these issues in order to implement an effective harassment, bullying and discrimination prevention and intervention program. Additionally, one employee must be trained in "non-discriminatory instructional and counseling methods and handling human relations." This act mandates that each individual account of bullying must be documented by the school district and an annual report titled, "Reports of Incidents Concerning School Safety and the Educational Climate" must be submitted. There are two parts to this report, the first pertaining to violent altercations and the second documenting individuals who violate the Dignity Act. These reports are due to the New York State Education Department (NYSED) at the end of school term.

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