Governor Terry Branstad is no longer asking state legislators to pass an anti-bullying law. “We have taken action through executive order last September. We’ve started the governor’s anti-bullying center at the University of Northern Iowa,” Branstad says. “We’re going to build on that.”

In each of the past three years, Branstad has forwarded a proposal to legislators that would have given school officials broader authority to crack down on bullying that happens off of school grounds and online. Branstad says he’d “love to have” legislators revive that proposal and pass the bill, but he’s not counting on it and that’s why he took executive action in September.

“We, through the two anti-bullying summits, and the involvement of more students in standing up to bullies,” Branstad says, “plus the better reporting and requiring every school to notify parents when bullying occurs I think is going to help reduce the amount of bullying that goes on in our state.”

The Governor’s Office for Bullying Prevention at U-N-I has worked with the Iowa Department of Education to develop the procedures Iowa schools should follow when bullying occurs and it includes notifying parents. Last September, Branstad went to a Cedar Rapids school to say he was done waiting for the legislature to act and he issued an executive order that addressed most of the issues he had hoped legislators would tackle by passing a bill.

The 2016 legislative session begins Monday, January 11th and Branstad’s “Condition of the State” message is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

(Radio Iowa)