Para enmendar los Artículos 8 y 10 de la Ley Núm. 85-2017, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley Contra el Hostigamiento e Intimidación o ‘Bullying’ del Gobierno de Puerto Rico” o “Ley Alexander Santiago Martínez”; enmendar el inciso (i) del Artículo 9.07 de la Ley Núm. 85-2018, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley de Reforma Educativa de Puerto Rico”; adicionar un nuevo inciso (d); y redesignar los actuales incisos (d) al (u) como incisos (e) al (v) del Artículo 5 de la Ley Núm. 209-2003, según enmendada, conocida como “Ley del Instituto de Estadísticas de Puerto Rico”, a fin de que los datos obtenidos y remitidos en el informe anual sobre la notificación de los casos de acoso, entre ellos, “bullying” y ciberacoso “cyberbullying”, en las escuelas públicas, privadas, instituciones de educación superior y universidades, sean remitidos simultáneamente por los Secretarios de Educación y de Estado al Instituto de Estadísticas de Puerto Rico, para su interpretación estadística por materia, de modo que puedan implantarse uniformemente las políticas públicas para la prevención y prescripción del acoso; entregar posteriormente a las Secretarías de la Cámara de Representantes y del Senado de Puerto Rico; realizar correcciones gramaticales y de estilo; y atemperar a la legislación vigente.

2025-2028 Session

Puerto Rico requires simultaneous reporting of bullying and harassment data from all schools to a statistics institute for coordinated prevention policy implementation and legislative oversight.

Referido a Comisión(es)

Legislative bill overview

Bill PC 918 amends Puerto Rico's anti-bullying and anti-harassment laws to require the Departments of Education and State to simultaneously submit annual reports on harassment cases (including bullying and cyberbullying) from public schools, private schools, and higher education institutions to Puerto Rico's Statistics Institute (IEPR) for statistical analysis. The bill aims to enable uniform implementation of prevention and remediation policies across educational levels based on standardized data collection.

Why is this important

Currently, harassment data may be fragmented or inconsistently reported across educational sectors, limiting policymakers' ability to identify trends and develop coordinated prevention strategies. By centralizing statistical analysis through IEPR and sharing results with legislative bodies, the bill seeks to create an evidence-based framework for addressing bullying and cyberbullying comprehensively. This could improve school safety protocols and provide legislators with data-driven insights for future policy decisions.

Potential points of contention

Data privacy concerns: Collecting and sharing detailed harassment reports across multiple government agencies raises questions about student privacy protections and whether anonymization procedures are adequately specified

Implementation burden: Schools and universities may face administrative costs and compliance challenges in meeting simultaneous reporting deadlines to multiple entities

Defining scope: The bill covers multiple educational levels (K-12 public/private and higher education) with potentially different reporting standards, creating ambiguity about data comparability and unified policy application