The emotional well-being of Washington students was the focus of a state Senate hearing Thursday, as lawmakers heard bills to prevent bullying and promote social skills.
Senate Bill 5526 would address bullying of transgender students in state schools, requiring districts to adopt a policy to prevent harassment and train more educators to help when it occurs.
Transgender students regularly face physical and verbal abuse at school, Sen. Marko Liias, Mukilteo Democrat and prime sponsor of the bill, told committee members.
More than 80 percent of transgender students report verbal abuse, he says, 40 percent report physical abuse. Forty percent of transgender young people attempt suicide before age 20, he said.
“We know that there are harmful consequences for kids in our schools,” Liias said. “It’s our obligation to take every step we can to provide a safe, supportive learning environment.”
Another bill considered by the committee aims to teach students how to better recognize emotions, manage stress and resolve conflicts.
It’s called social emotional learning and “it is not sitting around and singing songs,” Melanie Smith of Seattle-based Committee for Children told lawmakers. “It is building blocks of how we learn to interact with people, how we communicate with people and how we resolve conflicts with people. It’s how to pay attention and how to learn.”
Senate Bill 5688 would require the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the body that sets Washington’s learning standards, to study benchmarks for teaching students the skills. An OSPI work group would have until Oct. 1, 2016 to submit a plan to lawmakers for implementing social emotional learning-based curriculum for state schools.
Both bills were heard Thursday in the Senate early learning and K-12 committee. Neither has been schedule for a committee vote.