Indiana Bullying Laws: School Duties and Criminal Charges

Indiana’s bullying laws require every public school to adopt a prevention policy, investigate reports on a tight timeline, notify both sets of parents, and discipline staff who ignore complaints — and when bullying crosses into threats, physical contact, or a pattern of harassment, state criminal statutes and federal civil rights laws can apply on top of the school’s response.

How Indiana Defines Bullying

Under Indiana Code 20-33-8-0.2, bullying means overt, unwanted, repeated acts or gestures by a student or group of students against another student with the intent to harass, humiliate, intimidate, or harm. The conduct also has to create an objectively hostile school environment that does at least one of four things: puts the targeted student in reasonable fear of harm to person or property, substantially harms their physical or mental health, substantially interferes with their academic performance, or substantially interferes with their ability to participate in school services and activities.¹

Both parts have to be present. A single rude comment usually won’t qualify because it isn’t repeated and doesn’t create an objectively hostile environment. A months-long pattern of social exclusion that tanks a student’s grades and mental health does qualify, even without physical contact.

The statute carves out exceptions for participation in religious events, First Amendment-protected expression, emergency acts to protect someone from imminent harm, and conduct a parent directs in writing. Those exceptions don’t let students harass classmates under the banner of free speech, but they do keep legitimate expression and parental decisions outside the definition.¹

Off-Campus Conduct and Cyberbullying

Indiana schools can discipline bullying regardless of where it physically took place, as long as the bully and the target both attend a school within the same corporation and discipline is reasonably necessary to prevent substantial interference with school discipline or an unreasonable threat to other students’ right to a safe learning environment.²

Cyberbullying is explicitly covered. School discipline rules must prohibit bullying conducted through computers, computer networks, cell phones, and other wireless devices.² A student who sends threatening messages from a personal phone on a Saturday night can still face school consequences when the behavior spills into the school environment and fits the statutory definition.

What the School Must Do When Bullying Is Reported

Schools must maintain both anonymous and personal reporting channels so students, parents, or staff can report bullying to a teacher or school employee.² Anonymous reports help identify patterns, but schools generally need corroboration before acting on them.

Once the school learns of a possible bullying incident, the clock starts. The school must make a reasonable attempt to notify the parents of both the targeted student and the alleged perpetrator before the end of the next school day. After the investigation finishes, the school has to report its conclusions to both sets of parents before the end of the next school day following completion.² If you reported bullying and heard nothing for days, the school is already out of step with its statutory obligations.

The policy must also set timetables for escalating reports to school counselors, administrators, the superintendent, or law enforcement when the situation warrants it. Follow-up services are required for both sides: support for the victim and bullying education for the student who did it. Parents also have a statutory right to review any materials used in the school’s bullying prevention or suicide prevention programs.²

Discipline for Staff Who Don’t Act

One of the stronger features of the Indiana statute is that it requires every corporation’s discipline rules to include provisions for disciplining teachers, staff, or administrators who fail to initiate or conduct a bullying investigation. The same provision requires discipline for students who file false reports.² If a teacher or principal brushed off your report, the school’s own policy should spell out consequences for that failure.

Discipline the School Can Impose

A principal can suspend a student for up to ten school days. Before suspending anyone, the principal has to give the student a written or oral statement of the charges, a summary of the evidence if the student denies the charges, and an opportunity for the student to explain. If the situation requires immediate removal, that meeting must happen as soon as reasonably possible after the suspension begins.³

A suspended student keeps the right to continue academic work. The school must provide notice of assignments, teacher contact information, and credit for completed work on the same terms as students who weren’t suspended.³ Longer suspensions and expulsion go through a separate process.

When Bullying Becomes a Crime

Indiana’s anti-bullying statute drives the school response. Separate criminal statutes can also apply when the behavior crosses certain lines.

Intimidation

Communicating a threat with the intent to place someone in fear, force them to act against their will, or retaliate for a lawful act is intimidation. The base offense is a Class A misdemeanor. It becomes a Level 6 felony when the threat involves a forcible felony, targets a witness in a criminal case, or is communicated using school or government electronic equipment. Using a deadly weapon during the offense makes it a Level 5 felony.⁴ A student who sends a threatening message through a school-issued laptop or school network faces a more serious charge than the same threat sent from a personal device.

Battery

Physical bullying that involves touching someone in a rude, insolent, or angry manner is battery, a Class B misdemeanor. Contact that causes bodily injury raises the charge to a Class A misdemeanor. Moderate bodily injury makes it a Level 6 felony, and serious bodily injury or use of a deadly weapon brings it to a Level 5 felony.⁵ Battery committed against a child under fourteen by someone eighteen or older is automatically a Level 6 felony, regardless of whether the injury meets the “moderate” threshold. That matters in high schools, where seniors are often legal adults.

Stalking

Repeated harassment, including cyberbullying, can qualify as criminal stalking under Indiana Code 35-45-10-5. Stalking is a Level 6 felony at baseline. It rises to a Level 5 felony when it includes explicit or implicit threats of sexual battery, serious bodily injury, or death, and to a Level 4 felony when the offender uses a deadly weapon. The statute’s definition of impermissible contact includes electronic communications, so a sustained pattern of threatening texts or social media messages fits.

Parental Financial Liability

Indiana holds parents financially responsible for their child’s intentional harmful acts, but the exposure is capped. Under Indiana Code 34-31-4-1, a parent is liable for up to $5,000 in actual damages when their child knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly causes harm to a person or damage to property, provided the parent has custody and the child is living with them.⁶

The $5,000 cap applies to the parental liability statute. It doesn’t limit what a victim can recover directly from the student in a civil lawsuit, and it doesn’t apply when a parent’s own negligent supervision is the theory of liability. The cap also covers only actual damages, not attorney fees or court costs, so a family’s real financial exposure can run higher than the number suggests.

Federal Protections When Bullying Targets a Protected Characteristic

When bullying targets a student because of who they are, federal civil rights law adds a layer of accountability beyond the state statute.

Bullying based on disability that interferes with a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from school services can violate Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. If uncorrected, that harassment can amount to a denial of the free appropriate public education (FAPE) students with disabilities are entitled to, even for students who don’t receive services under IDEA.⁷

Title IX covers bullying based on sex, and Title VI covers bullying based on race, color, or national origin. Schools that receive federal funding must respond promptly and in a way that isn’t deliberately indifferent, meaning their response cannot be clearly unreasonable given what they know. Under the Title VI standard courts have adopted, a school with actual knowledge of severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive peer harassment can face liability if its response is clearly unreasonable.⁸

In practice, deliberate indifference doesn’t require a perfect solution. It does rule out ignoring the problem, repeating half-measures after being told they aren’t working, or declaring the matter resolved when it clearly isn’t. Families who believe bullying involves discrimination can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alongside pursuing state-law remedies.

Suing the School

If a school’s failure to act causes real harm, a negligence lawsuit against the school corporation is possible, but Indiana’s Tort Claims Act controls the procedure. For claims against a political subdivision like a school district, you have to file a written tort claim notice within 180 days of the incident. Miss that deadline and you lose the right to sue, no matter how strong the facts are.⁹

Indiana law also gives schools some immunity. A school corporation generally isn’t liable for losses from the adoption, enforcement, or failure to adopt or enforce a policy, unless the enforcement constitutes false arrest or false imprisonment.⁹ That immunity makes negligence cases against schools harder to win, but it doesn’t shield a school that had specific knowledge of ongoing bullying and did nothing meaningful. Most of these cases turn on the line between a policy failure and a failure to follow an existing policy.

Protective Orders

When bullying rises to harassment and the school’s response hasn’t stopped it, families can petition for a protective order. Under Indiana Code 34-26-5, a court can issue a protective order on a finding of harassment. The court must hold a hearing within 30 days of the petition, and the petitioner has to show harassment by a preponderance of the evidence.¹⁰

A harassment protective order cannot be issued without notice and a hearing, unlike an ex parte domestic violence order. The respondent will know about the petition and have a chance to answer. If granted, the order can require the respondent to stay away from the victim, stop all contact, and avoid specific locations. Violating a protective order is a separate criminal offense.

When to Talk to an Attorney

Most bullying situations get resolved at the school level, and they should. An attorney becomes worth calling when the school process breaks down or the stakes go past what a parent meeting can fix. Situations that generally warrant legal help include bullying that has caused documented physical injuries or a diagnosed psychological condition, a school that has been notified repeatedly and still hasn’t investigated or acted, conduct that crosses into criminal behavior like threats of violence or stalking, and disability-based or discriminatory bullying where a FAPE violation may be in play.

An attorney also helps protect rights that run on short clocks. The 180-day notice requirement for tort claims against a school district is the big one. By the time many families realize the school isn’t going to fix the problem on its own, a chunk of that window has already closed. Getting advice early keeps options open that you may need later.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 20-33-8-0.2 – Bullying
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 20-33-8-13.5 – Discipline Rules Prohibiting Bullying
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 20-33-8-18 – Procedure for Suspension
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-45-2-1 – Intimidation
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-42-2-1 – Battery
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-31-4-1 – Maximum Limit of Liability
7
U.S. Department of Education. Disability Discrimination – Bullying and Harassment
8
Congress.gov. Title VI and Peer-to-Peer Racial Harassment at School
9
Cornell Law Institute. 10 IAC 3-2-1 – Tort Claims Against the State
10
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 34-26-5-9 – Orders for Protection