Disclaimer
As of July 1, 2018, New Jersey permits local board policy allowing the principal, in consultation with the anti-bullying specialist, to make an initial determination as to whether reported incident is an act of HIB. In making determination, principals must assume the allegations are true. The parent may appeal the principal’s decision not to initiate an investigation to the Board of Education.

It is the responsibility of the Board of Education to determine the role of the principal or their designee in the HIB investigatory process. Whether a principal or their designee will initiate an investigation upon receipt of all reports of alleged HIB or will initiate an investigation only in those cases where the incident meets the criteria in the ABD will depend on the HIB policy adopted by the Board of Education. In some districts, the Board of Education may determine that the principal or their designee should be permitted to exercise their discretion in determining whether allegations meet the threshold definition of HIB. If allegations meet the threshold definition, an investigation must be conducted. If allegations do not meet the threshold definition, an investigation does not need to be conducted. However, if the principal or their designee later acquire information suggesting that the allegations meet the threshold definition of HIB, it should then be referred to the ABS for investigation. Finally, if the principal or their designee cannot determine, based on the available evidence and information, whether allegations meet the threshold definition of HIB, the initiation of an investigation is appropriate.

Do not use the principal’s screening tool if your board of education has not approved a policy allowing the principal in consultation with anti-bullying specialist to make an initial determination as to whether reported incident is an act of HIB.


The Principal’s Screening Tool is designed to assist principals whose district policy allows them (in consultation with the anti-bullying specialist) to make an initial determination as to whether allegations of HIB meet the threshold definition of HIB. If allegations of HIB meet the threshold definition of HIB, then an investigation must be conducted.

The principal’s screening tool is available only to HIBster users assigned to the following roles: System Administrator, Superintendent, District Coordinators and Building Administrator.

To make a threshold determination, the user must first click the yellow-orange plus-button icon, located in the red navigation bar at the top of the page.





The following three (3) fields must contain information to continue:

  • Date of incident
  • Date incident was reported
  • School




All other fields are optional. However, users are encouraged to enter all relevant information.





Once all data has been entered, click the Save & Generate Confidence Scale button.






This feature generates a document for the Principal in consultation with the Anti-Bullying Specialist to perform an objective analysis of the three (3) required criteria for HIB.

Any one of the three (3) criteria that is met based on the information provided will be highlighted green.

If the Principal, in consultation with the Anti-Bullying Specialist, determines that the incident requires an investigation, the Principal can refer the incident to one or more of the following modules by clicking the appropriate button: HIB, Violence and Vandalism, Code of Conduct and/or Affirmative Action.




This will convert the Screening Incident into an official incident for investigation. The incident will be available in the My Incidents and the Recent tabs.

The user should enter any additional information to the incident and then re-assign it to the Anti-Bullying Specialist who will be responsible for the investigation.