Dr. Grace Adams-Square, assistant professor in MGA’s Department of History & Political Science, recently presented her work on the document analysis, “Federal Guidance and State Response to Cyberbullying Policy: How can we transform the problem,” at the Western Political Science Association 2025 Annual Meeting in Seattle, Wash., April 17–19.
The analysis abstract states:
Cyberbullying has been called a public health concern (Achuthan et al., 2023; Cheng, C. M., et al.,2023; Patchin et al., 2023) and continues to be an issue that plagues students throughout the country (Hindu et al., 2022). The purpose of this study was to investigate the guidance and policy offered by federal legislators, state legislators, and school district administrators intended to support schools with the prevention and remediation of cyberbullying. The document analysis method was employed to drive qualitative research to learn about the influence of policy offered at each level of legislation and policy on the subsequent levels of legislation and policy. The central question that guided the current research was: What federal guidance has the U.S. Department of Education issued to states about cyberbullying in the last 10 years? (a)What influence has the federal guidance had on the development of state-level policy/guidance in the states of California and Georgia? (b) How do the local large urban districts respond to state guidance on cyberbullying? Federal, state, and local public records on cyberbullying as well as guidance documents and other public communications were used to answer the research questions. After reviewing all data collected, the researcher determined a consistent theme throughout the documents and how education federalism affected policy and procedures at the federal level, state level, and even at the level of local school districts.
In addition to presenting her work, Dr. Adams-Square served as chair, supervising and introducing the following topics from fellow presenters:
The session concluded with a robust discussion on education federalism theory. Participants discussed noted authors about state-level flexibility and the ability of states to tailor education systems to their specific needs; that federalism should prioritize the protection of human dignity and individual rights, and the shift foundations have made initially helping school districts create small schools, has since focused on redirecting how public education dollars are spent.
