LGBTQ Policies in Education, Queer Students & Bullying

This paper explores the connection between LGBTQ education policies and bullying. LGBTQ education policies are designed to protect queer students from harm, take care of their needs, and promote their academic success. The FAIR Education policy attempts to help queer students succeed in school by expanding protections set forth by the Education Code in California. This paper analyzes data from the Center for Disease Controls' Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System to examine if California's school districts have seen a decrease in gay bullying from 2011- 2019. The current focus of education policies is on increasing the academic success of LGBTQ students by decreasing bullying. Although this paper did not directly test the effect of the FAIR Education Act on gay bullying, the findings of this work suggest that there has been a statistically significant decrease in gay bullying over time from 2011-2019.