School bullying is a pervasive social problem that has been linked to severe mental health consequences for students. Though 50 states have adopted anti-bullying policies, research into the effectiveness of these policies has suggested that many such policies are not effective in reducing rates of bullying in schools. This paper aims to identify strategies for policy makers and social workers to reduce bullying in schools. This paper focuses on the Iowa Safe Schools Law as a case study for better understanding the strengths and limitations of statewide anti-bullying laws. Consistent with general evaluations of statewide anti-bullying laws, comparisons of rates of bullying before and after the passage of the Iowa Safe Schools Law reveal no reductions in rates of bullying. Through an examination of the extant academic and popular literature, this analysis identifies several critiques of the policy, namely that such policies infringe upon freedom of expression and that such policies focus on individual behavior modification rather than on changing underlying social norms that contribute to hostile environments. This paper presents several recommendations for advancing the prevention of bullying. Future research should identify underlying factors that render these policies ineffective and common factors of policies that have been found to be more effective. Bullying prevention policies should include funding allocated to these efforts and components that have been empirically linked to reductions in bullying. Social workers hold a key role in advocating for funding for this policy and offering institutional and individual-level interventions to reduce bullying.

校园欺凌是一个普遍存在的社会问题，与学生的严重心理健康后果有关。尽管有 50 个州采取了反欺凌政策，但对这些政策有效性的研究表明，许多此类政策在降低学校欺凌率方面并不有效。本文旨在为政策制定者和社会工作者确定减少校园欺凌的策略。本文重点关注爱荷华州安全学校法作为案例研究，以更好地了解全州反欺凌法律的优势和局限性。与对全州反欺凌法的一般评估一致，对爱荷华州安全学校法通过前后欺凌率的比较显示，欺凌率没有降低。通过对现存学术和通俗文献的考察，该分析确定了对该政策的若干批评，即此类政策侵犯了言论自由，并且此类政策侧重于个人行为的改变，而不是改变导致敌对环境的潜在社会规范。本文提出了一些促进预防欺凌的建议。未来的研究应该确定导致这些政策无效的潜在因素和已被发现更有效的政策的共同因素。欺凌预防政策应包括分配给这些努力的资金，以及在经验上与减少欺凌相关的组成部分。社会工作者在倡导为这项政策提供资金以及提供机构和个人层面的干预措施以减少欺凌方面发挥着关键作用。