Two recent Connecticut Superior Court decisions have held that the state’s anti-bullying legislation, most recently revised in 2011, does not create a private right of action for parents and students.

In both superior court cases, parents had brought suits against the board of education and individual employees following assaults on their children. Each of them alleged that the school district and its employees failed to comply with the requirements of the anti-bullying law, and as a result, their children were assaulted and suffered injuries.

Both courts, in reaching their conclusions, carefully reviewed the history of Connecticut’s anti-bullying legislation. Noting the absence of any language contained within the statute granting a private cause of action, both decisions found that neither the plain text of the anti-bullying statute nor its legislative history suggests that the legislature intended to create a private right of action when it enacted the law.