An act relating to amending the prohibitions against harassment in schools

H 441 amends Vermont's school harassment law to remove the requirement that harassment must be "severe or pervasive" to be unlawful. It defines harassment as conduct based on protected characteristics (like race, gender identity, or disability) that objectively undermines a student's education or creates a hostile environment - even from a single incident. The law specifies that schools must consider all incidents together (not in isolation) and clarifies that factors like a student continuing school or not suffering physical injury no longer prevent harassment claims. This directly affects students experiencing harassment and school districts' policies for investigating and addressing such incidents.