NJ Week of Respect: A Planning Guide for Schools (HIB Compliance)

Quick answer: New Jersey's Week of Respect is the week beginning with the first Monday in October. In 2026 that is Monday 5 October to Friday 9 October. Under the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, every district must provide age-appropriate instruction on preventing harassment, intimidation and bullying during that week. The statute requires instruction, not an assembly - so a week of well-planned classroom lessons satisfies it, and an assembly is an optional anchor that makes the week visible.

What the law actually says

The Week of Respect comes from P.L.2010, c.122, the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act. The relevant provision designates the week beginning with the first Monday in October of each year as a Week of Respect in the State of New Jersey, and requires school districts to observe it by providing age-appropriate instruction focused on preventing harassment, intimidation and bullying.

Two details are worth pinning down because they are routinely misremembered.

• It is in addition to, not instead of, your ongoing obligation. The Week of Respect sits on top of the requirement to provide ongoing age-appropriate HIB instruction in line with the core curriculum content standards. One good week does not discharge the year.

• Approved private schools for students with disabilities are encouraged to observe it, not required to. If that is your setting, you have flexibility - though most run something anyway.

The NJDOE's Week of Respect page is the operational guidance, and the New Jersey School Boards Association summary is a useful plain-English version to hand to a school climate team. Every New Jersey school also has a named Anti-Bullying Specialist listed in the state school directory; in most buildings that person owns this week.

Week of Respect dates

Because the rule is 'the week beginning with the first Monday in October', the dates move each year. Working them out in advance is the difference between planning and scrambling.

• 2026: Monday 5 October - Friday 9 October

• 2027: Monday 4 October - Friday 8 October

• 2028: Monday 2 October - Friday 6 October

October is also National Bullying Prevention Month, which PACER launched in 2006 and which runs the whole month across the country. The two are separate things that happen to overlap: one is a New Jersey statutory requirement, the other is a national awareness campaign. Our National Bullying Prevention Month planning checklist covers the month; this piece covers the week.

A day-by-day plan that does not need a budget

The most common failure is a week of dress-down days with no instruction attached. That is a spirit week, not a Week of Respect, and it will not stand up if anyone asks what instruction was delivered. Here is a structure that meets the requirement using time you already have.

1. Monday - name it. A short whole-school moment (morning announcements, or an assembly if you have one booked) that introduces two or three phrases the school will use all week. Every classroom runs a ten-minute lesson defining harassment, intimidation and bullying in age-appropriate language, and naming who to tell.

2. Tuesday - notice it. Perspective-taking. Younger grades read a story and talk about how each character felt; older grades work through a scenario where the harm is not obvious. Teaching empathy activities has ready-made versions.

3. Wednesday - do something about it. The upstander lesson. What to say, who to tell, and what to do when you are frightened of getting it wrong. This is the most important day of the week - upstander vs bystander lessons that stick covers it properly.

4. Thursday - practise it. Role-play and games rather than discussion. Practice is what transfers to the playground; talking about it does not. Anti-bullying games for the classroom has twenty.

5. Friday - make it permanent. Students produce something that stays up: a class agreement, a pledge wall, a display. Then set a calendar reminder for four weeks' time to bring the language back once. That callback is what moves a message from memorable to normal.

Pair the week with books and it lasts longer - anti-bullying books to pair with your assembly lists twelve tested titles by grade band, and any of them work without an assembly at all.

Where an assembly fits, and where it does not

We run an assembly programme, so read this with that in mind. An assembly is worth booking for the Week of Respect when it does something the classroom cannot: give 400 children the same vocabulary, in the same room, on the same morning, in a form they will actually recall on Thursday. That shared reference point is the real product.

It is not worth booking if it is the whole plan. StopBullying.gov, from the US Department of Health and Human Services, is direct that effective prevention is a whole-school approach sustained over time. An assembly with no lessons around it is an hour of entertainment and a line item you will struggle to defend.

It is also the wrong tool for a live, specific harassment problem. If you have an ongoing situation involving named students, that belongs to your Anti-Bullying Specialist and your HIB process. An assembly can support that work. It cannot substitute for it, and running one instead of following process is worse than doing nothing.

The evidence that does support the surrounding programme is strong. Durlak and colleagues reviewed 213 school-based social and emotional learning programmes covering 270,034 students and found an 11-percentile-point gain in academic achievement, plus improvements in behaviour and attitudes. That is the case for the week. The assembly is the launch event.

The numbers to quote to your board

• About 19 percent of students aged 12-18 reported being bullied at school in 2021-22, down from 28 percent in 2010-11 (NCES).

• Among those bullied in 2021-22, 22 percent said it happened online or by text (NCES) - which is why a week that ignores what happens after 3pm is only half a week.

• PACER's bullying statistics page is the standard source for National Bullying Prevention Month materials if you need campaign-ready figures.

Planning timeline

1. Spring (April-June). If you want an outside programme in the actual Week of Respect, book it now. Early October is the single most contested week in the New Jersey calendar and the good dates go months ahead.

2. September, week one. Confirm the dates with your school climate team, assign each day an owner, and send staff the two or three phrases the week will use.

3. September, week three. Distribute lesson materials. Ten minutes a day is the target, not an hour.

4. Week of Respect. Run it, and log what instruction was delivered in each grade. You will want that record.

5. Four weeks later. Bring the language back once. This step costs nothing and does more than the week itself.

If you are booking an outside programme and comparing options, how to choose the right school assembly program sets out the vetting questions, and 10 signs your school needs an anti-bullying assembly is the honest test of whether you need one at all.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Week of Respect require an assembly?

No. The statute requires age-appropriate instruction on preventing harassment, intimidation and bullying during the week. Classroom lessons satisfy that. An assembly is optional.

Can we run our programme the week before or after?

You can run an assembly whenever you like, but the instruction has to happen during the designated week. Many districts book the performer in an adjacent week - because early October is so contested - and deliver the required instruction in the week itself. That is a common and defensible arrangement.

Who owns this in a school?

Usually the Anti-Bullying Specialist, working with the school climate team. Every New Jersey school has one named in the state directory.

What should we document?

What instruction was delivered, to which grades, on which days, by whom. Keep it simple and keep it. If your district is ever asked, that record is the answer.

We are in New York - does this apply to us?

No. New York works under the Dignity for All Students Act, which requires curriculum promoting awareness of discrimination and diversity but does not designate a statutory week. See school assemblies in New York.

Next steps

If you want an outside programme for the Week of Respect, tell us your building, grade bands and dates as early as you can - October fills first. The Respect Tour is our character education and anti-bullying programme, built around exactly this week. Start on the booking page or contact us. For county-level detail, see Bergen County, Morris County and Essex County.

References

• New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2010, c.122 - Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act.

• New Jersey Department of Education, Week of Respect.

• New Jersey School Boards Association, NJDOE provides guidance on celebrating the Week of Respect.

• New Jersey Department of Education, New Jersey School Directory.

• National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts: Bullying.

• PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center, Bullying statistics.

• Durlak et al. (2011), The Impact of Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Learning, Child Development.

• StopBullying.gov, Bullying prevention at school.

A note on where this comes from: Coast to Coast School Assemblies sells an anti-bullying assembly programme, so we have an interest in you booking one. We have tried to be clear about where an assembly helps, where it does not, and how to meet the Week of Respect requirement without spending anything at all.