Dignity for All Students Act (DASA)

Dr. Hugh Gigante, Western Suffolk BOCES Compliance Officer, 631-549-4900

The Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) was established by New York State to protect all students from harassment, bullying and discrimination. DASA prohibits bullying, harassment, discrimination, or cyberbullying against students in school based on the following: race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and expression), sex or other.

Bullying is described as an unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.

  • Bullying can occur before and after school hours, in a school building, on a playground, on a school bus while a student is traveling to or from school, or on the Internet.
  • Bullying can take many forms, including: physical abuse (pushing or hitting); verbal taunting (teasing, name calling or offensive jokes); social exclusion/isolation; written harassment (graffiti, notes and drawings); and cyberbullying (texts, social media posts, etc.)

Harassment is defined as the creation of a hostile environment by conduct or verbal threats, intimidation, or abuse that has or would have the following effect:

  • reasonably and substantially interfering with a student’s educational performance, opportunities or benefits; or
  • would reasonably be expected to cause a student to fear for his or her physical safety

Discrimination is the act of denying rights, benefits, justice, equitable treatment or access to facilities available to all others, to an individual or group of people because of the group, class or category to which that person belongs.

If you believe you, or someone else, has been the target of harassment, bullying, cyber-bullying, and/or discrimination, please complete a Western Suffolk BOCES DASA Incident Reporting Form and return it to a school administrator or Dignity Act Coordinator. All complaints will be treated in a confidential manner. Anonymous reports may limit the agency’s ability to respond to the complaint. A prompt and thorough investigation will be conducted for all incident reports.

For additional information about the Dignity for All Students Act, visit

For more information, contact the Dignity Act Coordinator in your child’s school. The names, designated school and contact information for each school building’s Dignity Act Coordinators are provided below:

Western Suffolk BOCES Dignity Act Coordinators

Special Education Division Alison Quinlan 631-549-4920 x280

JEA Elementary Kim Alvarado 631-254-0094

Lincoln Elementary Staci Governa 631-254-7820

Chestnut Hill Elementary Theresa Popofsky 631-242-5560

JEA Jr/Sr High School Karen Walsh  631-549-5580

Brennan Middle/High School-Aspire Academy Anthony Letterel 631-491-4149

JEA Alternative & ALC Program Thomas Logatto 631-586-1300

Manor Plains HS Robert Caravello 631-754-2900

Itinerant Program Maryann Sullivan 631-595-6914

Wilson Tech Huntington Jennifer Paterson 631-754-2900

Wilson Tech Dix Hills Karen Bowden 631-667-6000 x383

Wilson Tech Northport Stephanie Engelmann 631-261-3600 x200

Wilson Tech Republic Diana Santiago 631-752-1957