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Connecticut Ranks Among 10 Least Bullying States

With back-to-school season upon us and more than 160,000 children missing school every day in the U.S. out of fear of being bullied, the personal-finance website WalletHub has conducted an in-depth analysis, resulting in "2016's States with the Biggest Bullying Problems."

While bullying is gaining attention as a major problem in schools, not all states get good grades on how they're handling the issue.

While bullying is gaining attention as a major problem in schools, not all states get good grades on how they're handling the issue.

Photo Credit: Thomas Ricker Flickr

Of the 45 states plus the District of Columbia for which data was sufficiently available, Connecticut landed near the bottom of the list -- which is your desired location, for this particular list -- at 39.

To identify the states where bullying is most pervasive, WalletHub's analysts analyzed three dimensions -- bullying prevalence, bullying impact and treatment, and anti-bullying laws -- and compared 17 key metrics, ranging from "bullying-incident rate" to "truancy costs for schools" to "percentage of high school students bullied online."

Here are the site's ratings for bullying prevalence and prevention in Connecticut:

  • percentage of high school students bullied on school property -- 34th
  • percentage of high school students bullied online -- 33rd
  • percentage of high school students who missed school out of fear of being bullied -- 19th
  • percentage of high school students who attempted suicide -- 33rd
  • percentage of high school students who experienced feeling sad or hopeless -- 34th
  • number of psychologists per capita -- 40th
  • percentage of school districts with LGBT protections -- 36th

The states assessed to have the biggest bullying problems are Michigan, making the infamous top of the list, followed by Louisiana, West Virginia, Montana and Arkansas. The states with perhaps the best handle on the issue are Massachusetts, coming in last and best, then North Carolina, Vermont, D.C. and Rhode Island.

Click here for the full report, which also includes a panel of experts' answers to a series of questions about bullying.

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