School bullying in Peru: how to report it on SíseVe and what the school must do

The short version, because sometimes it’s the only part people read

You don’t need the school’s permission or initiative to report a bullying case. The SíseVe portal (siseve.minedu.gob.pe) is officially defined as an app that “lets anyone report a case of school violence” — the student themselves, a parent, a neighbor, anyone who finds out. The school, for its part, has a legal duty to log every case it learns of in its Incident Register and to report it on SíseVe too, without waiting until it’s convenient.

What counts as “school bullying” under the law

The official definition, taken from Law N.° 29719’s implementing regulation, is specific:

It is a type of violence characterized by intentional conduct — harassment, disrespect, and verbal or physical mistreatment — that a student receives repeatedly from one or more other students, with the aim of intimidating or excluding them, and which violates their dignity and their right to a school environment free of violence.

Two words do the heavy lifting: intentional and repeated. A one-off conflict between students isn’t, by definition, bullying; a repeated pattern meant to intimidate or exclude is.

Law N.° 29719 itself, the source of this whole framework, exists — in the State’s own words — “to establish mechanisms to diagnose, prevent, avoid, sanction, and eradicate violence, harassment, intimidation, and any act considered bullying among students at educational institutions.”

It doesn’t matter if it happened at school, off campus, or online

This surprises a lot of parents: the official definition of violence against children and adolescents isn’t limited to the schoolyard.

Any act or conduct that harms a child or adolescent’s physical, psychological, and/or sexual integrity, which can occur inside or outside the educational institution, through the Internet or another means of communication.

Cyberbullying — insults, humiliation, or threats over WhatsApp, social media, or class group chats — counts the same as physical violence in the classroom for purposes of reporting it and having the school act. As of August 2025, the Ministry of Education also updated its response protocols (Ministerial Resolution N.° 383-2025-MINEDU) with a category specifically for “bullying and cyberbullying” — a sign the State now treats digital bullying as its own kind of case, not an add-on to in-person bullying.

What the school must do once it learns of a case

The response process has a simple rule at its core:

Every school violence case that becomes known is logged in the Incident Register and reported on the SíseVe portal. The report opens the response and follow-up process.

From there, the school follows four steps: action (interviews, corrective measures, agreements with families), referral (if outside psychological or medical support is needed), follow-up (verifying the harassment has stopped and the student’s continued schooling), and closure.

Two specific duties fall on named people inside the school:

• The director must “make sure the school is affiliated with SíseVe and keep the responsible person’s information periodically updated.” It isn’t optional and doesn’t depend on the school “remembering.”
• The convivencia officer must “log every violence case at the school in both the SíseVe portal and the Incident Register.”

If the aggressor isn’t another student

The legal framework distinguishes three scenarios, and the second and third change the procedure:

1. Between students. Follows the response process described above, led by the school.

2. From school staff toward a student. Here the case doesn’t stay a purely administrative report: the UGEL (regional education office) must receive the information “for purposes of the administrative disciplinary process” before the Permanent Commission for Teacher Disciplinary Proceedings (CPPADD), under the Teaching Reform Law. It’s a separate track, with consequences that can go as far as dismissal, distinct from the between-students process.

3. From a family member or someone outside the school. This is the least-known scenario, and the most important one to remember: the school cannot limit itself to a SíseVe report. The rule is explicit:

It is the responsibility of school staff to immediately inform the director, so the director can file the report with the competent authority (National Police, Public Prosecutor’s Office, or courts). If the director fails to do so, it falls to whichever staff member detected the situation to file the report with the competent authority.

In other words: if the director doesn’t act, the duty to file a criminal report doesn’t disappear — it shifts to any other staff member who found out.

About security cameras at school

A 2023 reform (Law N.° 31902) expressly authorized school directors, coordinating with the Parents’ Association (APAFA), to install security cameras in common areas to help prevent bullying, while safeguarding personal privacy. The same law added the requirement that every school have at least one psychology professional. If your school uses cameras as part of its response to bullying, you have specific rights over that footage — see the video-surveillance page linked below.

Is there a fine for a school that hides a case?

This is the most common question, and the honest answer is: no, at least not as a fixed institutional fine. Bill PL 4711/2022-CR was filed in April 2023. Its text said that if the principal and a private basic-education school hid a reported case, it was a very serious offense «sancionable con multa de cien UIT» (punishable with a 100-UIT fine). For a teacher who hid the case, it proposed disqualification from public service «por un período no menor de diez (10) años» (for no less than ten years). The bill got a report from the Education Committee on 25 June 2025, but it never reached a plenary vote and, as of 30 September 2026, is not among the bills of the new Congress (2026-2031 term). It is not law.

What does exist today, and what many families don’t use because they don’t know about it, is the individual disciplinary route: if school staff (not the institution as such) fail their duty to report or act, that conduct can be forwarded to the UGEL’s CPPADD for an administrative disciplinary process under the Teaching Reform Law. It isn’t a fine in soles, but it is a real consequence with a name attached.

If the school doesn’t act

Start with your local UGEL: the school has a duty to coordinate with it on everything related to managing school coexistence, and the UGEL can require the school to meet its reporting and response obligations. If that still doesn’t resolve the problem, the Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsman) can take your complaint against the education authority that’s falling short.