Topeka ? The Kansas State Board of Education plans to discuss next week whether it should consider a statewide anti-bullying policy.

A 2008 Kansas law already requires local school boards to adopt policies to combat bullying.

But in a memo to board members, Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker says the Department of Education is researching whether other state boards of education have their own policies.

The Kansas board’s interest in the topic follows reports last month of the suicides of several gay teens who’d been bullied. Board members plan to take up the issue at a meeting Wednesday.