Is your state in the top 10 for bullying problems at school and online?

One in five students between the ages of 12 and 18 suffer bullying, as face-to-face harassment moves behind the anonymity of online attacks, according to federal estimates. And a growing body of research is showing that bullying’s impacts spread far beyond the classroom, the personal finance website WalletHub warns in a new assessment.

Bullies and their victims both are more likely to experience poverty, struggle academically and lose jobs in adulthood. They are also more likely to commit crime and abuse drugs and alcohol. As for schools, they risk losing millions of dollars in attendance-based funding when students stay home to avoid being bullied, WalletHub reports.

The states that deal with bullying most effectively are those where research-based anti-bullying programs are easily accessible to schools, says Lori Latrice Martin, an associate dean at the College of Humanities & Social Sciences and a professor in the Department of African & African American Studies at Louisiana State University.

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And those schools have firm commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. They also staff an appropriate number of trained professionals to address student mental health and wellness, Martin adds.

“School systems should have programs in place that protect children from bullying by fully investigating reports by students, parents, or other concerned individuals,” the professor suggests. “There must be accountability at various levels. School administrators must be held accountable for protecting students and providing services or referrals for students as needed.”

To identify where bullying is most pervasive, WalletHub examined the share of high school students getting bullied online, truancy costs, whether states have anti-bullying laws and several other metrics in 47 states and Washington, D.C. For example, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Arizona, Alaska and Iowa had the highest rates of online bullying; Rhode Island, Texas, Hawaii, Delaware and Washington, D.C. showed the lowest.

Here is WalletHub’s ranking, from highest to lowest rates of bullying:

1. California
2. Alaska
3. Nevada
4. New Jersey
5. Louisiana
6. Pennsylvania
7. Georgia
8. Wisconsin
9. Oklahoma
10. Wyoming
11. Arizona
12. Ohio
13. Iowa
14. New Hampshire
15. Mississippi
16. Tennessee
17. Texas
18. West Virginia
19. Nebraska
20. Arkansas
21. Montana
22. South Carolina
23. Missouri
24. Kansas
25. Alabama
26. Kentucky
27. North Carolina
28. Idaho
29. Illinois
30. Maryland
31. North Dakota
32. Florida
33. Michigan
34. Vermont
35. Connecticut
36. Hawaii
37. Colorado
38. South Dakota
39. New York
40. New Mexico
41. Virginia
42. Indiana
43. Utah
44. Maine
45. Washington, D.C.
46. Rhode Island
47. Massachusetts
48. Delaware