School district’s Parents Bill of Rights plan to go to public hearing
After a presentation by their attorney on Sept. 21, the Lee County School Board unanimously voted to move the Parents Bill of Rights policy to a public hearing.
School Board Attorney Kathy Dupuy-Bruno said Policy 2.062, Parents Bill of Rights, is the same policy that the board looked at with the addition of an interactive component that will go live on the district’s website once the board passes the policy.
“What we did was create a webpage that has the board policy, as well as the actual statute. Once it moves through policy and public hearing and becomes effective, this will go live,” she said. “It goes through parental rights and then certain things you will see links for parents to get additional information.”
Some of those sections in which parents can gather more information include applying and enrolling into school; information about charter schools; policy on student records; how to get involved — community, family, title one schools; attendance policy; student code of conduct; and opt out forms for health class.
After some discussion of where the opt out forms should be placed, the board agreed they should be put in front of parents at the beginning of the school year, giving the parent the opportunity to opt their child out of sexual education and anything related to AIDS in health class.
Board Member Betsy Vaughn was not in favor of putting the opt out form in front of parents at that time because student’s schedules shift around.
“A lot of that depends on the comfort level of the child and this isn’t something a parent needs to do immediately,” she said. “I think the parent needs to get a feeling for the climate for the school, climate of the class. I personally feel that if this was my child I might talk to my child to see how comfortable he or she is in this. I really believe to place it there is a problem.”
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeff Spiro said the conversations are happening now regarding if the opt out should be placed in the back to school paperwork.
Board Chair Debbie Jordan said the information about opting out should be presented at the beginning of the school year, and again as the year progresses letting parents know they have the option.
Spiro said if the parent opts out for the child, that student will receive an alternative assignment in an alternative location while those topics are being discussed in health.
“As we get closer to a particular lesson, there is some communication reminding parents there are opt forms,” he said.
To help educate the community about the option of opting out of specific topics of health class, Spiro said they will have discussion about including the topic in a”Parent University” to educate the community of its rights and what the content looks like in the classroom.
The website also will provide links around the nature and purpose of extracurricular activities. Dupuy-Bruno said there are links to every school sharing information about what they have to offer in terms of extra curricular activities and athletics.
The website page also translates the information into other languages making it accessible to all.
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