Park Hill policy committee updates homeschooling, Mocap and student-discipline language and approves minutes and consent items

The Park Hill Policy Committee on April 8, 2025 reviewed several policy updates driven by recent statutory and case-law changes and voted to approve the meeting minutes and grouped policy items.

Committee staff summarized revisions to the district’s homeschooling policy (IGBI), two policies on Missouri/online course access commonly called MoCap (IGCD and IG CDA), and the student-discipline policy (JG). After the summaries the committee voted to approve action items 3.1 through 3.3 as a group and consent items 4.1 through 4.4 as a group.

Clay, a staff member who presented the policies, said the changes reflect a recent omnibus legislative change, noting, “Probably the most notable change in there is that Senate Bill 7 27 created sort of a 2 different categories of homeschooling, and 1 of them, the new 1, is called family paced education.” He described family-paced education as a form of homeschooling in which a family “has also, agreed to receive, state funds, in the form of a tax credit,” and said the district is revising policy language to distinguish that category and any differing obligations that come with the tax credit.

On virtual courses and MoCap access Clay summarized edits to two policies, saying, “This has to do with Mocap,” and pointing to new language that clarifies who may enroll and staff response timelines. He said the policy updates include language that school personnel cannot deny MoCap course requests based on a belief another course is better or a distaste for online learning, and that the policies add time frames for responding to MoCap requests. Clay also explained that full-time enrollment through a MoCap provider means the student is “no longer considered a Park Hill student,” and the policy language has been updated to reflect that status and related issues such as IEP handling for those students.

On student discipline, Clay connected policy edits to the Supreme Court ruling commonly referred to as Mahanoy, saying the district’s model language acknowledges limits on disciplining students for off-campus speech. He summarized: “Not only does the conduct need to have a connection or a nexus to school, like, causing a disruption, but, they’re all it also can’t otherwise be protected activity that you’re disciplining a student for, such as, like, free speech, first amendment rights.” The presentation noted the model-policy language from MSBA was intended to reflect that shift in law.

Committee members moved and seconded the routine actions and consent approvals without recorded roll-call tallies. Cindy Talbert made the initial motion to approve the February 11 and March 11, 2025 policy committee minutes; Christine Strube seconded. Later, Laura Dearing moved and Tiffany Cloran seconded approval of action items 3.1 through 3.3 as presented; the motion carried. Ayanna Anderson moved and Lauren Franklin seconded approval of consent items 4.1 through 4.4 as presented; that motion also carried. The meeting adjourned at 4:28 p.m.

Why it matters: The committee’s changes are procedural updates to align Park Hill policy with recent state-level legislation (identified in the meeting as Senate Bill 727) and with controlling federal court precedent on student disciplinary jurisdiction. The edits affect homeschooling families who accept state tax-credit funds, students seeking MoCap/virtual courses (including those enrolled full time through MoCap providers), and how the district treats off-campus student speech in discipline matters.

Details and next steps: Committee staff said the changes are largely language clarifications; individual policies can be pulled for separate action if needed. Staff also noted they circulated the draft language to district leadership for review. No separate timeline for full board adoption or implementation dates was specified during the committee meeting.