Madison County Schools proposes bus-discipline, cell-phone and handbook changes under state guidance

Griffin McCants, director of Equity and Innovation for Madison County Schools, outlined proposed revisions to the district's code of conduct and student handbook during the July 1 special session, saying the changes respond to consultant recommendations and new state requirements.

McCants said several terminology changes were recommended by the district's discipline equity consultant and the LDF/DOJ review, including replacing the word "criminal" with "severe" throughout the code and replacing the term "offense" with "behavior" in several provisions. She said the district will add a definition of expulsion to match House Bill 188 and related state language and that written decisions from disciplinary hearings will be delivered to parents within five school days after a hearing, consistent with the cited statute.

On lower-level discipline, McCants proposed adding a reflective essay as a progressive, local-level consequence for younger students or those who cannot complete a written assignment, and said district administrators would track the assignment when used. "We can definitely track that," McCants said when asked about repeat essays.

The presentation proposed consolidating bus-discipline rules into one section and changing the progression of consequences for low-level bus violations so the first and second violations are warnings and conferences, and suspension from the bus would begin at the third violation (up to three days). Under the proposal the progression would escalate to up to five days, 10 days and then longer suspensions for repeated violations; the draft preserves a distinction between low-level bus conduct and higher-level class-one to class-four offenses (for example, fighting or profanity directed at a driver), which would trigger separate disciplinary paths. McCants said the consultant urged the change because principals were sometimes moving directly to multi-day bus suspensions on a first offense, a practice that can effectively keep students out of school if families cannot provide alternate transportation.

On wireless devices, McCants cited the FOCUS Act and summarized its requirements: no student may use or operate a wireless communication device on school grounds during the instructional day unless allowed by exception, and the device must be turned off and stored off the student's person (in a locker, car or similar location). She said the law includes exceptions for an IEP, an individual health plan or for educational purposes or emergencies; the district's proposed code would allow principals flexibility to select appropriate consequences consistent with school culture and the state model policy.

Board members asked for data and uniformity. Several members said they supported protecting bus drivers and ensuring consequences are applied consistently; others asked staff to assemble recent bus-discipline and cell-phone incident data and to confirm that the proposed language will be administrable and consistent across schools that differ in locker availability and school culture. McCants said staff would forward the recommended changes for additional review after incorporating board feedback.

Why it matters: The proposed changes respond to state legislation and equity-review recommendations and would change day-to-day discipline practices (bus access, phone possession and classroom-managed consequences) across the district if adopted. Board members signaled support for the consultant-driven corrections but requested incident data and clarified who will make discretionary choices about property seizure and suspensions.

No final policy vote was recorded during the session; staff indicated they will revise language and return the proposal for additional review and formal action.