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Board advances several policy updates: student health services forms, attendance timeline and extreme-heat rule
Summary
The board moved multiple policy items forward, including consolidation of student health forms into a single district form, a 24-hour attendance notification rule, and adoption of an extreme-heat response policy required by new state law.
At its meeting the Manhasset Union Free School District Board of Education reviewed a package of policy updates and directed staff to present finalized forms and a third reading where required.
The board discussed a re-numbered student health services policy (5420) that consolidates multiple building-level medical authorization forms into district-wide forms, including a unified authorization for administration of medication and a combined food-allergy/anaphylaxis authorization. Staff said legal counsel reviewed the revised forms and nurses in the district evaluated them; the forms will be included with the policy at second reading.
Trustees also reviewed changes to attendance policy that shorten the window for parents or guardians to notify schools of excused absences to 24 hours and require a written excuse on student return; trustees asked staff to ensure clear communication to families and to check back on implementation after six months.
The board reviewed a new extreme-heat policy required by recent state law. The policy sets 88 degrees as a trigger for recommended mitigation steps and lists actions principals and the superintendent may take—ranging from moving students to cooler spaces to early dismissal under district protocols. Trustees said the district’s facilities and legal staff had reviewed the policy and that local implementation would be informed by building-level plans.
Other procedural updates received first or second readings with minor edits, including policy cleanups for suspected child abuse and field-trip references. The board approved the hiring-policy revision allowing qualified teacher-certificate-track students to serve as substitutes under specified conditions, and it completed a second reading of that item.
Board members scheduled the consolidated student-health forms and related policy for a second reading with final forms at the June meeting so nurses will have the updated documents for summer and the next school year.
