Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Electronic Devices topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District reports hundreds of device-policy infractions after Jan. 6 rollout; no expulsions so far
Summary
The district implemented an electronic-communication-device policy mandated by the state and reported infractions; district staff said students have been largely compliant and no expulsions have been pursued despite hundreds of recorded incidents.
Sumter School District implemented a state-mandated electronic-communication-devices policy on Jan. 6, and district staff reported enforcement data to the Policy Committee at its meeting.
Sam Myers, staff lead on the policy, told the committee that "we have a total of 22 infractions" as an initial report. A district official later corrected the figure, saying, "up until this point, we've had actually 373 infractions," and added that none of those cases had been referred for expulsion hearings.
Myers said schools prepared by updating codes of conduct and conducting staff training; he described early enforcement as focused on appropriate coding and record-keeping. Trustees noted most infractions have occurred at the high-school level. The superintendent's office and staff said there has been no large parent outcry and that student compliance has been generally high.
Committee members raised concerns about the policy's disciplinary ladder. One trustee read a quote from the state superintendent's memo: "the whole idea behind this policy is that we want students in classrooms getting instruction," and questioned whether the policy's third- and fourth-offense consequences'which in the district code can escalate to pre-expulsion notification and referral to a hearing officer'are too punitive for device violations. Staff said the district-level committee will review coding, consequences and parent input in March and will include parent representatives in that review.
The committee agreed to inform the full board of implementation results and to bring back more detailed data and recommended coding practices after the district review.
