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Board reviews revisions to Lansing School District 2024–25 student-parent handbook; Title IX and attendance changes highlighted
Summary
Director Cordelia Black presented edits to the 2024–25 student-parent handbook including more QR-code links, streamlined attendance codes for K–12, clarifications to suspension and appeals procedures, new cell-phone guidance, translation into multiple languages, and pending Title IX policy adjustments pending Neola guidance.
Cordelia Black, executive director for school culture, presented the board with a revised 2024–25 student-parent handbook and outlined edits made after stakeholder meetings with staff, parents and student panels.
“The student handbook functions as a guide for administrators as well,” Black said, describing efforts to reduce dense legal language and add graphics and QR codes for quick access to school pages, ParentSquare and ParentVUE. She told the board the manual will include logos for all district schools and the Capital Area K–12 online school.
Black described several substantive edits: streamlining attendance procedures into a single K–12 section (previously separate K–6 and 7–12 sections), clarifying attendance codes, updating language on suspensions including “SNAP” suspensions and appeal steps, differentiating student-on-student assault from assault on staff (with higher disciplinary levels for the latter), adding cell-phone expectations and technology-use rules, and highlighting the teams mental-health office and other parent resources. She said the handbook had been delayed to reflect changes to Title IX policy and that the district is awaiting guidance from Neola after recent federal/regulatory changes.
Board members sought additional detail and asked for structural edits. Trustee Rosalyn (speaker used first name in the meeting) suggested moving pages 11–14 (mental-health and attendance material) to the front so parents see expectations before the calendar. Trustee Schroeder and Trustee Hurd asked for additional early interventions before referral to Ingham County Family Court and for clarity about how attendance codes and discipline are displayed in ParentVUE/ParentSquare. Trustee Hurd asked, “What training protocols exist to ensure that teachers and administrators uniformly interpret this book and apply it to behavioral expectations?” Black said she would follow up with a detailed answer and noted that teacher and administrator training is a follow-up action.
Superintendent and board members described tangible changes they said came from parent and equity-team feedback: clearer attendance codes and more specific language around disciplinary offenses to reduce subjectivity in enforcement. Black said the handbook will be available in multiple languages and distribution to schools was increased this year: 100 copies to each high school and 50 copies to middle and elementary schools, plus digital distribution through ParentSquare, ParentVUE and district newsletters.
Ending: The board discussed rearranging content to surface attendance and mental-health resources and asked staff to provide a timeline for next-year feedback; Black said formal public input for next year will be scheduled in a couple of months and welcomed ongoing email feedback.
