Caddo Parish executive committee approves statutory policy cleanups, sends parent-note attendance questions to policy committee

The Caddo Parish School Board Executive Committee on Oct. 21 approved cleanup changes to district policies that administrators said were required by state legislative action and agreed to send questions about parental excuse limits in the district ttendance policy to the board—ommittee for further review.

Superintendent Burton told the committee that the proposed edits to the bullying and hazing policy and the child-abuse policy reflect changes enacted by the state legislature. "The only changes in the child abuse policy, it removed the word 'in addition' ... and then it added in there that if a school resource officer suspects child abuse or neglect ... the school resource officer shall immediately notify the officer's employment law enforcement agency," said Mister Abrams, a district staff member explaining the statutory-driven edits. Abrams said the changes were intended to stop school resource officers from conducting full investigations and to direct reports to child protection or law enforcement.

Board member Katie McClain asked that at least one item be discussed more fully in the policy committee. McClain said parents have raised concerns about how parent-written excuses are counted and recorded and asked that the committee review whether the district—ap on parent notes should be revisited. Superintendent Burton said the district has kept a limit of three parent-written excuses per semester and justified the limit by citing past abuse of looser rules and by noting an attendance-team response; he told the committee the district added attendance clerks and had seen what he described as an early reduction in absences after those changes. "When we're tracking the number of excused absences, vast majority are coming in with doctor's notes... allowing a parent to write three notes or excuse three absences without sending a child to the doctor is reasonable," Burton said.

Several committee members pressed for more study of special categories in the attendance policy, including child performers and mental-health absences. One member noted that the policy allows child performers two or more days within a 30-day period and raised concerns that those allowances could combine to a large number of excused days across a school year while other illness-related absences remain limited. Committee members agreed to hold a policy committee meeting to examine the parent-note rule and other attendance details in depth; the committee set that policy meeting for Nov. 4 at 10:00 a.m.

In related business, staff confirmed bid procedures for noncapital procurements such as backpacks for Title I/homeless services: bids are published on the district website and on Bid Express and notices are sent to previous bidders. Committee members asked for and were promised copies of bid tabulations that were missing from the packet.

The executive committee also completed routine consent approvals for the agenda and moved to adjourn at the end of the session.