Dallas Center-Grimes board approves emergency electronic‑device policy; debates mental‑health absence coding

The Dallas Center‑Grimes Community School District Board of Education approved an emergency reading of an electronic‑device policy and completed a first reading of the 2025–26 student handbook at a special meeting, and board members spent substantial time discussing how mental‑health absences should be coded and tracked.

District administrators said the emergency electronic‑device policy must be adopted before the start of school so consistent language – including coverage for kindergarten through grade 12 – is in place. “This is our… electronic, device policy that needs to be in place before the start of school,” a district administrator said during the meeting, adding the policy aligns practices across buildings and extends device restrictions to elementary schools.

The policy language was submitted as an emergency reading so it could be approved ahead of school opening. Board members approved the emergency reading by voice vote.

Board members then approved a first reading of additional district policies (the 5 and 100 series) and took a first reading of the student handbook for the 2025–26 school year. Administrators told the board the electronic‑device language is included in the handbook; had the board altered the device policy, the handbook item would have been pulled back for revision.

Several members asked about handbook details that will be finalized before the next steps. One board member noted the handbook did not mention transitional kindergarten; administrators acknowledged that point and indicated they would address it. The handbook item passed its first reading on a voice vote.

A central portion of the discussion focused on how a single‑day “mental‑health day” should be classified in attendance records and how those absences would affect chronic‑absence calculations. A district administrator said families should report absences and that the district needs to clarify whether short mental‑health absences are coded as excused or unexcused in Infinite Campus, the district’s student information system.

A district official described the district’s current thresholds for chronic absenteeism used in state reporting and local follow‑up: an absence rate of 10 percent triggers monitoring, 15 percent may prompt additional actions such as attendance plans, and these thresholds translate to roughly 27 hours of missed instruction at the 10 percent level. The official said an attendance plan is optional under state rules and that building‑level staff will review patterns (including day‑of‑week trends) and follow up where absences begin to affect instruction.

Administrators noted there are multiple coding options – medical excuses, 504 plan exemptions and other classifications – and that school staff use a two‑page guide to help attendance secretaries and administrators code absences consistently. They said the district can pull Infinite Campus data at the building level to identify trends and intervene where needed.

Board members also approved routine items by voice vote, including the consent agenda, an optional school fee schedule item related to student padlocks (families may purchase a lock or request one from the district; district staff said locks sold through the fee system are configured for master‑key access), and authorization to sell surplus items on the GovDeals platform. The board scheduled its next regular meeting for Monday, Aug. 25, and adjourned.

Votes at a glance

- Emergency reading, electronic‑device policy: Motion approved by voice vote; mover: Vander Velde; second: Lemberg; tally: voice vote, tallies not specified. - First reading, policies (5 and 100 series): Motion approved by voice vote; mover: Wahlberg; second: Dickinson; tally: voice vote, tallies not specified. - First reading, student handbook 2025–26 (including device policy reference): Motion approved by voice vote; mover: Dickinson; second: Fiella; tally: voice vote, tallies not specified. - Optional school fee (student padlocks): Motion approved by voice vote; mover: not specified; second: not specified; tally: voice vote, tallies not specified. - Authorization to sell surplus items on GovDeals: Motion approved by voice vote; mover: Vander Velden; second: Fiella; tally: voice vote, tallies not specified.

The board did not adopt new attendance policy language at the meeting; administrators said more work is needed to define coding for single‑day mental‑health absences and to ensure building‑level follow‑up. The board directed administrators to return with any clerical corrections and to follow up with building leaders as needed.