Gray County board approves ParentSquare, school email and Infinite Campus to meet new state traceable-communications law

The Gray County Board of Education on June 24 approved ParentSquare, the district school email system and Infinite Campus as the district's official "traceable" communication platforms to comply with a recently enacted state law the meeting identified as Senate Bill 181.

The board motion authorized district administration to implement the systems, onboard staff, students and parents, establish required training and notification protocols and adopt the accompanying policy framework. The board voted to approve the motion after a staff presentation and extended discussion about legal and technical implications.

Why it matters: School staff, volunteers and coaches will be required by the new law to use district-approved, archivable communications for interactions with students; the district must be able to collect and produce those communications on request. Administrators said the change affects daily logistics for athletics, clubs and classroom contact and will require new training and record-retention processes.

Superintendent Clint Taylor and district staff told the board that ParentSquare costs roughly $5 per enrolled student, which the district estimated at about $13,590 for the coming year. District staff said the school email servers and Infinite Campus will be additional traceable channels. The motion adopted the district email system and ParentSquare and included Infinite Campus as a third authorized system.

Discussion before the vote focused on how broadly the statute reaches, how disciplinary and reporting requirements are triggered, and whether existing tools such as Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams or informal social-media channels meet the law's archival requirements. District legal counsel warned that the law, as explained in the meeting, requires districts to be able to access and log electronic communications and sets strict reporting and sanctions if violations are discovered. Staff said some current free platforms do not provide the archival, administrative access or audit trails the law requires.

District staff flagged several immediate operational concerns: determining whether district servers can long-term archive Teams conversations and other chat logs; whether the district must block social media access on school internet; and how the district will manage communications that involve non-enrolled students or volunteers who participate across multiple districts. Staff said they will evaluate Teams and Google Classroom for compliance and expected further guidance from the state education agency.

Board members and staff also described practical impacts for volunteers and family members. District staff cautioned volunteers and coaches that, under the meeting's explanation of the law, noncompliant direct messages could trigger mandatory reporting and sanctions, and that waivers allowing non-district communications must be documented and can be revoked. Staff said they will deliver training for coaches and teachers before the start of school activities and will provide parents ways to opt in or out per the district procedures.

The board directed administration to proceed with implementation and training and to bring policy language and waiver forms back for board review as required. Staff said the district will revisit vendor selection if the law or guidance changes.

Notes: During the meeting staff used the phrasing "Senate Bill 181" when describing the new state requirement. The transcript used several variants; the district staff said they also were comparing vendor waiver templates from KSBA and other organizations as they finalize procedures.