School committee approves 2025-26 student handbooks; superintendent authorized to make minor edits

The Tewksbury School Committee voted July 9 to approve the 2025-26 student handbooks for the district's school groupings, with permission for the superintendent to make minor editorial or consistency changes prior to publication.

Principals and administrators described the most substantive updates: the addition of the AI guidance (to be linked to the district's acceptable-use procedures), clearer language about personal electronic devices and cell phones (including a note that buses and bus stops are extensions of school), updated bicycle and scooter language, a library circulation policy with clearer limits for younger grades, and revised wording on tardies and levels of infractions.

Principals said they worked to make handbook language consistent across schools, to provide clearer expectations for families and to create a student-friendly "mini" handbook or quick-reference summary that student councils can help produce. Several committee members asked for consistent wording about family-trip makeup-work expectations and agreed that administrative authority to standardize language across handbooks was practical.

The motion to approve the handbooks was made by a committee member and seconded; the vote to approve the four handbooks carried unanimously with the caveat that the superintendent may make edits and inform the committee of substantive changes.

Administrators said the changes were intended to be procedural and to improve clarity for families and staff rather than to create new disciplinary policy. They also noted the need for implementation work at the start of school to educate students about acceptable use, device expectations and new items such as AI guidance.