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Effingham County board reviews sweeping student handbook revisions, including discipline, bus and assessment changes
Summary
At a regular meeting, district staff detailed comprehensive changes to the student and parent handbook—covering teacher authority, bus conduct, bullying and cyberbullying rules, a new safety‑screening policy and adjustments to ELA assessment consequences tied to new state standards.
The Effingham County Board of Education on the meeting agenda heard a detailed presentation of proposed 2025–26 student and parent handbook revisions that would change discipline procedures, attendance and enrollment rules, bus conduct, and how some state assessments affect promotion.
Mr. Hood, the district presenter, said the handbook updates align with statutes and recent practice and highlighted several of the largest changes. He described new teacher authority sections that require teachers to submit discipline referrals and establish classroom and placement review committees when a teacher deems a student unsafe in class. "Basically, all teachers will submit discipline referrals when someone's in violation of the code of conduct," Hood said during his summary of the changes.
The district also proposes tighter rules for suspension and expulsion: while those consequences reflected existing practices, the handbook would now state expressly that a student under suspension or expulsion is prohibited from being on district property and from attending extracurricular activities. Hood said statutory changes required new wording for physical assault and battery and that, under the revised language, the minimum punishment for certain assault or battery violations would be expulsion for one year, subject to board or superintendent discretion and available alternatives such as hearings or alternative schooling.
Bus rules and safety receive new attention. The handbook would make bus conduct subject to the same student code of conduct that applies on campus, add a misdemeanor reference for behaviors that stop or block a bus, and explicitly give drivers the authority to assign seats. The handbook would also add a new 'safety screenings' subsection under video surveillance and site access, reflecting the district's roll‑out of screening stations at some campuses.
On bullying, the proposed handbook expands the definition to explicitly include cyberbullying that originates on school property or uses school equipment; the district clarified processes for notification and investigation and said administrators will notify parents and pursue formal investigation when patterns are established.
Academic policy changes reflect new state standards: staff said ELA assessments will not be used as gate‑year promotion criteria next year while math will remain a gate subject in certain grades. Course names and graduation requirement references were updated (for example, American Literature references were renamed to the new "literature and composition" sequence), and dual‑enrollment deadlines were added. Mr. Hood explained the changes are driven by new state ELA course titles and assessment timing.
The presentation also included changes to student health procedures (including a request that parents provide a 30‑day supply of most medications to school nurses, noting exemptions for items such as EpiPens or insulin), adjustments to dress code language (e.g., socks may not display inappropriate images), tightened rules on cheating and academic dishonesty, and a new section called "articles unrelated to school instruction" to capture nonacademic items such as playing cards or water guns.
Dr. Neesmith, who addressed enrollment and curriculum updates tied to House Bill 268, said the handbook will reflect provisional enrollment rules and a requirement for 24 months of academic records in some cases. He also said the STEM Academy name will be streamlined to "STEM program," and that chronic absenteeism may be considered during admissions lotteries.
The board was not asked to vote on the handbook at the meeting; staff invited members to review the document further and submit suggested edits. The district said legal language for nondiscrimination was updated to reflect recent state statute language (the transcript references the statute change), and staff noted the district attorney had reviewed statutory wording used in the handbook.
The presentation ran through many specific page‑level edits; staff urged board members to review the packet and to raise any concerns before a future vote.
