Policy committee forwards four state-driven policy updates to full board

At its Dec. 25 meeting, the Madison Board of Education policy committee reviewed four policies updated to reflect recent state statutes and recommended sending them to the full board for formal consideration.

Unidentified Speaker 1 summarized policy 4119 on reports of suspected child abuse or neglect, noting revisions required by Public Act 24-41 that authorize a board employee to conduct a preliminary inquiry to determine whether reasonable cause exists to report suspected abuse. The committee agreed these changes are statutorily required and discussed waiving a second reading to expedite compliance.

Policy 51801 (confidentiality and access to education records) primarily contains technical edits clarifying that FERPA rights to an eligible student's records transfer to the student at age 18 and that schools may, but are not required to, disclose those records to parents who claim the student as a dependent under Internal Revenue Code §152.

Policy 6130 (curricular exemptions) will be renumbered and updated to reflect that statute requires boards to permit exemptions in five specific areas; committee members noted a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that may require boards to consider additional excusal requests grounded in free-exercise claims.

Policy 6050 (parental access to instructional material) incorporates Public Act 25-174 requirements to post curriculum objectives and scope and sequence; staff said the district already meets the posting requirement.

Committee members signaled agreement to waive second readings for these four model policies and to forward them to the Board of Education at the next meeting for formal action. Staff will present the items to the board with the committee’s recommendation.