Poudre School District begins four-year policy review; seven student policies presented for first reading
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Summary
General counsel presented a new four-year policy-review cycle and seven student-focused policies for first reading, with public comment open through Jan. 19. Board members pressed for retained protections for students with IEPs/504 plans and asked for clearer enforcement responsibility and community feedback.
Autumn Aspen, the district's general counsel, told the Poudre School District R-1 Board of Education on Jan. 13 that the legal department is launching a four-year cycle to review all district policies and brought seven student-facing policies for a first reading.
"Tonight, I'll be presenting 7 policies for a first reading," Aspen said, describing a process that includes internal redlines, policy-review committee input, cabinet review and a public survey. She said the district plans to post full redlines online and accept public feedback through Jan. 19 before a second reading on Jan. 27.
As part of the presentation, Aspen outlined proposed changes intended to improve clarity and consistency across policies. Highlights included updating the dress code (policy JICA) to remove biased enforcement tied to gender and to reflect a new Colorado law allowing cultural and religious items at graduation; renaming and clarifying the district's threat assessment policy (JICDD) as a behavioral threat assessment policy; reorganizing the bullying prevention policy (JICDE) to align with the Colorado Department of Education model policy; adding a definition for secret societies in the gang/secret-society policy (JICF); clarifying weapons rules (JICI) and surrender procedures; modest updates to the student parking policy (JLI E); and referencing the district suicide-prevention protocols and risk screening in policy JT.
Board members used the presentation to press for specificity. One director said they would "be in favor of keeping" explicit language that requires special-education teams to be involved after bullying incidents; Aspen acknowledged prior draft language that removed IEP/504-specific response steps and said she would bring clarified language back for the second reading.
The legal team also described new structural proposals: creating a standalone definitions policy or index to harmonize terms across policies and standardizing how the district refers to parents/caregivers. Aspen said the policy-review committee — an advisory group including board members, legal counsel and representative stakeholders — will review 3–5 policies per month to implement the cycle.
Aspen invited the public to use the online survey and said the legal department would share a summary of feedback with the board before the second reading. The board scheduled a second reading for Jan. 27.