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Fremont City Schools says new Senate Bill 29 will require 72-hour parent notifications after staff access to student devices
Summary
Superintendent told the board that Senate Bill 29 (effective Oct. 24) requires Fremont City Schools to publish vendor lists, send family notices and, when staff access a student-issued device or account for troubleshooting, notify families within 72 hours; administrators warned it will add work for principals and IT.
The Fremont City Schools superintendent told the school board that Senate Bill 29, which takes effect Thursday, Oct. 24, requires districts to publish an annual list of third‑party vendors and notify families when staff access a student-issued device or account.
"That law will come into effect this Thursday, October 24," the superintendent said, and described three elements of the law: an annual posting of vendors, a district notification sent to families, and a requirement that if staff ‘mimic’ a student account or access a device for troubleshooting they must notify the family within 72 hours and explain why they did so.
The superintendent said the district has prepared a notice template and an administrative workflow that includes check boxes for reason and action, and that the district will send the notice to families via FinalForms. "Within 72 hours, we will notify our family that this is what we did, and this is why we did it," the superintendent said.
Board members questioned how much additional time the requirement will add to building principals and the technology department. The superintendent acknowledged the change will add work: "It will add to our building principals' time frame. It will add to my technology department. It will add to my curriculum department," she said, and noted the district set up back‑end systems to collect and sort data by school, teacher and incident type.
One board member described the requirement as burdensome for classroom teachers, arguing that staff who help students log in could be diverted from instruction. The superintendent framed the law as a student‑privacy protection and said the district is prepared to comply while monitoring how implementation affects staff time.
The district plans to post vendor information by next August, send the family notification to guardians via FinalForms on the morning after the law takes effect, and collect operational data to report internally. The board did not take formal action on the implementation plan during the meeting; the superintendent said staff will monitor impacts and communicate back to legislators if operational changes are needed.
Next steps: the district will distribute the family notification; track incidents using a new back‑end collection system; and bring any recommended tweaks to the board if implementation creates unanticipated burdens.
