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Committee approves truancy and child-abuse reporting policies; immunization and curriculum-review items deferred
Summary
The committee approved attendance/truancy and child-abuse reporting policies (first reading, as amended) and deferred immunization and parent-review curriculum policies for further work; several technical edits and code-alignments were requested.
The USDB standing committee approved two additional policies on March 17 and deferred two others for further drafting.
Attendance and truancy prevention: Superintendent Patton presented a combined attendance-and-truancy policy aligned to Utah compulsory-education law (title 53G chapter 6 part 2 and R277-607). Members requested minor technical edits (placement of the valid-excuse list and alignment to statutory timeframes for parent notification); the committee approved draft 1 as amended on first reading and forwarded it to the full board.
Child-abuse and neglect policy: Superintendent Nelson presented updates to clarify reporting responsibilities, citation formatting and potential consequences for employees who fail to report. The committee removed a scope-of-employment paragraph (section 3.2) that members said more appropriately belongs in an employee-code-of-conduct policy, added 'reporting' to the policy title, clarified referral to the Utah Professional Practice Advisory Commission (UPAC) for licensed educators and approved the policy draft 1 as amended on first reading.
Immunization policy and parental-review of curriculum: Staff and counsel recommended more time to reconcile immunization language with DHHS administrative rules; AAGs said the current policy is not out of compliance but could be streamlined. The committee moved immunization policy to next month's meeting for additional revision. Similarly, the proposed parent-review-of-curriculum policy lacks an established complaint process; the committee voted to postpone that item to next month so staff can draft a transparent review process and membership rules for a review committee.
What’s next: Staff will align attendance and child-abuse policies to code as requested, draft a complaint procedure for curriculum review and reconvene immunization-policy revision with AAG input before the next meeting.
