SD#3 backs away from parental rights policy

Delays second reading for further discussion

The parental rights bill that was passed by Wyoming Legislature earlier this year gave the state’s school districts until July 1 to adopt rules, policies and procedures that complied with the new law.
Big Horn County School District No. 3 did not meet that deadline and took it a step further on Aug. 13, delaying what was supposed to be the second reading of Policy KB (Parental Rights) and Policy KB-R (Parental Rights Complaints Procedures).
Several other new policies, including ones dealing with health screenings and services, fees and costs for public records and drug-free workplaces, easily cleared the hurdle of a second reading.
“I don’t like it,” Trustee Mart Hinckley said of the parental rights policies, suggesting that it puts “way too much liability on us (as a school board) and on guys (school employees).”
The parental rights policies can be traced to the passage of Senate File 9, which requires K-12 public schools to “provide parents and guardians notice regarding their children as soon as practicable if there is a change in their child’s education, physical, mental or emotional health or well-being.”
Furthermore, the bill requires school districts to “adopt policies to reinforce the fundamental right of parents and guardians to make decisions regarding the care and control of their children.”
Districts “cannot prohibit parental and guardian involvement in critical decisions involving their child and must provide parents and guardians with access to their child’s records” and “must make any well-being questionnaire or health screening tool available to parents and guardians and obtain consent from the child’s parent or guardian prior to administration.”
School districts “must obtain parental or guardian consent prior to a child participating or receiving instruction that addresses sexual orientation or gender identity.”
In addition, the bill “specifies a process for parents and guardians to resolve complaints and concerns related to the sharing of information relevant to their children or failure by the school districts to adhere to provisions of the act.”
The board has wrestled with the parental rights policy language for the past two months, feeling caught between a mandate from the state and the concerns about the impact such a policy might have on teachers.
“I don’t know what we do about it,” said Trustee Pam Flitner said of the mandate. “If we don’t sign up, we don’t get our money.”
Trustee Bill Robertson suggested that the policy in front of the board may require more than simple wordsmithing -- a total revision might be in order.  Supt. Mark Fritz said he used AI to generate a policy based on the new law and was pleasantly surprised to see what it produced, believing it to be easier to understand.
“We could be a leader on this,” said Fritz, addressing a question regarding the implications of not passing the parental rights policy by the deadline.  “We can also instruct staff to keep the bones about this, such as, part of this is keeping track of a student they feel is subject to concerns.  We still abide by those things.  I don’t think we, as a  board, have a problem with, if something’s wrong with a kid, call home and document it.  I don’t think anyone has a problem with that.  Some of the other language, we do.
“We also don’t have a problem letting parents know what screening tools we are using on their kids.  We can keep doing those things. We’ve been doing those things anyway.  So we’ll still be complying, as best we can.”
Robertson said he believes other districts are also struggling to come up with policies.  
While acknowledging that some have rubber stamped it, Fritz said it’s “betting to get it right” in the long run.  
Hinkley said he would vote “nay” if asked to approve the policy in its present form.
The board intends to hold a special meeting in the coming weeks to further discuss the two policies.
Other news
In other news from the Aug. 13 meeting:
• The board accepted the resignation of bus driver Ken Dellos, effective Aug. 9.  “We were so excited, thinking we had enough bus drivers,” said Fritz. “So that has set us back.”
With very few kids taking advantage of it the last few years, the district is not planning to run an after school bus to begin the year. Doing so requires three drivers -- one for the Shell route, one for the Greybull River Road route and one for the Emblem route.
“We don’t have the numbers or the drivers right now,” said Fritz.
He said the district is going to approach it from a different angle, waiting to see who requires transportation and then figuring out how to provide it without the use of a bus.
• The board accepted the home-school requests for 10 students,.
• An out-of-district request for an 11th grade student from Basin to attend Greybull schools was approved.
• The board accepted donations of $15,000 from Scott Good, given in memory of his late father John, for the purchase of shot clocks for the gyms; and $250 given by Danny Vigil/Big Horn Basin Livestock Auction, for the Greybull FFA program.