One of the most important duties of local school boards is setting district policies, which are written statements of how the board expects the district to operate and in many cases are required by state and federal laws. 

Yet many school district leaders say it can be a challenge to manage policies, especially if there is turnover among the board members or district staff responsible for keeping the policies updated and accessible. It is also a challenge for new superintendents who inherit policies previously adopted over past years.

LeRoy-Gridley USD 245 superintendent and elementary school principal Matt Thomsen remembers his experience as a new superintendent. “I found we had a three-ring binder that was fatter than a backpack,” he said. “Every time I had to look up something, I had to go through this binder, and being a new superintendent, I didn’t know how things were organized or how the coding system worked.” It was also clear that many polices were outdated.

State and federal laws often require boards to adopt certain written policies, and if policies are absent, fail to comply with legal requirements or are inconsistently applied, school boards can face legal challenges and penalties. 

Osawatomie USD 367 superintendent Greg Clark had similar experiences with outdated policies in his past and current positions. “You know that board policy is one of a million things you have to do, so I'm not trying to be critical of my predecessors, but once you fall a little bit behind, it is harder and harder to catch up.” 

Board policy also sets a course of action and provides guidance for students, district employees, community members, and the board itself. While state and federal laws require certain policies and procedures, there are also many ways policies can be developed and addressed to meet local concerns.

“When you run a district, your board policy is your road map. It allows you to deal with issues without having to make this stuff up on the fly,” said Clark, who gave an example about how his district used policy to address a major concern about behavior and supporting staff. “Our board had wanted a policy to protect all staff members from violence or physical or verbal or mental abuse from students. We crafted a policy that is now in our student handbooks with what the punishments are for abuse of staff.”
KASB has long supported school boards in developing and implementing policy through its Legal Department, and recently has offered new services to assist boards in this area.

Both superintendents said they inherited policies that had been addressed by the board over many years but had not received an overall review for consistency and full compliance. Both also faced a challenge of mastering what policies boards had put in place in their new districts.

“In my first district, I took the time to go through and update the policy manual myself,” said Clark. “That was very time consuming. When I moved to a larger district (Osawatomie), that just wasn’t practical or effective, so we contracted for KASB’s service to review what we had.” 

Likewise, Thomsen said his board approved his and board clerk Nikki Houston’s recommendation to subscribe to KASB’s Policy Plus Service, which provided a “cleaned up” policy manual based on recommended policies and local changes. To keep current, both school boards now regularly review policies.

To help boards, KASB develops model policies to meet legal requirements and offer best practices based on the association's extensive legal and educational expertise. At least twice a year,

KASB sends all members a “Policy Update” that contains recommended policy changes and additions based on new laws and regulations, and any new recommendations for policies to guide best practices in the district. 

KASB’s most recent policy updates cover a range of important topics, including state requirements for open enrollment, medical emergency response planning, and virtual school student participation in school activities. They also address federal regulations on Title IX and food service management, as well as recommendations for student release policies, self-administration of medication, and compliance with the state's open meetings law.

KASB’s recommendations are just that: recommendations. In consultation with district staff and with community input, local school boards can modify these recommendations before adopting them – although some changes could result in failure to meet legal requirements and open the district to litigation or other penalties.

The LeRoy-Gridley board now regularly considers new updates when sent from KASB. “Our board looks at the recommended policy updates,” said Thomson. “You get to make them your own, because not every policy fits every school district. We can tweak it and make it our own to fit our district. We have done that a couple of times, but most of the time the recommended policies cover us well enough to adopt them as they are.”

In Osawatomie, Clark said the board voted in July on the June policy updates. “We reviewed KASB’s policy recommendations, made a few changes here and there, and board policies are updated online, usually within a day after we adopt.” 

KASB’s staff of attorneys are here to help and can advise members on individual policy issues. They also offer the following enhanced policy services for an additional fee based on the district’s enrollment size:

• Policy Lite - Includes a complete audit of the district’s adopted policies to check for compliance with current requirements and offer recommendations for improvement. KASB develops a complete, updated policy manual incorporating local preferences for board approval, delivered electronically to the district.
• Policy Plus - Provides all the services listed above, but also includes an online policy manual with an easy-to-use format that is fully searchable by word or phrase. When the board makes changes to policy, KASB automatically makes those changes in the online manual, ensuring the document remains current. The district can make the manual accessible through its own website, allowing its policies to be easily accessed and searched by board members, staff and community members.
• Policy Premier - Provides the same policy review and customized policy development and allows the electronic policy manual to be incorporated into the BoardBook paperless board services, which offers an array of eMeeting and agenda building services.

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Both LeRoy-Gridley’s superintendent Thomsen and board clerk Houston praised the online access for board policy. “If someone asks us about a board policy, we can lead them to our webpage, say click on “board of education and policies” and just hit the search engine and find it,” said Thomsen. “It's automatically updated so we don't have to worry about constantly shuffling three-hole punch pieces of paper out of three ring binders.” 

“The old system was very confusing,” said Houston. “I love this one because if we're talking about something and someone asks what our policy is, I can go in the search bar, put in a keyword and it pulls it up. I'm not sifting through thousands of pages to try to find something that may not been placed where it is supposed to be in the binder.”

Keeping district policies up-to-date can be a challenge, but KASB’s policy services make it easier for school boards to stay on track. Want to learn more? Explore the range of services we offer and how you can access these valuable resources.