- In North Carolina, the Wake County school board gave final approval Tuesday to a new “technology responsible use” policy that will require parental consent before students can use technology in school. The policy covers use of social media accounts, including Facebook and Twitter.
- In Georgia, the Coweta County Board of Education approved a cyberbullying policy. The policy reaches all electronic communication – whether or not it originates on school property or with school equipment – if the act is directed at students or school personnel, is malicious and intended to harm their safety or substantially disrupt the orderly operation of school, and creates a reasonable fear of harm to the students’ or school personnel’s person or property.
- In California, the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District is installing cameras and tracking devices to its buses. The monitoring system, called “vMax Trac,” will allow the school district to know the location of its buses, see what’s happening on the buses, and know the names of all the students on board.
- In Wisconsin, the Madison School District is struggling with its new restorative justice discipline policy. Since its Behavior Education Plan went into effect for the 2014-2015 school year, out-of-school suspensions across the school district dropped 32 percent, but the racial disproportionality of suspensions actually increased. And students, teachers, and parents continue to criticize the climate on campus brought by the new policy.