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New VSBA Model Policies Separate Board and Administrator Roles; "Gender Identity" Now Required in Anti-Harassment Policies
The VSBA has revised 24 of its model school board policies and posted them on the Association website. The revisions follow the first major review of the Association’s model policies in over five years. The revised models share one common feature - a clear distinction between policy requirements adopted by boards and administrative procedures developed by superintendents and principals. The revised policies are posted on the VSBA website at http://www.vtvsba.org/policy/policy.htm.
School boards and administrators should also be aware of the addition of "gender identity" to the state’s non-discrimination laws. As explained later in this article, the addition will require changes to the anti-harassment policies now in place in most school districts.
The policy revision work began over a year ago, and included a review of statutory requirements for school board policies and the revision of all policies found to be required by federal or state law. A significant addition to the model policies that were revised is the inclusion of endnotes in each policy. The endnotes will help boards and administrators understand why certain policy provisions are included in the models and will provide legal citations to the statutes or regulations that dictate the scope of each policy.
The most noteworthy feature of the new models is their delineation of the policy role of boards and the management role of administrators. The new models include only policy statements either required by law or necessary to fulfill the board’s role of determining the "what’s" in specific areas while leaving the "how’s" in those areas to be determined through administrative rules or procedures. This delineation is consistent with the distinctions made in Vermont law. Section 563(1) of Title 16 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated charges boards with determining "the educational policies of the school district." Section 563(1) further requires that board policies "be of general application to the district," and allows (but does not require) boards to "approve or disapprove rules and regulations proposed by the principal or superintendent for the conduct and management of public schools in the district."
Because the revised VSBA model policies do not include procedural requirements, it will be necessary in most cases for administrators to develop procedures to accompany the policies. In several cases, the revised policies are accompanied by sample procedures to assist in this work. In other cases, sample procedures will be posted on the VSBA website as they are developed in the future.
It is important to note that it is not necessary to make changes to existing policies solely because revised models have been developed. The revised policies are intended to be used as boards review their existing policies in the normal course of their business.
One exception to this general rule is in the area of anti-harassment policies. The legislature added the classification of "gender identity" to the list of protected classes for harassment and non-discrimination purposes in 2007. Gender identity has been defined by the State as, "an individual’s actual or perceived gender identity, or gender-related characteristics intrinsically related to an individual’s gender or gender-identity, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth."
A new model policy on student harassment has been developed by the Department of Education, and is posted on the Department and VSBA websites. The anti-harassment law requires that school policies on harassment be "at least as stringent as model policies developed by the Commissioner." The VSBA therefore recommends adoption of the anti-harassment policy developed by the Department of Education, even though that policy includes several changes to the Department’s previous model that go beyond the mere inclusion of the new gender identity classification. School district anti-harassment policies must include gender identity as one of the protected classifications by August 1, 2009.
As always, questions about any of the VSBA model policies can be discussed with the VSBA staff by calling our office at 802-223-3580 or by emailing us at jnelson@vtvsvba.org.
