The overview
The 2024-25 FISD student handbook now clarifies that parents will be the primary decision-makers regarding their students' access to library material. This is the first year this clarification was added, as previous handbooks only cited when the library could be used for independent student use, and library books could acquire fees if students lose, damage or don’t return them in time, according to district documents.
FISD follows the Texas State Library and Archive Commission’s standards for school library collection development, according to district documents.
Parents who want to access the school’s library or any available online catalog may submit a request to campus principals.
Any student and parent feedback on library materials and services can be relayed to campus librarians, according to the new policy. District employees or parents may request to reconsider library material by contacting campus principals.
What else?
The 2024-25 FISD student handbook also includes a new policy about student safety in regard to technology and their respective data.
The handbook has the following policies the district will instill in accordance to state and federal law:
- Install a filter that blocks and prohibits pornographic or obscene materials or applications, including from unsolicited pop-ups, installations and downloads, before transferring an electronic device to a student to be used for an educational purposes.
- Block or filter students’ internet access to pictures that are obscene, contain child pornography or have been determined to be harmful to minors in accordance with the Children's Internet Protection Act.
- Require direct and informed parental consent for a student’s use of software, other than software excluded from the consent requirement by law.
- Require direct and informed parental consent for a student’s use of software that conducts mental health assessments or other assessments unrelated to education curricula that are intended to collect information about students.
While board members passed this change, some noted they would like to see stricter enforcement on the cellphone policy in FISD, which consists of students being allowed to possess personal cellphones for safety purposes. However, they must remain turned off during the instructional day, including during testing, unless they are approved for instructional purposes.
Although this has been the district’s cellphone policy for several years, board trustee Tony Hopkins said the policy should possibly be changed, as he believed it wasn’t being enforced well enough.
“The policy that’s going in at most places ... is [no cellphones] from the time the first bell rings until the time the last bell rings, that way there’s no temptation,” Hopkins said. “For my two kids—one was a senior and one was an eighth grader [in FISD]—I could text them at any point in the day and get an answer within five minutes, and that’s when I knew the policy had been thrown out the window, and that’s not acceptable.”
FISD Superintendent Thad Roher said he will look into starting surveys with parents, teachers and community members to start a path onto a new policy, one potentially alluding to a bell-to-bell policy Hopkins recommended.
Also of note
Since there was not a legislative session this year, FISD’s code of conduct did not have any changes, according to district documents.
