With just days before the school year begins, Fort Bend ISD administrators are recommending changes in district policy driven largely by recent legislation from the 89th Texas Legislature.

At the Aug. 4 agenda review meeting, trustees and administrators discussed the scope of policy updates—including the district’s new cellphone policy and revised student eligibility for extracurriculars.

"Some more [policies] will be coming to you very soon because we're on a time crunch ... as dictated by the Legislature,” said Beth Martinez, deputy superintendent chief of staff. “We want to get information out there to the public as soon as possible."

The gist

In response to the 89th Legislature, recommended revisions include:

• Limiting extracurricular eligibility for enrolled students: In response to Senate Bill 326, FBISD officials recommended opting out of University Interscholastic League, or UIL, eligibility for homeschool and private school students, which must be finalized before Sept. 1 to avoid default state eligibility.
• Prohibiting use of cellphones: Updated in response to House Bill 1481, the policy will no longer allow students to use their personal devices, including cellphones, tablets and earphones, during the school day and violations can result in confiscation. As adopted in January, pre-K-first graders will still be prohibited from possessing these devices all together.

Additionally, portions of the extracurricular policy were trimmed to state participation is a privilege, not a graduation requirement, allowing the superintendent to establish administrative procedures for eligibility.

Community Impact reached out to district officials to ask when these procedures will be implemented, but a response was not received before press time.

The specifics

Jaretha Jordan, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, said the plan is to fully implement the policy on the first day of school, not gradually over the semester. She said warnings will be issued for initial infractions, followed by confiscation and parent notification.

"Day one, we are activating our discipline management plan,” Jordan said. “We are not necessarily doing a slow roll."

Although state law only allows exceptions for personal device use granted by campus administrators for students with Individualized Learning Plans or Section 504 accommodations, district-issued devices will still be provided to students who need them for translation or learning support, Jordan said.

Next steps

More policy updates are expected in the coming months, Martinez said, particularly as the district addresses lingering updates from previous recommendations and works under legal deadlines imposed by the Legislature.

Trustees will vote on the revisions at the Aug. 11 board meeting, followed by the release of a public webpage with updated information going live after Aug. 18.