The Monroe County Community School Corporation is responding to parents’ concerns by giving high schoolers another way to contact parents while state law bans cell phones during the school day.
Senate Enrolled Act 78, which passed earlier this year, does not allow students to access personal wireless devices, such as phones, smartwatches and tablets, during the school day. Devices would either need to be left at home or stored in an inaccessible place during the day.
The corporation adopted a policy this summer to comply and said the best way for parents to get in touch with their kids is by calling the school’s front office. Exceptions in the corporation’s policy allowing students access to their personal wireless device include an “appropriate time” during an emergency; managing a medical condition as part of an order from a licensed healthcare provider; and for language translation when no school-managed device is available.
Various parents voiced concerns about it becoming harder for them to contact their kids, especially in an emergency. To address these concerns, MCCSC Superintendent Markay Winston said high school students will be able to use school-issued devices to communicate with their parents via ParentSquare, a K-12 communication platform.
“We think that that's a wonderful service that we can have available for our families,” she said. “And we're going to test that out and see how well our families respond to being able to have direct communication with their students through ParentSquare.”
Since the corporation already has a membership with ParentSquare, Winston said no additional funds were needed to provide this service.
Evansville schools do something similar
The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation (EVSC) voted unanimously at a board meeting earlier this week to pay ParentSquare $21,000 to allow middle and high school students to communicate with their parents on school-issued devices. The board approved a one-year agreement and will monitor monthly data to see how often it’s used.
“Our responsibility is not only to comply with the law, but also to ensure that students and parents have a reliable way to communicate when necessary,” said Evansville school board member Christopher Kiefer. “One of the strengths of this proposal is the use of ParentSquare on district-issued Chromebooks, rather than relying on personal cellphones during the school day. ParentSquare provides a safe and appropriate way for students and parents to communicate while supporting the intent of the new state law.”
Board members clarified that students will only be able to message their parents and not their friends. They think providing this opportunity will give parents a sense of ease in knowing their child is safe.
“Of course, our school offices are always happy to assist with relaying messages,” said EVSC spokesman Jason Woebkenberg. “But this is for especially with extracurriculars when those practices rehearsals get changed and students need a ride that type of thing. That's where there's convenience with this.”
