Every public school district has a policy manual—online in today’s world. A policy manual is a set of documents that serve as directives for the way the district is run by administration and school leadership. Publishing it on the website increases transparency. Board policy manuals must be aligned with state and federal law and cited in each policy. The members of a board of education create and set policy during board meetings with support from the superintendent and administrative team. Policy manuals are regularly reviewed and updated. They are general in nature and actual procedures are typically written from these policies and carried out within the school buildings.

Who Can Have an Impact on School District Policy?

Any stakeholder in a district has the potential to affect policies. The employees, students, parents, and community members who are residents have the greatest impact. State and federal legislators, too, have a significant ability to impact policy every time they pass a new law.

Ways to Affect School District Policy

There are steps that one must take to change school district policy. It is important to follow the chain of command when trying to make changes so that administrators and board members are not caught unprepared. Although it can be tempting to ruffle feathers about an issue that may be very personal, getting emotional and creating havoc will not make anyone eager to work together for a change. It’s best to be calm and thoughtful about the issue.

When there is policy that one wants to change, the first thing to do is research the policy. Review the online policy manual and then see what specific laws, if any, are noted at the end. Check those laws to be sure they are current. If something is law, no amount of working with the district will get them to change it. They are not able to ignore state and/or federal law. At that point, take your views to legislators to see if you can get them to change the law. They typically would like to be re-elected so they do listen to reasonable requests.

If you find that no laws are cited, write down ideas about why the policy needs to change. Check out surrounding school districts and review their policy on the matter. They may have something different that you can use for your research. Check to see if there is any research supporting your point of view. Call your principal and let them know that you are interested in this policy and ask questions about how it is implemented. Ask them what they think about changing it to your point of view and carefully listen. There may be reasons for this policy that weren’t clear.  Or, you may find that they, too, do not agree with the current policy.

Next, go to the district level and ask for an appointment with the superintendent. Be clear about the intent of the meeting so that the superintendent is not caught unprepared. Let them know the policy that you will discuss so that they can be ready. If the superintendent can be convinced to bring it to the board level, the objective will be attained.  Be calm and present your arguments in a well thought out, coherent manner. The most important point to bring up is any effect on students. Students are at the center of all decision-making taking place.

If the superintendent is not moved, let them know that you will take it to the next level, the board of education. You can go to the website and get emails and contact information for board of education members. Frame your arguments in a letter and send it to each person. Call and ask to meet with the board president to discuss this policy. It is best to address the board president initially to see if you can garner support.

Going to a board of education meeting is not recommended for several reasons. First of all, a board meeting is a meeting for the board to conduct business of the school district in public. It is not a meeting for the public to come and hold discussion. There are public comment sections of the meeting and those are typically held with a time limit, 3-5 minutes is common. No one is going to be convinced to change a board policy from one speech given in 3-5 minutes. They may also ask if you brought up your concern to the administration first. If you have not, they will direct you back through the appropriate chain of command.

It is also not recommended to gather together in a group and approach the administration and school board as a group. It is more impactful for individuals to state their own cases and not rely upon a group. When single individuals regularly contact the administration and/or school board, it becomes a pattern that bears looking into.

The best example this author has seen took place in an Illinois school district. The school nurse was bothered by a no-nit policy that the district had for head lice. The policy read that if any nits were discovered in a child’s head, that child could not be in class until all nits were extinguished. The nurse felt that nits were not giving a disease to others and that it was excessive to ban the child from school until all nits were gone. He got medical information from the American Academy of Pediatrics that stated the same thing and recommended that students be allowed to come to school and take care of the nits at home so they would not miss instruction.

He first ran it by the principal and though she was not moved by the argument, he stated his intent to bring it to the district office. He shared his information and request with the superintendent and head of student services, and they advocated with him to the board of education to change the policy so that students would no longer be excluded from the educational environment. The board of education agreed to this change. Even one person can have a profound impact on educational policy and the improvement of public-school education.

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From the dawning of compulsory public education in the United States in the early to mid-twentieth century to the present, the process of education has been fraught with legislative processes and legal proceedings. Given the litigious nature of public education, adherence to established laws and policies developed at the federal, state, and local levels must always be at the forefront of the thought processes of educational leaders. Naturally, educational leaders must do their best to ensure that students in their charges are provided with equitable access to education within the boundaries and expectations established by education policy and law.

Although adherence to policies is a critical component of effective leadership, school leaders must put forth an intentional effort not to forget a second, yet perhaps more important, component within the educational process, namely, the people. Educational administration leaders are in the business of working with people including not only students and instructional staff members but also school and community stakeholders.

While an educational leadership style centered around simply “throwing the book” at individuals may lead to efficiency in doling out disciplinary consequences and leaving the office at a reasonable time, this approach prevents those in leadership positions from experiencing the richness of leading in a manner that is person-centered and focused upon cultivating relationships.

Policy-Centered vs. Person-Centered Approaches

For example, consider a scenario in which a building principal is confronted with a situation in which a student has been habitually absent from school. From a solely policy-centered perspective, the principal in this case would initiate truancy proceedings in accordance with state and local policies, attempt to meet with the student and a guardian to develop a truancy elimination plan, and then follow through with legal action if the student does not meet the requirements of the agreed-upon plan. While this approach seems timely and fulfills the legal requirements, the end result may be less than effective.

Now, consider the same scenario from the perspective of an instructional leader that employs a person-centered perspective. Through this lens, the principal would reach out to the student and initiate a conversation in which the student would be given an opportunity to explain why he or she had been habitually absent from school. After hearing the student’s explanation, the principal now has obtained critical background information about the student in question and is able to develop a better informed course of action. Perhaps the student in question simply does not like school and is not attending. In this case, the principal should delve deeper into the reasons why the students is avoiding school, which could range from a personality conflict with a teacher or peer, bullying, or potentially a mental health issue among countless other reasons.

Once the reason for the truancy has been ascertained, the principal can the take appropriate action from an informed perspective while also advancing to the legally mandated step of developing a truancy elimination plan in concert with the student and his or her parents and/or guardians. Through this process, the principal who has employed a person-centered approach has fulfilled his or her legal obligations while also completing the critical step of giving the student in question a voice.

At this point, beyond the simple task of creating a truancy elimination plan, the principal can take informed action steps to assist the student in improving his or her attendance such as addressing teacher or peer concerns, bullying issues, or contacting appropriate personnel or agency partners in the event that the student is dealing with a mental health concern.

Person-Centered but Policy-Based

The beauty of the person-centered approach is that it promotes an environment of trust between the educational leader and those with whom he or she interacts, be they children or adults, while maintaining adherence to applicable educational laws. This is not to say that giving a voice to those with whom educational leaders interact excuses anyone from necessary consequences if a problem persists; however, this approach has the potential to yield more effective results than simply doling out consequences or directives without allowing the individuals most affected by their outcomes to share their stories.

This concept is reflected similarly in the instance of working with professional staff members. A dangerous practice that has occurred far too often is that of educational leaders issuing mandates for significant changes without consulting those who must carry out said mandates in order to discover potential strengths and risks to proposed initiatives. An educational leader with a person-centered approach should initiate intentional conversations with those whom proposed changes will impact the most. Not only does this approach serve to expand the educational leader’s view of the situation, but it also leads to improved interpersonal relations and positive rapport.

In the highly stressful world of education, maintaining the perspective that unlike androids who simply carry out their tasks according to a prescribed programming code, people are emotional beings, each with unique personal histories, preferences, and emotions is essential. Through the simple process of listening and truly understanding the viewpoints of others, educational leaders should be able to build positive, trusting relationships between themselves and those with whom they must interact in order to develop a shared vision and develop unity in working toward goals that will benefit everyone from their youngest students to their oldest stakeholders.

Although succumbing to the stressors that naturally accompany leadership in education is easy, those who ascend to leadership positions must remember that by its very nature, education is a balancing act between policies and people, and the sooner leaders implement a person-centered, policy-based approach, the better suited for wholesale systemic success they will be.

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