School Board passes act to regulate teacher-student electronic communications

The St. Charles Parish School Board passed an Electronic Communications Act on Wednesday that will regulate how school employees communicate with students.

The new act comes after the state passed a law requiring all school districts to adopt a policy on electronic communications by Nov. 15.
The new policy states that all communications between employees and students must be professional, acceptable to any reasonable person and limited to information that is school related or acceptable to both student and parent.
This policy will also apply to social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, and text messages or voice mail.
It is mentioned in the act that the school board is not intending to limit the use of technology as an effective teaching tool, but only to make students and employees aware of expectations and procedures of the school system.
Parents will also have the option to request their child not be contacted through electronic communication unless the purpose is directly related to education and is sent to more than one student at the school.