importance of school policies essay

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Importance of clear policies and procedures in schools

School policies and procedures establish expectations, keep students safe, and make sure they receive a good education. Here's how to write clear policies.

December 22, 2020

Article highlights

• Policies that set proper expectations.
• Policies that create a safe learning environment.
• Procedures to establish before there’s an issue.

Schools are complex organizations that have many moving parts.

Parents trust schools to keep their children safe and provide a good education. Teachers expect schools to help them do their jobs effectively. School boards and administrators have certain expectations about how a school should run.

In order to function effectively, schools must have clear policies and procedures that guide day-to-day processes. These policies cover everything from attendance, to student discipline, to emergency procedures.

School policies come in several different forms.

For example, most schools have separate handbooks for students, teachers, staff, and even parents. The rules and expectations laid out in these handbooks hold everyone accountable and ensure that the school can run properly.

School policies and procedures should be clear and specific.

The target audience – whether students, parents, or staff – need to be able to understand the rules in order to follow them. And administrators should regularly review policy handbooks to make sure all policies are up to date.

Overall, school policies and procedures establish expectations, keep students and staff safe, and make sure students receive a good education.

Set proper expectations

Clear communication about expectations is especially important in schools.

While teaching styles and classroom rules may differ between teachers, the basic guidelines should be consistent. This helps unify the school and make sure parents and students know what to expect.

It also helps create an effective environment for learning, where students and staff can focus on lessons, rather than getting caught up in arguments over things like attendance or clothing.

School policies and procedures codify these expectations, so everyone is on the same page.

Attendance policy

In the U.S., school attendance is a matter of law.   Most states   require children to begin school at age 6, and attend school for 180 days each year until they reach the age of 16, 17, or 18.

While parents are ultimately responsible for getting their children to school,   state and federal laws   require schools to keep attendance records.

Therefore, school policies and procedures on attendance have to make expectations abundantly clear to parents, students, and staff.

The state or local school board establishes many of the specific attendance guidelines. But handbooks for parents and students should include clear, jargon-free language on the benefits of full attendance – the “why” behind the policy.

School dress codes can be tricky.

In recent years, there have been   several   protests   over school dress codes that are seen as sexist or unfair.

Schools can avoid such controversy by creating clear dress code policies that apply to the entire student population.

They must not target one particular group of students, or be enforced in a way that could be seen as discriminatory against students of a particular race, religion, political belief, or gender identity.

School policies and procedures about the dress code should be specific and objective.

For example, if the dress code prohibits “gang-related” apparel, it should specify what that means. If the policy uses words such as “revealing,” “inappropriate,” or “disruptive,” it should define them or give examples.

Creating and distributing dress code policies will ensure that students understand expectations. They will know administrators aren't singling them out.

Clear policies will also save teachers from having to subjectively decide whether a student’s clothing counts as “revealing,” which   can be awkward .

Cell phones and electronic devices

Parents often want their students to have a cell phone so that they can get in touch in case of an emergency. And smartphones have become so ubiquitous that most schools have given up trying to ban them altogether.

Many schools allow students to carry cell phones as long as they keep them turned off or on silent. Some ban students from using cell phones at any point during school hours, while others allow them to use cell phones between classes and during lunchtime.

Allowing students to carry smartphones can be problematic, though.

A   2012 study   found that roughly 94% of high schoolers accessed social media on their phones during class.

And   other studies   have shown that schools that ban cell phones have better educational outcomes. Things such as cheating, cyberbullying, and taking pictures or videos can also be issues.

Teachers need support from school administration when dealing with cell phones in the classroom. As one administrator wrote in an   article on Edutopia :

“Cell phones in the classroom can be a significant discipline problem and classroom management struggle if clear and explicit guidelines are not established the first day.”

Clear school policies and procedures make practices more consistent.

Students don’t have to wonder what devices they are allowed to use and when. And teachers know how to enforce the rules.

Create a safe learning environment

Of course, school policies and procedures are not only about fairness and expectations. They also establish guidelines to keep students and staff safe.

Creating a safe learning environment involves protecting students and staff from physical, emotional, and psychological harm. Students need to feel safe and secure at school in order to learn effectively.

School policies and procedures establish guidelines for safety in several areas:

Bullying and sexual harassment

Bullying can take many different forms, including physical threats, verbal or emotional bullying, or cyberbullying.

Sexual harassment can also take different forms: unwanted physical contact, inappropriate comments or jokes, demand for sexual favors.

Victims of bullying or harassment can be hesitant to speak up. They may worry that their claims won’t be taken seriously or that the bully or harasser will retaliate.

Good school policies and procedures make it easier for parents, teachers, and students to identify bullying or sexual harassment. They provide a way forward for victims and hold perpetrators accountable.

The policies should provide definitions and examples of things that would qualify as bullying or harassment.

Policies should lay out the steps for reporting bullying or harassment and specify that all allegations will be taken seriously.

The policies should also define the procedures for investigating the claims, and the actions the school will take if the claims are found to be true.

Establishing clear, specific policies and procedures about bullying and harassment will not prevent all incidents, but they give a framework for all involved – taking the individual opinions or best guesses out of the equation.

Student code of conduct

A code of conduct covers day-to-day student behavior.

The exact details of the code of conduct will differ depending on the needs of the specific school. But it should be as simple as possible, establishing guidelines for appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

With the code of conduct especially, it’s important for the student handbook to use language that students will understand.

For example, a code of conduct for a middle school should use vocabulary and language that a 6th-8th grader will be able to easily read and understand.

A good code of conduct helps students succeed by establishing expectations and boundaries. It brings clarity and consistency in practices across the school and helps teachers and administrators know how to address behavioral issues.

Like all school policies and procedures, the code of conduct should change and grow with the school community.

The school should gather a team of administrators, teachers, and students to review and update the code of conduct every year.

Fighting/weapons

School policies and procedures should provide definitions and examples of dangerous objects that are banned from campus.

The policies should explain any state or local laws that govern weapons or violence in schools. It should also establish the consequences of bringing dangerous objects to school.

Having clear policies in place can prevent students from accidentally bringing dangerous objects to school.

If a violent incident does occur, good school policies and procedures ensure that everyone knows what to do to stay safe.

Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco

Many U.S. schools have adopted “zero tolerance” policies when it comes to drugs and alcohol. But   a recent study showed   that such policies may not be effective deterrents.

Instead,   United Educators   suggests:

“The most effective policies pertaining to the use, possession, and distribution of these substances are both comprehensive and compassionate. They emphasize prevention and nondisciplinary intervention, as well as fair and consistent discipline, to hold students accountable for their behavior.”

The   United Educators report   includes several helpful areas for schools to think through when creating school drug and alcohol policies.

Establish procedures before there’s an issue

Schools have many moving pieces that can make day-to-day operations complicated. School administrators shouldn’t wait until something goes wrong to address an issue.

Instead, they should proactively create school policies and procedures so teachers, administrators, and parents will know what to do if an issue arises.

This helps ensure that the school runs smoothly and treats all students consistently.

Dismissal procedure

Most days, school dismissal and pickup will be fairly simple. However, schools should never find that they released a child to an unauthorized person or in a way in which the parent did not know where they are.

So every school should have policies in place.

Policies should cover authorized adults, early dismissal, inclement weather, changes in dismissal type, and how the school will handle dismissal in the event of an emergency.

This will prevent things from descending into chaos if there is an incident. It may be seen as a hassle to some, but will ultimately give parents peace of mind.

Academic dishonesty

School policies and procedures should lay out instructions for how to handle students caught cheating.

This takes the decision-making away from individual teachers so that they don’t have to determine if or how to discipline the student. It is consistent for everyone.

It also makes students aware from day one what will happen if they choose to cheat – no talking their way out of the consequences.

Student clubs and athletics

Having clear guidelines in place for school clubs and athletics will prevent accusations of discrimination.

For example, school policies may specify that a student-athlete must maintain a certain GPA.

They may also lay out requirements for adults or non-students who want to lead or participate in after-school clubs. What access will they have to school facilities? What paperwork or charters are required? And what topics or goals are acceptable.

These standards would apply to all students, regardless of athletic ability, social status, or any other factor.

Student search and seizure

Courts have ruled that the Fourth and Fifth Amendments don’t always apply the same to students as they do to adults.

While police officers must prove “probable cause” before searching private property, teachers and school administrators just have to have “reasonable suspicion” that a student has violated a law or school policy.

However, there are limits to how far a school can go with searches and seizures.

The Center for Public Education   provides helpful information on students’ rights. Clear school policies and procedures will reduce liability and help keep schools out of court.

Disciplinary guidelines

As mentioned before, teachers will have different approaches to how they run their classroom. But individual teachers should not be the ones deciding disciplinary steps.

School policies and procedures should lay out consistent, escalating steps for discipline. They should be age appropriate, fair, and explained in a way students can understand as they move up from grade to grade.

The policies should include who is authorized to invoke each form of discipline.

For example, a teacher might be authorized to assign detention, a principal or administrator may have to sign off on a suspension, and the school board may have to approve an expulsion.

Clear, well-written school policies and procedures help create environments where students can learn effectively.

Policies help schools keep students safe, enforce rules consistently, and provide the best possible education.

Discover other policies that are essential for your school to have in writing .

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• Table of Contents
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• Community Check Box Evaluation System
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• Facilitation of Community Processes
• Community Health Assessment and Planning
• Section 9. Changing Policies in Schools

Chapter 25 Sections

• Section 1. Changing Policies: An Overview
• Section 2. Promoting Regular Community Assessment, Reporting, and Accountability
• Section 3. Using Tax Incentives to Support Community Health and Development
• Section 4. Supporting Local Ordinances to Modify Access to Unhealthy Products and Practices
• Section 5. Changing Policies to Increase Funding for Community Health and Development Initiatives
• Section 6. Promoting Community-Friendly Policies in Business and Goverment
• Section 10. Modifying Policies to Enhance the Quality of Services
• Section 11. Promoting Family-Friendly Policies in Business and Government
• Main Section

What do we mean by changing policies in schools?

Why should you work to change policies in schools, when should you try to change policies in schools, who should be involved in changing policies in schools, how do you change policies in schools.

When the Watsons came to Perryville High School for their eldest son’s first scheduled parent conference of ninth grade, they found something that neither ever saw in a school when they were students. In the hallways on every floor, as well as in the cafeteria, there were vending machines offering soda.

Rita Watson was a hospital nutritionist, and her husband, Mel, was an athletic trainer who worked with the football and baseball teams at the local university. They had always provided a healthy diet for themselves and their two sons, and had taught their children good eating habits. Both of them were well aware of the rise in childhood obesity – it was more and more visible on the streets of Perryville these days – and they knew that soda was a major contributor to that rise. They felt that the high school – which, after all, offered health classes that taught students about good nutrition – should not be offering kids drinks that could be bad for them.

They returned from the conference with a glowing report of their son’s progress, and the beginnings of a plan. As they researched the issue of soda and snack machines in high schools, they found that their presence was all too common. They also found that schools made a lot of money from contracts with soft drink companies – money that paid for extracurricular activities, supplies, and equipment. While the Watsons were supportive of these activities – both of their sons were athletes – they felt strongly that the school should be safeguarding students’ health, not encouraging unhealthy habits.

The couple set out to change the school policy on vending machines. They wanted them either removed from the school, or to offer only foods and drinks that contributed to, rather than harmed, children’s health. Aware that they had an uphill battle on their hands – Perryville High made over $50,000 in contracts and soda sales every year – they enlisted their friends and determined to keep at it until they were successful.

Sometimes school policies, like those that allow vending machines that sell unhealthy foods, can be harmful to students’ health or education. Sometimes, schools or school systems lack policies that would benefit students in particular ways. Sometimes their policies, formal or informal, are discriminatory or abusive of students’ rights. Parents, students, or concerned citizens often find themselves wanting to change school or school system policies…and many do. This section looks at what kinds of issues school policies might cover, and what it takes to change policies in a school system.

When the Community Tool Box was conceived, this section was meant to deal specifically with changing school policy to encourage healthy behaviors among students and discourage unhealthy ones. Since then, it has become obvious that the issue of school policy change is far too broad to confine to a single topic. We’ve therefore tried to include a range of possibilities to consider, of which health promotion is only one.

In the U.S., the variation among school systems – from state to state, from community to community, even from school to school – is enormous. There are obvious differences in size – many rural schools have fewer than 10 students a class, while some urban and suburban schools in large cities have thousands of students – but the variation doesn’t stop there. Looking at public schools alone, there are comprehensive and specialized high schools; charter schools; technical and trade high schools; magnet schools; alternative schools for students who can’t function in a standard classroom setting; and community-run schools, to mention only a few.

This section focuses on public schools. While private school policies are subject to change from parents and students as well, they present a different situation. Because students pay to attend, and the schools are financially dependent on parents’ good will, and because they aren’t subject to many of the state rules and regulations that public schools are, private schools are usually much more willing than public schools to bend rules, make exceptions, and change policy when asked to by parents.

The ways in which these schools are organized and run vary as much as their purposes. Some are relatively independent: what goes on in the school is largely determined by the principal and teaching staff. Some involve parents as partners in planning and implementing both curriculum and school management. Some, unfortunately, have to be concerned with student violence, and feature metal detectors and police patrols. Some have strict dress codes – sometimes to the point of requiring uniforms – others have none. Some are devoted to academics, and to sending as many students as possible to top-ranked colleges; others seem much more concerned with sports or other extracurricular activities. By and large, schools mirror the educational philosophy and attitudes of the people in their districts.

All of these schools have policies regarding everything from academic and curriculum requirements to the scheduling of lunches. System-wide policies are generally decided upon by the local school committee, while policies unique to a particular school are often set and implemented by the school staff.

Most school systems and schools are hierarchical – they have a clear (at least to themselves) chain of command, and you have to follow that chain in order to communicate with the system. In the U.S., the links in that chain are usually (from the top down):

• School Committee
• Superintendent of Schools
• Assistant Superintendents
• Other system-wide administrators (coordinators of curriculum, athletics, special education, business, physical plant)
• Teachers and other professional employees (nurses, guidance counselors and school psychologists, coaches)
• Support and custodial staff

Each of these levels is one you might have to deal with in attempting to change school policy. (See Tool #1 for a more detailed description of “the players.”)

In addition to whatever difficulties the system hierarchy might offer, there is the fact that most public school teachers and other non-administrative employees are unionized, a circumstance that can complicate (or, occasionally, make easier) a change initiative. The change you’re seeking might – or might appear to – conflict with the union contract, for instance, or might require a union member’s job description to change (a circumstance that would require union negotiations). Given the two factors of the management hierarchy and the union, advocates are often faced with the possibility of having to move the whole of a large and resistant bureaucracy in order to affect change.

There are alternatives. Some schools are relatively independent, and can make decisions without having to go through several layers of school system. Some unions are willing to make compromises in the service of better outcomes for students. Often, if the policy change in question relates only to a particular school, and if it’s not momentous, the principal or faculty can make the change quietly, without fanfare or bureaucratic hassle.

There are many situations where a major policy change initiative like that described in this section simply isn’t necessary. If you can accomplish your purpose – placing a crossing guard at a dangerous intersection, or opening the school gym in the late afternoon for community use – by simply explaining to the principal why it’s important, and offering to help make it possible, then that’s the way to go. If the change is small, reasonable, and doesn’t involve any major disruption of the school or the system, you can probably make it happen in a very low-key way. Even some major policy changes can be easy if the need for them is obvious. Don’t organize the community for a minor request – the simpler you can make things, the better.

In general, however, the School Committee is responsible for setting policy, and the Superintendent for carrying it out. Although the two advise and consult with each other, system-wide policy changes usually have to be approved by the School Committee, but that usually means that they must have the approval of the Superintendent as well, since most Committees value the Superintendent’s advice. If you can convince the Superintendent that change is necessary, it will probably happen, though perhaps not always as quickly as you’d like.

That doesn’t always mean that administrators and teachers will go along. In Philadelphia in the 1960’s, a Superintendent was hired to shake things up in a less-than-stellar school system. He instituted, with the support of the School Committee, a number of reforms that actually spoke to improving education in the district...but the teachers essentially ignored them. By a combination of foot-dragging and outright defiance, they were able to frustrate most of the Superintendent’s plans, and he was gone within a fairly short time. If he had involved the teachers in planning, the situation might have been different, but the reality is that policy change was instituted, and nothing happened anyway.

The Watsons wanted to eliminate vending machines or change their contents. What kinds of school policies might you want to change? The list is almost endless – and there is often someone who wants a change exactly opposite from the one you want. A short list of possibilities:

• Institute a no-smoking policy in the school system (for teachers and administrators as well as students).
• Serve healthy food in the cafeteria, and eliminate food that is only empty calories or actively bad for kids’ physical and mental development.
• Change the discipline system (to be more rigorous, less rigorous, student-generated, to involve parents, etc.).
• Address school prayer (eliminate it; institute a moment of silence; reinstitute school prayer – philosophies vary).
• Institute or revamp a health or sex education curriculum.
• Change the dress code.
• Beef up or change the academic content for students at various levels.
• Add ESL (English as a Second or Other Language) or bilingual programs for a growing immigrant population.
• Change sexual harassment policies to better protect students and staff.
• Change policies on student use of school computers.
• Change policies toward Channel 1 and other advertising during the school day.
• Tighten or loosen the requirements for participation in extracurricular activities.
• Change the limits of students’ freedom of speech in school newspapers.

Why might you want to change policies in schools?

There are seven overarching reasons to change school policies: to improve students’ health; to improve education; to meet the needs of particular groups; to improve classroom and school climate and culture; to protect students (and staff) from harm; to safeguard students’ rights; and to respond to a perceived community need.

Policies can be changed in different directions. Where a group in one community may be attempting to make schools more democratic, a group in another community may be concerned with making them less so. While it seems obvious to many which is the right direction, everyone has a right to try to change policy in the direction they think is appropriate. The one thing to remember is that any policy change should either be beneficial to or not detract from the educational experience of students.

To improve students’ (and others’) health.

Schools often teach health courses, but they don’t always practice, or encourage students to practice, what they preach. Some policies that actually might improve student health:

• Smoke- and tobacco-free schools
• School breakfast as well as lunch, with healthy food for both
• Elimination of soda and snack vending machines
• A physical education or exercise period every day
• A good K-12 sex education curriculum (age-appropriate at each grade level), as part of a good K-12 health education curriculum

To improve education.

Changes in curriculum, in educational content, in expectations for students, in teaching methods, in class size, in teacher independence – all these and many other factors can lead to a better educational experience for students. Some other possible changes involve:

• Class content.
• Textbooks and other instructional materials.
• Foreign language requirements.
• Interdisciplinary approaches.
• Advanced placement.
• Expectations for all students.
• The academic schedule.
• Student assessment (i.e. grades).
• Graduation requirements.

In 2004, a Dover, PA school board voted to include the teaching of “intelligent design” – the assumption that the world and the diversity of species are too complex to have evolved in the way Darwin described, and that there must, therefore, be a guiding hand – in the ninth grade biology curriculum. Religious beliefs notwithstanding, this assumption is not grounded in science and is more appropriate for a theology class. When a federal judge in 2005 struck down the vote as an unconstitutional attempt to teach religion in the guise of science, he dramatically brought about a change in the content of the curriculum.

There are many studies, going back over 50 years, that demonstrate that expectations determine to a very large extent how much students learn and how well they do in school. Raising the bar for everyone – starting with the assumption that all students are capable of learning just about anything, given the time and appropriate instruction, for instance – is likely to make a huge difference for those who would otherwise be mired at low levels all through their school careers.

Many high schools have in the past several years adopted block scheduling, which changes the standard class period from 40 or 50 minutes to twice that long, on the assumption that fewer, more intense classes give teachers better teaching opportunities, and create better learning experiences for students. Others have extended the academic year or the academic day. A few have attempted to schedule classes to match adolescents’ internal clocks, which are actually on a different schedule from those of adults and younger children.

To meet the needs of particular groups.

Some groups of students may need services in addition to those offered to the general school population, and it may take a policy change to obtain them. These groups include:

• Students with physical disabilities, including speech, hearing, and vision impairments.
• Students with emotional difficulties or mental illness.
• Students with developmental disabilities.
• Students with learning disabilities.
• Immigrants or other students who are not proficient in English.
• Teenage parents.

To improve classroom and school climate and culture.

“Classroom climate” is a term that refers to what a classroom feels like – student and teacher attitudes, the level of tension, whether the purpose of the classroom seems to be work or otherwise, etc.. The culture of a school can be considered in much the same way as the culture of a society – the customs, norms, standards, and behaviors that the majority of students, teachers, and other school personnel define as appropriate and approve of, as well as those that are disapproved by the majority.

The type of policy change needed in a given situation hangs on the character of the school. If the general atmosphere is too chaotic, it needs to be calmed; if it’s too rigid, it needs to be loosened up. Some of the potential targets of policy change that follow could be changed in either direction, depending upon what’s needed.

• Dress codes. These might be instituted, stiffened, eliminated, etc..
• Disciplinary systems. Discipline could be tightened to reduce in-school violence, changed to involve students in generating classroom rules and sanctions, loosened to allow particular activities, etc..
• Advising. A change might institute advising groups, change the focus of such groups, train teachers and/or counselors to be better advisors, etc..
• Counseling.
• Issues of tolerance. Promoting an atmosphere of acceptance and mutual respect among students of different races, ethnic backgrounds, language groups, sexual preferences, etc..
• Peer mediation and conflict resolution programs.
• Student-teacher and student-staff relationships.
• Democracy, both in the classroom and among teachers, administrators, and other school employees.

To protect students (and staff) from harm.

In some schools, particularly in gang- plagued urban neighborhoods – where a culture of violence may be entrenched among teens – this may mean protecting everyone from gang-related or random physical violence by students or outsiders. But, in any school system, it may also mean protecting students from physical or psychological bullying (by teachers as well as other students), from safety hazards, and from health hazards.

There is obvious overlap here among several of the reasons for working toward school policy change. Eliminating smoking protects students and staff from secondhand smoke. Halting bullying typically means changing the school culture, and redefining what is acceptable – for teachers as well as for students. The lines among reasons may blur, but the bottom line is always the same: to create the best possible educational experience for students.

Some changes that might help provide protection:

• Metal detectors and police patrols. These may not improve the learning experience, but they may be necessary to prevent bodily harm.
• Anti-bullying policies. As mentioned, these can only work by changing the school culture. If teachers and other staff don’t see bullying as a problem, it will continue.
• Repair of building safety hazards. Falling plaster, broken windows, unshielded heaters, etc..
• Elimination of the use of dangerous or toxic chemical solvents, cleaners, and pesticides.
• Halting corporal (physical) punishment. There are still many school systems that use corporal punishment to discipline students, and many more where it is permissible, but rarely, if ever, used.
• Careful oversight of athletics. Guarding against overtraining, inadequate protective equipment, heatstroke, potentially injurious training or punishment exercises, etc..

To safeguard students’ rights.

Children have rights, just as adults do, although those rights are tempered by children’s need for structure and protection. Nonetheless, when those rights are violated unnecessarily, policy change to safeguard them is in order. Some of the constitutional rights that should be attended to:

• Separation of church and state. All children have a right to practice their chosen religion or lack of religion, and to be free in school of any attempt to impose someone else’s beliefs on them. (This doesn’t mean religion shouldn’t be discussed or studied, but rather that neither a particular religion nor religion in general should be presented as “the truth,” nor made part of any required school activities.)
• Free speech and expression. Federal law, dating back at least to a 1969 Supreme Court decision that states that students “do not shed their Constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” protects students’ rights in this area to a point. The law makes exceptions particularly in the case of speech or expression that is obscene; slanderous or libelous; or that would disrupt the orderly functioning of the school (hate speech, for instance, or a call for a student strike).
• Civil rights. In a school context, these might include, among others, the right to question disciplinary proceedings; the right to a hearing; the right to equal treatment regardless of race, ethnic background, gender, religion, sexual preference, etc.; and the right to freedom from bodily harm.

To respond to a perceived community need.

This may have to do with the establishment of a particular course or program (a multilingual program as a response to an influx of immigrants, for instance, or a tolerance course to address recent hate crimes), safety or security concerns (traffic patterns, procedures for school visitors), or the timing of the school day or school year (in Aroostook County, Maine, for instance, students get a three-week break in September and October to help with the potato harvest).

Changes should obviously be attempted whenever it’s necessary, but there are some times that present especially good opportunities.

• Before the beginning of a new school year . Once school is in session, it’s difficult to convince a School Committee, administrators, or staff to change what they’re doing or to generate new policy. It’s much easier to effect change if you start well before you want the change to take place.
• When there’s an obvious need . When classes are overflowing with students who don’t speak English well, or when very few students are passing the state math exam, it’s easier to convince schools to examine the situation and change policies to address it.
• When a situation comes to light that makes a need obvious . When a sexual harassment case in the schools breaks, it may bring other students forward and highlight a problem that school officials have either been unaware of or have been successfully ignoring. The community – and, in the ideal, the schools as well – might well see this as an opportunity to change policy to protect students.
• When the School Committee or staff members do something that seems the opposite of good educational policy . Examples might be an ill-advised academic decision (eliminating foreign language study in the high school, for instance), misuse of funds, obvious racial discrimination, gross misconduct, or covering up or glossing over that misconduct.
• When there’s a clear threat to students’ or staff members’ health, safety, etc . This might be the time to bring up no-smoking policies, or metal detectors.
• When students’, parents’, or teachers’ basic rights are threatened . School policies may be contrary to existing law, or there may be no policies that govern the present situation. If students’ freedom of speech is being squelched, if teachers are being demoted or fired for voicing unpopular or critical opinions, if the wishes of a majority of parents for their children are systematically being ignored, there is probably support for policy change.

Who should be involved in changing school policies?

The more stakeholders – those affected by, or having to implement, the policy in question – that can be involved, the more likely it is both that the policy change will take place, and that it will be maintained once it’s made. Stakeholders include:

• The School Committee
• The Superintendent
• Other school administrators
• Particular groups affected by the proposed change (Hispanics, for a bilingual Spanish program, for instance)
• Groups interested in the issue addressed by the proposed change (e.g., police, for a violence prevention program; health professionals for a healthy school food initiative)
• Concerned citizens

School policy change, at least officially, has to happen from the inside. The School Committee (or at least the principal, if the change concerns only a single school) has to approve and institute the change. Furthermore, as we mentioned earlier, the school staff involved in implementing it have to actually do so, rather than just go through the motions, if the change is going to mean anything.

At the same time, policy change often originates from outside the system, and that’s where you come in. Schools, as we discussed, are hierarchical, and like many hierarchical organizations, they can be resistant to change of any kind. They are often particularly resistant to change that implies that what they’ve been doing is wrong, incompetent, or harmful. It may take a good deal of pressure from parents, students, community members, and/or officials to get them to respond.

This isn’t always true. Sometimes, the proposed policy change fills such a great need, or is so obviously beneficial that all it needs is to be suggested, and adoption quickly follows. The steps that follow apply equally to the easy and the difficult changes to put in place. You should always develop a strong rationale for changing policy and muster community support...and in the ideal situation, you won’t need them.

Marshal your support and begin to strategize.

The order of steps here is open to discussion. The author of this section sees the logical progression as one of putting together a supportive core group, and then learning all you can about the situation so that you can decide how to go about effecting change. The editor sees the logical order as the opposite: explore the situation, decide how to make the change, and then gather a support group. Since both of us have had experience in this area, it’s clear that there’s no one right answer. In reality, you’ll probably engage in at least part of both steps at the same time. Adapt your process to what makes the most sense in your situation.

Make contact with the allies you’ve identified. As you start to put a group together, people will bring others in. You don’t have to be secretive, but at this point, you might not want to publicize your effort. You may decide that the best approach is to see if you can accomplish what you want without going through the School Committee, in which case, the less publicity, the better.

It is often crucial to find allies within the school system, at as many levels as possible. Teachers, administrators, the Superintendent, sympathetic School Committee members – anyone who’s supportive of what you’re doing should be involved to the extent possible. It’s important not to place anyone in a compromising position, but the more allies you can get inside the system, the better your chances of success.

There are many situations in which allies inside the system may not be needed. That crossing guard we used as an example earlier, for instance – you probably won’t need a whole crew of teachers lending support to convince a principal or the superintendent that a child being hit by a car in front of the school would not be a good thing. Recruit teachers and other school employees when you need them, and realize when you don’t.

Once you assemble at least a core group, drawing from as many sectors of the community as possible (the more sectors, the more support you can muster), you need to consider how you’re going to approach the situation. There are many possibilities: going around the School Committee entirely, a simple request, taking time to build support on the Committee, threatening a lawsuit, creating massive publicity through the media, using the steamroller of angry parents and community members (if you have one, and it’s appropriate)--every approach will work in some situation, and no approach will work in every situation. That’s why planning is important, and why it’s important to involve others in your planning. You may need only a bare-bones idea of whom to approach, or you may need a full-blown strategic plan ; either way, you have to do some planning to decide on your course of action.

As with most situations covered in the Community Tool Box, we recommend a participatory, collaborative planning process wherever possible. You often end up with better ideas, and you’re more likely to end up with a plan that everyone has bought into, and will work hard to carry out. If you plan well, you’ll come up with an action that’s the simplest, least confrontational, and least expensive – in terms of time, people, and other resources – that you can take to solve the problem.

The other important tasks here are to work out systems of coordination and communication. If a particular organization takes the lead in a policy change effort, then that organization will usually act as the central point. If the effort is driven by an unorganized group of concerned parents, students, and others, they’ll need to establish some way to make sure that everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and to get the word out when action is needed. You don’t necessarily have to create a formal organization to accomplish these tasks, but it is important to set up a structure to make sure that they’re taken care of.

Do your homework.

The more you know about current policy, the school system, the issue your proposed changes relate to, and the individuals involved, the better your chances of success will be. The homework you need to do:

• Learn about current policy . Find out exactly what the current policy on the issue is. If it’s written down, be sure you have a copy. It’s possible that it already covers the situation, and that all you need to do is insist that it be followed. It’s also possible that it somehow conflicts with federal or state law, something that more homework and/or a lawyer can tell you. (It’s also possible that there’s no policy relating to your issue at all, which can often work to your advantage, since that may provide the opportunity for you to create one.)
• Know the issue inside out . Make sure you understand the issue well enough that you can answer any questions put to you, and anticipate and counter opponents’ arguments . Know your opponents’ arguments as well as your own, and make sure they can’t come up with anything you haven’t thought of.

If your opponents have legitimate arguments you have no answer for, then you should either incorporate those arguments into your thinking, or if it’s simply a true difference of opinion, acknowledge it as such. (But if it is, try to find as much real evidence as you can to back up your opinion.)

• Research the alternatives . If the current policy is unacceptable or isn’t working – or if there is no current policy – what should be proposed in its place? It would do no good to adopt a policy that, in its own way, is just as harmful or ineffective as the one it replaced. Look for best practices , or at least policies that have worked elsewhere , to achieve the results you want.
• Explain exactly why the change is necessary. If it’s to remedy a problem, you should be able to define and cite examples of the issue, demonstrate why it is a problem, and describe what the hoped-for results of policy change would look like. If the change is meant to fill a gap or add a needed program, you should be able to show convincingly how the change will benefit students (or the school, or the community), and how its consequences will be an improvement over the consequences of the current policy, or lack of one.
• Show how whatever costs are involved in the change are outweighed by its benefits.
• Refer to research that backs up your arguments. Studies that show improvements in various kinds of student outcomes – reading scores, attendance and graduation rates, etc. – as a result of the kind of change you’re seeking can help to convince the appropriate people to take action.
• Defend your proposal against attacks and counterarguments. This gets back to knowing opponents and their arguments.

In some cases, your answers to their concerns won’t convince them, because they’ll be sure they know you’re wrong despite all the evidence to the contrary. (Many people are convinced, for instance, that sex education encourages teens to be sexually active, even though studies consistently show the opposite.) If your opponents’ beliefs are based on emotion, you may be able to frame arguments that make your case from their emotional perspective. When that’s not possible, your arguments can still convince others, and provide enough pressure for policy change to take place.

• Consult with or recruit experts in the field to add credibility to your arguments. This may be easier if your community houses, or is close to, a college or university.

Make sure that the presence of an outside expert won’t increase tensions between two sides of the debate over policy change. While experts can often add the weight of authority to an argument, they can also be seen by teachers, superintendents, or School Committee members as arrogant, or as interfering in a community they know nothing about. Sometimes, the best “experts” you can find are students or parents in the community who’ve had first-hand experiences that back up the need for change. Personal stories are often the most compelling, especially when the people telling them are the neighbors and fellow community members of those listening.

• Learn everything you can about the structure of the school system and the personalities of those within it . You can’t deal with a school system without understanding how it operates. Once again, most systems are hierarchies, and hierarchies have protocols – rules – about whom to contact first, who makes decisions about various issues, etc.. If you don’t know the protocol, you can easily make a mistake that might offend or threaten someone whose support you need. An ally or sympathetic advisor within the system may be able to help you understand what your best approach might be.

Take the time to find out the structure of the chain of command in the system. Is it rigid or flexible? Who reports to whom? Where do you start if you have a complaint or want to discuss an incident or issue? At the lowest level? At the highest? Whom will you offend if you don’t follow protocol?

In most systems, the place to start is closest to the issue. An issue that relates to a single classroom should start with the teacher. If the resolution there is unsatisfactory, or if the teacher can’t help, the principal is the next step, followed by the superintendent, and ultimately by the School Committee. For a system-wide issue, you’d start with the superintendent. If the issue called for a system-wide policy change, you’d still start with the superintendent, if only to avoid blind-siding her. Ultimately, any major system-wide change has to come before the School Committee.

As important as the protocol are the personalities of the people involved. Who are the members of the School Committee? Which members are potential allies in a policy change effort, which are potential opponents, and which are the neutrals you’ll have to convince? What positions have they taken on the issue in the past? What’s important to them? Who are their friends and constituencies? Who is up for reelection or reappointment?

Occasionally, effecting a policy change can be a matter of electing or voting out the right person. A change of one or two seats on the School Committee can signal a shift in attitude and lead to new policy. That’s what happened in Dover, PA, the town where the School Committee decided to teach intelligent design along with evolution. Even before the judge’s ruling, eight of the nine School Committee members who had voted for the policy were defeated in an election, and their replacements quickly repealed it.

Attend School Committee meetings to understand how the Committee functions. Who are the powerful voices on the Committee? Whose opinions are respected, and whose are ignored? Who influences whom? Who responds to what kinds of arguments? Does the Committee function well as a body, or is it racked with disagreement and distrust?

The School Committee is the policy-setting body in most school systems. Some committees rely heavily on the advice and consent of the superintendent and/or teachers; others make their own decisions, sometimes based on reasoning, sometimes based on what they “know,” which may be considerable or very little, may be accurate or far-fetched, etc.. It’s important to know whose support you need and whose opposition to avoid if policy change is to be relatively easy.

How are decisions made within the system? The superintendent may be almost totally independent, or may only act on the direction of the School Committee. The standard is usually somewhere in between, with the superintendent free to develop programs and initiatives on his own and/or with staff, but having to get approval from the Committee to carry them out. The superintendent’s opinion carries a good deal of weight with most Committees. What’s his educational philosophy (or does he have one)? What’s his management style? Is he concerned with educational quality, or simply with keeping his job?

Other people to be acquainted with, at least at a distance, include other administrators, teachers, and staff, particularly union leaders and activists. Who is influential in the system, and whom do they influence? What are their priorities and concerns? What do they want and need (it’s often handy to know what you might be able to use as a bargaining chip)?

• Identify your allies and your opponents , both in the system and in the community . There may be groups that are obvious allies on a particular issue. More flexibility in the dress code would probably have strong student support; healthier cafeteria meals might garner support from parents, coaches, and health professionals.

Allies and opponents don’t always break down neatly into identifiable groups. Sometimes, where a policy doesn’t particularly benefit or harm a particular group, it’s simply a diverse collection of individuals on each side of the issue, disagreeing about the right way to do things. In that case, you have to identify allies and opponents one by one.

• Change of personnel . The problem may not be policy, but simply the way an individual or group chooses to do things. Changing the people may solve the problem. We’ve already mentioned defeating School Committee members in an election. Another possibility is advocating for the firing of a superintendent or other school employee.

Firing someone is a drastic step, and not easy to do. Ironically, the easiest person in a district to fire is often the superintendent, since she serves at the pleasure of the School Committee. Most other system employees are protected by union rules. They can be fired for cause, but the cause has to be documented, and has to be serious enough to justify the firing. The fact that you don’t like the way someone teaches, or disagree with the way he treats students, will not be enough unless there’s enormous community support for getting rid of him, or unless he’s clearly incompetent or has violated important rules.

• Reframing the current policy . The School Committee may be willing to redefine the policy in a way that addresses the issue, without actually instituting a change.
• Compromise . A compromise may not give you everything you want, but may satisfy the basic need that prompted the effort for change.
• Passage of a law . You may be able to get a bill passed that settles the issue once and for all – banning smoking in all public buildings in the state, for instance, or making corporal punishment illegal.
• A lawsuit . This should be a last resort, because it’s expensive, hugely time-consuming, and there’s no guarantee of the outcome. The chances are that by the time the suit is settled one way or the other, the students who were affected by the policy you wanted changed will have kids of their own. It’s important to know that the option for a lawsuit is there, however, if there’s no other alternative.

Work to get your proposal for policy change implemented.

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork for policy change, it’s time to start taking action. You should almost always start by following established procedure. (You might make an exception when there’s already a huge controversy over the issue in the schools and/or the community, and you know you have a fight on your hands.) That procedure varies from system to system (and sometimes even from school to school within a system), but if you’ve done your homework, you’ll know what it is. If following procedure doesn’t work – your proposal is rejected out of hand, no one will even give you a hearing, you’re blocked by bureaucratic stalling – it’s time for community action. We’ll look at both possibilities.

Draft the policy you want

It’s absolutely necessary to be crystal clear about what you want the policy change to accomplish. The best way to clarify is to draft the ideal policy, so that you know it speaks to exactly what you’re looking for. Then review your draft with both your core group of supporters and your allies inside the system, to filter out potential snags with community members and the institution. If you’re careful and thoughtful in this process, you’ll find and correct any flaws in your original ideas as well. Some areas to pay close attention to as you work on your draft:

• Beware of unintended consequences. Try to envision all the ways in which your new policy could play out, not just the “obvious” positive ones. You might be surprised at some of the possible negative results. Better to be surprised now, and to revise your policy to guard against negative possibilities, than to be much more unpleasantly surprised later.
• Possible misinterpretation, either by the community or by those who will carry out the policy. Make sure your draft means exactly what you think it means, and that its intent is unmistakable. If people don’t understand it, it could get twisted, either in the implementation, or in the way the community views it.
• Possible misuse, intentional or unintentional. Again, if you’re not clear, school personnel who misunderstand it, or with a philosophy different from yours, could, in the future, use your policy to do the opposite of what you worked for.
• Cultural offensiveness. Make sure that there are no aspects of the policy that are culturally offensive to particular groups, unless you’re trying to correct an attempt to impose cultural or religious values on the majority, as seen in the evolution example earlier in this section.

Some policies that may seem necessary to one group – sex education, for instance – may in fact be offensive to some parents. The fair way to deal with this is to give those offended the option of excluding their children from the policy. Exceptions could also, for example, be applied by providing exclusion from a no-hats policy for Orthodox Jews or Muslim women. This can get complicated if the kids don’t want to be excluded from the policy, and may be a counseling issue, and involve consultation with parents. Perhaps, if the policy change in question is somewhat controversial, some of that can be built in. The question arises about what to do when the conflict is between fact and belief. We’ve already mentioned that many people are certain sex education encourages adolescent sexual activity, even when it’s demonstrated to them that studies overwhelmingly find the opposite. There may be little you can do in such situations, or you may be able to put your arguments within the context of their world view. Offering a choice seems to be the best compromise, but your opponents may object even to that, in the belief that they should protect all children, not only their own.

Make your policy change effort as collaborative as possible. When you can, suggest setting up a committee of parents, students, teachers, administrators, School Committee members, and/or other interested citizens to consider alternatives, language, etc. to present to the School Committee.

In general, start your discussions at the lowest responsible level in the hierarchy .

This is both a matter of courtesy and a good strategic choice. Unless you already have an adversary relationship (and sometimes especially if you have an adversary relationship), it’s usually a bad idea to spring something on a school administrator with no advance warning. Suddenly appearing in a principal’s office with a group of angry parents, for instance, without first discussing with her the situation they’re angry about is more likely to make her defensive and entrenched in her position than to open her up to considering policy changes.

Furthermore, it is very much in your interest to gain the support of the person(s) who will have to carry out the proposed policy. If you have to go farther up the chain, that support will help at each level.

The importance of lower-level support depends upon how power is viewed and exercised in the system. In a well-managed system, a policy that has the support of teachers and principals is very likely to be viewed favorably by the superintendent, and in turn likely to be passed by the School Committee. In a system where the superintendent or Committee is too fond of wielding power, lower-level support may be seen as a challenge rather than a recommendation, and may doom a proposal. In such a situation, while it's still important to have the support of teachers and principals, you may have to use pressure from parents and the community to sway the School Committee.

For a system-wide issue, protocol usually requires that you start with the superintendent, who will, if he views it favorably, work with you to present a proposal for policy change to the School Committee. Even if he doesn’t lend support, he won’t be surprised by your eventual approach to the School Committee. (If you’re seeking to change a School Committee-generated policy, start with the Committee.)

An advantage to starting at a low level is that sometimes, an issue can be handled at that level without going further. In many systems, a school principal can institute policy in his school (assuming it doesn’t have system-wide implications) without having to get permission from the superintendent or the School Committee. A teacher may be able to institute classroom policy to correct a problem, or may be able to change course content without any fanfare.

If your issue can be resolved at a lower level, you may be able to save yourself a lot of trouble. If, however, you want to see broader changes, it still makes sense to start with the people who’ll have to implement the policy – especially if you can enlist their support. At the very least, they won’t be furious at you for sneaking up on them with something new. If you’re successful at this lower level, many of the steps below won’t be necessary. If you’re put off or denied, simply go up to the next step on the ladder, until you get to the School Committee.

Get your group on the School Committee agenda .

If the Superintendent and some Committee members are involved, they can make sure that you get enough time for a proper presentation.

Present the proposed policy change at a School Committee meeting .

For real results, you have to do more than simply show up. Here’s where your prior organizing will pay off.

Although the assumption here is that your group will present the policy itself, it may be even better to have it presented by a sympathetic School Committee member or superintendent. That will give it credibility and show that there’s support for it within the system.

• Pack the meeting with supporters from as many sectors of the community as possible. Students, parents, teachers, interested community members, groups that are concerned with the issue the policy addresses (health professionals if it concerns smoking, for instance, or police if it concerns violence) – the more representation you can produce, the more obvious it is that there’s broad-based enthusiasm for your proposal.
• Do all you can to gain media coverage. Call your media contacts, send out press releases, etc., to assure that the media will be there, or at least report on the issue.

In some communities, the media are always there – public access cable often covers School Committee meetings, and in large cities, they’re often covered by the network affiliates or by popular cable news stations. Most communities at least have newspaper reporters present. You should keep this in mind. Never say or do anything that you’re not prepared to see on TV or in the newspaper, even if the discussion gets heated. You want the media there to generate positive publicity for your proposal, not to make you or your supporters look bad.

• Choose spokespeople carefully. If several members of your group are allowed to speak, use the opportunity to showcase people who are articulate (but not apparently too different from most of the community), represent a range of stakeholders (parents, students, particular groups affected), can present themselves respectfully but firmly, and have compelling stories to tell or arguments to make. Personal stories, particularly, can make a powerful impression, especially if those who tell them are familiar to the audience, or are people with whom they can identify.
• Make sure your message is clear and consistent, no matter who is delivering it. What your group has to say should be straightforward, informative, and non-confrontational (this isn’t always possible, but do your best). It should be backed up with facts, statistics, study results, the experience of other school systems, and/or educational (or psychological or scientific) theory. Most importantly, it should emphasize how this will benefit students, education, and/or the community. (If it won’t, why are you advocating for it?)
• Be prepared for opposing arguments. Make sure you can counter them with hard facts and other substantiation. If your group is asked a non-trivial question you can’t answer (no matter how much homework you do, you can’t cover everything), offer to find out the answer and bring it to the next meeting. Even if the question is trivial, treat it with respect unless it’s obviously meant to ridicule or humiliate you. If it is meant as ridicule, answer it with humor, not anger.
• Respect the Committee’s time limits, but don’t allow yourself to be pushed aside without making your point.
• Respect the Committee’s decision-making procedures. Some School Committee bylaws may mandate a one-or two-meeting delay on policy decisions. Often, even in the absence of such a bylaw, major policy decisions are not made the first time a policy change is brought up. Rather, time is allowed at one or more future meetings for more discussion before the change is brought to a vote. If this is the case, just be sure that you continue to produce a large, diverse, and vocal group of supporters at School Committee meetings leading up to the vote, and that your message remains consistent.

If it looks like you may not be successful, there are some ways you may be able to salvage the situation. One is to be sure you have a fall-back position, a variation of what you’re asking for that may not give you everything you want, but that will get at the most important points while at the same time dropping the most controversial or difficult part of your proposal. Another tactic might be to agree to, or even advocate for, more study of the proposal. Given time to reflect (and time for you to gather your support), the Committee might realize that a controversial or difficult step is nonetheless necessary for the good of the students and the system.

If your proposed policy change is rejected, regroup and strategize again.

There are a number of reasons your proposed change might have been rejected.

In a sense, this may be even harder to deal with than the actual issue at hand. Most schools are, in fact, organized around the needs of the adults involved, rather than those of the children. “The way we’ve always done it” is often the path of least resistance, and steering people off that path can be extremely difficult.

• The Committee honestly felt that it simply wasn’t in the best interests of the students. If you continue to believe they’re wrong, you should continue to push for change. Put together an even more impressive array of facts and figures to support your arguments, continue to build community support in order to exert pressure on the Committee, invite Committee members to be part of a group to study the issue, work for the support of teachers, etc.. Over time, if your proposed change really does make sense and will benefit students, it’s reasonable to expect that you’ll bring enough Committee members around to get the policy change approved.
• The Committee rejected the proposal because the change wouldn’t fit into the way things are done in the system. If a change is educationally beneficial for students, it should happen unless it actually isn’t affordable (Everyone knows that very small classes are better for students, but most systems can’t raise enough taxes to make them possible) or it would impose an unfair workload on teachers and administrators. If the reason is simply that it’s too much trouble, or that “we don’t do things that way,” that’s a failure of the Committee’s and the system’s duty to students. Your efforts should be aimed toward pointing this out, and, again, continuing to build support and substantiation.
• The Committee rejected the proposal for reasons that are irrelevant to education, mistaken, irrational, or simply unacceptable (lack of belief in evolution, unwillingness to confront the fact that a large percentage of teens are sexually active, racial prejudice, etc.). In this situation, you may have to convince the community either that the Committee is dead wrong, or that their reasons conflict with sound educational practice, logic, and/or common decency (not to mention the Constitution). That often calls for community action – organizing your support, using the media, and engaging in various kinds of direct action.

The reality is that a social action approach may be necessary in any of these three situations, if the School Committee proves immovable and you believe the proposed change is necessary for the educational, physical, or psychological welfare of students. Some social action tactics that might prove helpful:

• Organize to defeat oppositional School Committee members at the next election . This may take some patience. Some communities elect a whole School Committee at once for a set period (usually 2 or 3 years). Others stagger three- or four-year terms, so that only a third or a quarter of the School Committee is up for reelection in any given year. That means that you may have to wait two or three years to actually gain a favorable majority on the Committee, even if all your candidates win.
• Use the media . You can get your message out widely and quickly through careful use of the media . That involves, among other activities, establishing relationships with (sympathetic) reporters, editors, station managers, etc.; holding press conferences, orchestrating letters to the Editor, and making sure you get coverage for events and actions you stage; and contacting state- and nation-wide media, to broaden your support and put even greater pressure on the School Committee.
• Maintain a vocal presence at School Committee meetings . If it’s appropriate, continue to pack meetings with supporters, and call for the policy change at every opportunity. Media coverage of meetings will help spread the word. The worse you’re treated by the School Committee the worse they’ll look and the more sympathetic the community will be to your cause, as long as you remain reasonable and respectful at meetings.
• Take direct action . Stage public meetings, rallies, demonstrations, petition drives, picketing, and other events meant to draw attention to and explain the need for policy change. Such events will also demonstrate the extent of your support, and put pressure on the School Committee, as an elected body, to respond to public opinion.
• Recall the School Committee (or the members of the Committee blocking your proposal) . This takes less time than the election process, but is dependent on there being a recall clause in the community’s (or the School Committee’s) bylaws. If there is, obtaining a certain number of signatures can force a recall election. Before you take this route, you should be sure that there’s at least a reasonable chance that the recall will succeed, and that the people who take the places of recalled School Committee members will be sympathetic to the policy change you want. Recall elections tend to create community divisions and animosities that can take years – even lifetimes – to heal, and shouldn’t be entered into lightly.
• Work to pass legislation that will make your policy change into law statewide . If you already have a legislative champion, or a relationship with one or more legislators, this may be a good direction to take. If you’re starting from scratch, it could still be worthwhile, but it will take much longer, and involve a major organizing effort. The advantage is, of course, that you won’t have to fight the battle over policy change again, and you’ll be benefiting far more students than those in your own community.
• File a lawsuit . As explained earlier,this is usually a last resort because of its expense and the length of time it’s likely to take. On the other hand, the threat or actual filing of a suit may be enough to move the School Committee to change its mind. A sympathetic attorney (there may be one among your supporters) can be helpful in developing strategy here.

Once you gain the policy change you’re seeking, reorganize and tackle the next issue.

Whether this effort was easy or difficult, you’ve put together a group that has worked together to effect a policy change . . . but your work’s not done. As with so much else described in the Tool Box, you need to maintain the gains you’ve made – make sure that the policy change is not only carried out, but carried out in the way that’s most beneficial to students, and continued for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, it’s unlikely that this is the only change necessary, either in the school system or in the community. Take some time to savor your victory, to celebrate, to congratulate yourselves . . . and then get back to the job of making the school system and the community the best it can be.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to seek policy change in schools or school systems, in order to enhance or protect the educational benefits to students, the physical and psychological health and safety of students and school staff, or the management and integrity of the system. Because schools and school systems tend to be hierarchical and difficult to move, this can lead to conflict or impasse, leaving students to suffer the effects of inferior learning opportunities, deteriorating or dangerous schools, or unfair or abusive treatment by school personnel or other students.

It’s most effective to work collaboratively with the School Committee, the teachers’ union, and parents, students, and interested community members to arrive at the best solution to the problem and change and oversee policy accordingly. When there’s resistance to that course – because of a sincere difference of opinion, because of resistance to change of any sort, or because of unacceptable assumptions or ideas on the part of the policy makers (racism, for example), conflict of some sort may be inevitable. By putting together a strong and diverse community group of supporters of change, and

by using the leverage that group commands – public pressure, media attention, research into best practices, etc. – you can achieve the change you’re aiming for. The less nasty and the more collaborative you can make the process, the better the chances will be that the next change effort – and there will be a next change effort; there always is – will be easier.

Online Resources

Eight steps to policy change from North Carolina Tobacco-Free School s.

ERIC Digest 148  – school dress policies (uniforms and other dress codes as violence prevention).

Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network . Gets you to a huge resource for gay/lesbian/straight issues.

How to start a gay/lesbian/straight alliance in a school , a   PowerPoint.

Kit on changing food policy in schools from Massachusetts Public Health Association

Site of Californians for Pesticide Reform – how to change school policy (decent rules for any issue).

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What is the Purpose of School Policies?

Schools and other education settings are complex learning communities, involving many different roles and functions. In order for schools to be safe, supportive environments where students can learn and thrive, there needs to be clear procedures, structures, and expectations in place. Policies are a formal way of documenting the procedures and values of a school. In this article, we will look at the function of school policies, which policies schools should have in place, including statutory school policies, and provide general guidance surrounding writing effective policies. 

Why Do Schools Have Policies and Procedures?

Policies and procedures cover all aspects of school life. They can be written for a variety of audiences, depending on the subject, including students, parents, staff, and governors. Policies ensure that values are applied consistently, define clear expectations, and help provide a framework for employees and students alike. Staff are responsible for familiarising themselves with the school’s policies, and for following the procedures contained within them. 

Key general purposes of school policies include to:

• Create a safe and productive environment for pupils and staff.
• Communicate your schools’ core values and principles clearly to staff, parents, governors, and other bodies (including Ofsted).
• Help staff carry out their duties effectively.
• Help to attract prospective parents, pupils, staff, and governors to your setting.
• Ensure the smooth running of the school – define the school’s rules, regulations, and procedures.
• Ensure a consistent approach in key areas of school life, for example, behaviour.

Types of School Policy

Broadly speaking, school policies come under the following categories:

• Statutory policies. Schools and academies are required by law to have these policies and documents in place.
• Discretionary policies. These are additional policies a school or setting might wish to have in place but are not required by law.
• Curriculum policies. These relate to specific areas of the curriculum. Most of these will be discretionary but some are statutory, such as a relationships and sex education policy.

What Are Statutory Policies?

Certain policies and documents are required to be in place by law. These usually cover major strategic areas, and the specific requirements differ according to the type of educational setting. The Department for Education keeps updated lists of statutory policies for schools and academies. 

List of statutory school policies

Click on the drop downs below to see which statutory policies are required in each area. For each policy, we have included the following information:

• Which types of settings they apply to.
• How often they should be reviewed.
• Who needs to approve and review the policy or document.
• Links to further statutory guidance.

Admission Arrangements Policies and Documents

Admissions policy.

Applies to:

• Local-authority-maintained schools, including maintained special schools and maintained nursery schools.
• Free schools, including university technical colleges and studio schools.
• Voluntary-aided schools and foundation schools directly.
• Community and voluntary-controlled schools – if the local authority formally delegates the responsibility.

Review: The arrangements must be determined annually. Government guidance requires the setting to consult on any changes. Where no changes are made, consultation is required at least every seven years.

Approval:   The full governing body or a committee of the governing body must approve, where the school is its own admissions authority.

Further guidance:

• School Admissions Code  (statutory)
• School Admissions Appeal Code  (statutory)
• Summer Born Children School Admissions  (non-statutory)

Administration and Data Policies and Documents

Charging and remissions.

This applies directly to academies and free schools via their funding agreements. 

Review: Governing bodies can decide how often to review this policy but the DfE recommends an annual review.

Approval:   The governing body can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher.

• Charging for School Activities  (non-statutory)

Data Protection

• Independent schools, not state-funded.
• Sixth-form colleges.
• Further education colleges with 16 to 19 provision.
• Pupil referral units (PRUs).
• Non-maintained special schools.
• Non-maintained nursery schools.

Under the Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018, schools must register with the  Information Commissioner’s Office .

You must adhere to GDPR requirements. 

Review/Approval: Annual registration with the information commissioner’s office is required.

The DfE advises that governing bodies, an individual governor, or headteacher review this requirement annually. 

Protection of biometric information of children in schools and colleges

• Academies including 16 to 19 academies.
• Further education institutions.

Review: The DfE recommends an annual review.

• Protection of Biometric Information of Children in Schools and Colleges  (non-statutory)

Register of pupils’ admission to school and attendance

• Non-maintained nursery schools

Review/Approval: This must be a live document. The governing body can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher. The register itself can be kept by appropriate school staff.

• School Attendance  (non-statutory) (non-statutory)

School information published on a website

• Local-authority-maintained schools, including maintained special schools.

Review: This must be a live document that must be updated as soon as possible after a change, and at least annually. 

Approval: The governing body can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher. 

Further guidance: Details of the information to include on websites:

• What Local-authority-maintained Schools Must Publish Online
• What Academies, Free Schools and Colleges Should Publish Online

School complaints

The DfE also strongly advises academies to consider following the guidance.

Academies should have a written complaints procedure, which is available on request to parents. The DfE recommends that academies publish this online and make it available to anyone who requests it.

Review: Governing bodies can decide how often to review this policy but the DfE recommends an annual review. 

Approval:  The governing body or the proprietor can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher.

Further guidance: 

• School Complaints Procedures  (non-statutory)
• Setting Up an Academies Complaints Procedure  (non-statutory)

Staffing and Human Resources Policies and Documents

Capability of staff.

• Free schools.

Review: The DfE recommends that governing bodies review this annually. 

Approval:  The governing body of a local-authority-maintained school or management committee can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body or an individual governor. Academies can set their own terms for approval.

• Teacher Appraisal and Capability Model Policy  (non-statutory)
• Staffing and Employment: Advice for Schools  (non-statutory)

Early Career Teachers (ECTs)

Approval:  The governing body must ensure that the school is compliant.

• Induction for Early Career Teachers (ECTs)  (statutory)

Staff Discipline, Conduct and Grievance (Procedures for Addressing)

Review: For local-authority-maintained schools, the governing body is free to decide how often you review. The DfE recommends that governing bodies review this annually. All other establishments may want to include this policy but should refer to general employment law.

Approval:  For local-authority-maintained schools – the governing body must not delegate responsibility for establishing their staff discipline, conduct, or grievance procedures.

For academies – the governing body is free to delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher.

• Staffing and Employment Advice for Schools  (non-statutory)

Single Central Record of Recruitment and Vetting Checks

This applies to all schools, colleges and further education institutions where early years education is delivered. They are linked to safeguarding policies.

Review:  This is a live document covering staff currently appointed. Schools should also maintain a single central record of pre-employment checks.

Approval: The governing body of a local-authority-maintained school or a management committee of a PRU is generally free to delegate approval to:

• The headteacher.
• One or more governors/members.
• A committee of the governing body/management committee.
• One or more governors/members acting with the headteacher.
• Keeping Children Safe in Education  (statutory)
• Disqualification Under the Childcare Act 2006  (statutory)

Statement of Procedures for Dealing with Allegations of Abuse Against Staff

Teachers’ Pay

Academies and free schools have greater freedoms than maintained schools.

Schools must follow the statutory guidance when making pay award decisions and creating their pay policies.

Review: This must be reviewed annually.

Approval:  The governing body or the local authority will need to approve.

• Teachers’ Pay and Conditions  (statutory)

Pupil Wellbeing and Safeguarding Policies

Accessibility plan.

Review: This should be reviewed every three years.

• Equality Act 2010 Advice for Schools  (non-statutory)

Child Protection Policy and Procedures

Review: This should be reviewed and updated annually as a minimum.

Approval:  The governing body or the proprietor must approve.

The policy should be available publicly on the school or college website, or elsewhere.

Our Hub article,  Creating A Safeguarding Policy , contains a useful template.

Child With Health Needs Who Cannot Attend School

• Where a child is not on the roll of a school.

Review: The DfE recommends that governing bodies review this requirement annually.

Approval:  The governing body must approve.

• Education for Children with Health Needs Who Cannot Attend School  (statutory)

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Those delivering the EYFS are required to have policies and procedures on a range of issues covering safeguarding and welfare.

Schools are not required to have separate policies to cover EYFS requirements where they are already met through an existing policy.

An EYFS profile assessment is required for each child during the academic year they reach the age of 5 (for most children this is the reception year in primary school).

Nursery settings catering for children under the age of three must complete a summary check when a child is aged two.

Review: Review frequency varies. Further details are available in the statutory guidance.

Approval: The governing body can determine approval. 

• Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage  (statutory)

Special Educational Needs and Disability

Review: The SEN information report should be updated annually, and if any changes to the information occur during the year, these should be updated as soon as possible.

Approval: The full governing body or proprietor must approve. 

• SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years  (statutory)

Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions

• Academies, excluding 16 to 19 academies.

Review: The governing body, proprietor, and management committee can decide how often this is reviewed. However, it should be regularly reviewed and readily accessible to parents and school staff.

• Local-authority-maintained schools – the governing body can approve.
• Academies – proprietors can approve.
• PRUs – the management committee can approve.
• Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions  (statutory)

Relationships Education (Primary) and Relationships and Sex Education (Secondary) Policies

Relationships education (primary) and relationships and sex education (secondary).

• Non-maintained Special Schools.

Review: The governing body can decide how often this is reviewed. The DfE advises that this is reviewed annually.

Approval: The governing body or the proprietor can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher.

• Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), and Health Education  (statutory)

Behaviour Policies and Documents

Behaviour in schools.

Review: The headteacher can decide how often this is reviewed. The DfE advises that this is reviewed annually.

Approval: The headteacher can delegate approval for this.

• Behaviour and Discipline in Schools: Guide for Governing Bodies  (statutory)

You may also find our Hub article,  Creating A School Behaviour Management Policy , useful.

Behaviour Principles Written Statement

Academies and free schools have greater freedoms than maintained schools. 

Independent schools must ensure:

• A written behaviour policy is drawn up that sets out the sanctions to be adopted in the event of pupil misbehaviour.
• The policy is implemented effectively.
• A record is kept of the sanctions imposed upon pupils for serious misbehaviour.

Approval: The full governing body or a committee of the governing body must approve this.

School Exclusion

Review: The DfE advises that this is reviewed annually.

• School Exclusion  (statutory)

Facilities Policies and Documents

• Local authorities on behalf of community and voluntary-controlled schools.

Review: The governing body, proprietor, or local authority is free to decide how often it is reviewed. The DfE advises that governing bodies review this requirement annually.

Approval: The employer can determine how to implement and approve.

• Health and Safety Advice for Schools  (non-statutory)

First Aid in Schools

Review: The DfE advises that governing bodies review this requirement annually.

• First Aid in Schools  (non-statutory)

Premises Management Documents

There are many aspects of school premises that require safe management and maintenance such as asbestos, fire safety, and statutory testing. Those with duties for maintaining school buildings should make sure that the policies, procedures, and the condition of the estate are compliant with appropriate legislation, including health and safety.

Independent schools, academies, and free schools have sole responsibility.

For local-authority-maintained schools, both local authorities and schools have responsibilities for the repair and maintenance of premises.

Approval: The governing body can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher.

• Good Estate Management for Schools  (non-statutory)
• Asbestos Management in Schools  (non-statutory)
• Fire Safety Risk Assessment for Educational Premises  (non-statutory)
• Standards for School Premises  (non-statutory)
• Emergency and Risk Management  (non-statutory)

Governance Policies and Documents

Equality information and objectives (public sector equality duty) statement for publication.

• Pupil referral units (PRU).
• Local authorities on behalf of PRUs.

Review: Under specific duties, governing bodies, local authorities, and proprietors are required to draw up and publish equality objectives every four years and publish information annually. They need to demonstrate how they are meeting the aims of the general public sector equality duty.

Governors’ Allowances (Schemes for Paying)

Academies and free schools have greater freedoms than maintained schools. Although this requirement is not mandatory for academies, the DfE strongly advises academies to consider following the guidance.

Review: For local-authority-maintained schools with a delegated budget, the governing body is free to decide how often schemes for paying governors’ allowances are reviewed. The DfE advises that this is reviewed annually.

(Where schools do not have a delegated budget, the local authority may pay allowances and expenses at a rate determined by them.)

Approval:  The governing body can delegate approval to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor, or the headteacher.

Instrument of Government

• Governance Handbook  (non-statutory)
• Constitution of Governing Bodies of Maintained Schools  (statutory)

Register of Business Interests of Headteachers and Governors

Review: This is a live document that should be updated as soon as possible after a change.

Approval: The governing body can delegate approval subject to the local authority scheme.

• Schemes for Financing Schools  (statutory)
• Constitution of Governing Bodies of Local-authority-maintained Schools  (statutory)

Careers Guidance Policies and Documents

Careers guidance.

• Local-authority-maintained schools.
• Voluntary-aided schools and foundation schools.
• Community and voluntary-controlled schools.

Schools must publish details of their careers programme for young people and their parents. They must also publish a statement setting out their arrangements for provider access.

Review: The DfE advises that governing bodies review these annually.

• Careers Guidance and Access for Education and Training Providers  (statutory)

Sample of School Policies – Discretionary

In addition to the statutory policies, school leaders will want to produce a variety of discretionary policies to cover other areas of school life, including key curriculum areas. 

The full list would depend on the setting, but some common ones include:

• Acceptable Use Policy
• Anti-bullying Policy
• Calculation Policy
• Curriculum Policy
• Educational Visits Policy
• Finance Policy
• Image Use Policy
• Legionella Policy
• Lockdown Policy
• Mobile Phone and Devices Policy
• Online Safety Policy
• Remote Learning Policy
• Risk Management Policy
• Safer Recruitment Policy
• Staff Expenses Policy
• Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Policy

The following Hub articles contain guidance regarding additional  policies:

• What Should a School Allergy Policy Cover?
• How to Write a School Mental Health Policy
• How to Develop a School Bereavement Policy: Free Template
• Child Protection Photography Policy: Free Consent Form Template
• Creating a Safeguarding Policy – Example Template for Schools

Writing School Policies

Policies should be clear, informative, and concise. When writing any policy, you should 

take your audience into account. Ensure that you do not use jargon and remove any ambiguous statements which could be misinterpreted. 

You need to consider how to make your policies accessible. Depending on your setting, this might include providing translated materials, providing paper copies for those without internet or printer access, or making sure you follow good practice with regards to making communications dyslexia friendly, for example.

The actual writing of policies can be delegated to any member of staff – with approval being given in line with the specific requirements for each policy. For example, curriculum policies are often written by those responsible for that area of the curriculum.

For some policies there is a legal requirement for them to be published on the school website, however many schools decide to share all their policies online. This enables parents, and other individuals, such as prospective employees, to easily access the information. Bear in mind that you will need to offer written copies if requested.

A setting may wish to organise policies into handbooks or group policies together (for example PSHE and British Values often sit well together). Separate handbooks can be created for staff, students, parents, etc, each containing the relevant policies and documents.

Reviewing Policies

Some statutory policies have specified review periods, as detailed in the drop downs above, whilst others are reviewed at the discretion of the leadership team. It is good practice to review all policies regularly . Each policy should state when that version was written and the date of the next pending review.

Reviewing policies ensures that the information remains up to date and in line with current legislation. For example, all relevant safeguarding policies should reflect regular changes in key guidance, such as Keeping Children Safe in Education ( our Hub article is updated with key amendments as they are published).

Policies should be accessible, accurate records of a setting’s procedures, values, and expectations. These documents help all members of the school community to work together to create a safe and enriching learning and working environment for all. 

Further Resources:

• Safer Recruitment in Education Course 
• How to Choose A School: The Different Types of School
• Safeguarding Children Guidance
• Health and Safety in Schools: Free Checklist
• Creating a School Behaviour Management Policy
• Conflict in the Classroom: Coaching Children in Acting Responsibly
• School Trip Risk Assessment Template for Teachers

Post Author

Her favourite article is Why is Child Development So Important in Early Years?

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Writing policy and procedures for schools is a part of an administrator's job. School policies and procedures are essentially the governing documents by which your school district and school buildings are operated. It is essential that your policies and procedures be current and up-to-date. These should be reviewed and revised as necessary, and new policies and procedures should be written as needed.

The following guidelines are tips and suggestions to consider when you are evaluating old policy and procedures or writing new ones.

Why Is the Evaluation of School Policies and Procedures Important? 

Every school has a student handbook , support staff handbook, and certified staff handbook which are loaded with policies and procedures. These are vital pieces of each school because they govern the day-to-day occurrences that happen in your buildings. They are valuable because they offer the guidelines for how the administration and school board believe their school should be run. These policies come into play every single day. They are a set of expectations that all constituents within the school are held accountable by.

How Do You Write Targeted Policy?

Policies and procedures typically are written with a specific target audience in mind, This includes students, teachers, administrators, support staff, and even parents. Policies and procedures should be written so that the target audience understands what is being asked or directed of them. For example, a policy written for a middle school student handbook should be written at a middle school grade level and with terminology that the average middle school student will understand.

What Makes a Policy Clear?

A quality policy is both informative and direct meaning that the information is not ambiguous, and it is always straight to the point. It is also clear and concise. A well-written policy will not create confusion. A good policy is also up-to-date. For example, policies dealing with technology probably need frequently updated due to the rapid evolution of the technology industry itself. A clear policy is easy to understand. The readers of the policy should not only understand the meaning of the policy but understand the tone and the underlying reason the policy was written.

When Do You Add New Policies or Revise Old Ones?

Policies should be written and/or revised as needed. Student handbooks and such should be reviewed on a yearly basis. Administrators should be encouraged to keep documentation of all policies and procedures that they feel need to be added or revised as the school year moves along. There are times to put a piece of new or revised policy in effect immediately within a school year, but the majority of the time, the new or revised policy should go into effect the following school year.

What Are Good Procedures for Adding or Revising Policies?

The majority of policy should go through several channels before it is included within your proper district’s policy book. The first thing that has to happen is that a rough draft of the policy has to be written. This is usually done by a principal or other school administrator . Once the administrator is happy with the policy, then it is an excellent idea to form a review committee made up of the administrator, teachers, students, and parents.

During the review committee, the administrator explains the policy and its purpose, the committee discusses the policy, makes any recommendations for revision, and decides whether it should be submitted to the superintendent for review. The superintendent then reviews the policy and may seek legal counsel to make sure the policy is legally viable. The superintendent may kick the policy back down to the review committee to make changes, may kick out the policy completely, or may send it on to the school board for them to review. The school board can vote to reject the policy, accept the policy, or may ask that a part be revised within the policy before they accept it. Once it is approved by the school board , then it becomes official school policy and is added to the appropriate district handbook.

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Why Is School Attendance Important? The Effects of Chronic Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism is pervasive: as many as one in six students in the United States miss enough school to be considered chronically absent, according to the US Department of Education. The negative effects of absenteeism on a student’s education can be profound, and they often carry into adulthood.

The harmful impact of chronic absenteeism threatens all students, but the risks are not borne equally. Students of color, students who live in poverty, and students with chronic health conditions or disabilities all experience disproportionately high absence rates.

Examining the causes of absenteeism and the effects it has on school performance, and ultimately life outcomes, provides a deeper understanding of why school attendance is so important.

Why Is School Attendance Important?

School attendance is a powerful predictor of student outcomes. In fact, irregular attendance can be a better predictor of whether students will drop out of school before graduation than test scores, according to the US Department of Education.

The correlation between attendance and dropout rates has important ramifications that go beyond the classroom. Compared to their peers who graduate, students who fail to complete their high school education are more likely to live in poverty, suffer poor health, and become involved in the criminal justice system.

Defining and Assessing Chronic Absenteeism in Schools

Chronic absenteeism is widely defined as missing 10 percent or more of a school year. Schools generally recognize three categories of absences:

• Excused absences are those with a valid reason and that have been communicated to the school by a parent. Student illness or other medical conditions are the most common types of excused absence; other reasons include religious observances, medical appointments, and family emergencies.
• Unexcused absences, or truancy , occur when students miss school without a valid reason. Examples include deliberately skipping school as well as missing school for reasons deemed invalid by the school, such as oversleeping or missing the bus.
• Disciplinary absences are a result of school suspension.

While these categories of absences are relatively consistent from one institution to another, school attendance policies and practices vary. For example, some school policies make little or no distinction between excused and unexcused absences. Similarly, school suspensions may be counted as absences by some school districts but not by others.

Such discrepancies speak to the challenge of collecting accurate and consistent attendance data, which is critical for education researchers and policymakers. Two sources of US public school attendance data––the Civil Rights Data Collection and attendance reporting under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015––merit closer examination.

Civil Rights Data Collection

Arguably the most important study of absenteeism data collected in the US was the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a biennial report from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) division. The first CRDC study to collect absenteeism data was conducted during the 2013-2014 school year and released in 2016. It marked the first national study of chronic absences and provided hard evidence of the negative effects of chronic absenteeism.

Chronic absenteeism data is no longer collected by OCR (the Education Department continues to collect absence data through its EdFacts Division), but information collected about absences as part of the 2018 CRDC (2015-2016 school year data) continues to serve as a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers studying absenteeism.

The shift from OCR-collected data to EdFacts also marked an important change to attendance data: the definition of chronic absenteeism went from missing at least 15 days of school in a year to missing 10 percent or more of a school year. This change helps to standardize the metric used by federal, state, and local education authorities.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, a reauthorization of the landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, included important requirements for school absenteeism reporting. The law requires all states to include chronic absence data in their school report cards.

It also requires states to select five metrics by which to measure performance in their schools; four of the performance indicators must be focused on academic achievement, but the fifth is a nonacademic metric. Chronic absenteeism was chosen as the nonacademic indicator by 36 states and the District of Columbia.

Such a broad adoption of absenteeism as a performance indicator reflects growing recognition of the importance of attendance. It also lays the groundwork for addressing the problem. ESSA state plans include strategies for using federal funds to improve attendance through such measures as improved health services, greater family engagement, and teacher training.

School Attendance Facts

Even a cursory look at national attendance data reveals that the problem is widespread. The following attendance facts come from the CRDC that was released in 2018:

• More than seven million students in the US––16 percent of the student population––missed 15 or more days of school.
• Approximately 800 school districts reported more than 30 percent of their students missed at least three weeks of school.
• Chronic absenteeism rates are highest in high schools, where about one in five students is chronically absent.
• More than 20 percent of students were chronically absent in six states (Alaska, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington) and the District of Columbia.
• Every state had schools that reported 10 percent or more of students as chronically absent.

Attendance Inequalities

A survey of national absenteeism data also highlights inequalities across school districts and among students. Many of the factors that are known to contribute to chronic absenteeism––limited transportation, poor health, lack of safety––are more prevalent in marginalized communities and areas of poverty.

The 2018 CRDC shows significant differences in the rates of absenteeism experienced by different races and ethnicities. Students of color generally have higher absenteeism than their white counterparts:

• White students, 14.5 percent
• Black students, 20.5 percent
• Hispanic students, 17 percent
• American Indian students, 26 percent

Asian students are the only nonwhite student population with an absenteeism rate, 8.6 percent, that is lower than that of white students.

While a clear correlation between poverty and absenteeism exists on average, not all high-poverty schools have high chronic absence rates. Some have been successful in helping families overcome attendance challenges by using prevention-oriented approaches, according to Attendance Works, an initiative that advocates for improved absence data collection and policy.

One prevention-oriented program that has proven effective is the formation of “attendance teams,” cross-functional groups that work to improve school attendance by monitoring attendance data, identifying causes for absenteeism, and coordinating prevention and support strategies. Typically led by a principal, an attendance team can include teachers, school nurses, guidance counselors, social workers, parent representatives, and other stakeholders.

The success of such strategies, particularly within schools that are at high risk for chronic absenteeism, underscores the importance of identifying schools at risk for high absence rates and taking steps to address the problem.

Causes of Poor School Attendance

Many factors are associated with poor school attendance:

• Physical health issues . Health conditions such as asthma, influenza, diabetes, tooth decay, and obesity are all associated with higher rates of student absenteeism. Nearly 10 percent of children aged four to14 are diagnosed with asthma, a leading cause of school absenteeism. Asthma accounts for a third of all days of missed instruction, according to Attendance Works.
• Bullying . Approximately 20 percent of students in the US aged 12 to 18 experience bullying. Bullying can include emotional abuse (name-calling, insults, teasing), the threat of harm or actual physical abuse (being pushed, tripped, or beaten), destruction of property, and ostracization (exclusion, being made the subject of rumors or lies). In the US, low socioeconomic status is a common factor in bullying, and immigrant youth are more likely to be bullied than locally born youth, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
• Socioeconomic hardship . Socioeconomic hardship can lead to unstable housing or homelessness, as well as limited transportation resources. One child in six lives in poverty in the US, according to Children International.

Academic struggles can also cause students to become disengaged with school, which is one of the reasons that students with learning differences struggle with absenteeism.

Developmental Delays, Learning Disabilities, and Related Disorders

A study conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes found that elementary school students with disabilities served by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) were 1.5 times as likely to be chronically absent as their peers without disabilities. High school students with disabilities served by IDEA were 1.4 times as likely to be chronically absent. (IDEA addresses a broad range of mental and physical impairments, including developmental delays, learning disabilities, and related disorders.) Students with learning disabilities drop out of school at nearly three times the rate for all students, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD).

NCLD notes that students with learning and attention issues commonly experience bullying, struggle with feelings of failure, and often find it difficult to gain acceptance among their peers. All of these factors can put them at high risk for missing school.

A report from the US Department of Health and Human Services also links chronic school absenteeism and selected developmental disabilities. Children aged five to 17 with an intellectual disability had the highest prevalence of chronic school absenteeism at 14 percent, followed by children with autism spectrum disorder at 9 percent, those with other developmental delays at 7.2 percent, and those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at 5.2 percent.

Mental Health and School Attendance

Mental health issues are among the factors that contribute to chronic absences, according to Attendance Works. Diagnoses of anxiety disorder and depression are not uncommon in children, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), which reports that as many as 2.8 million children aged 12 to 17 in the US have at least one major depressive episode in a year. Approximately 80 percent of children with an anxiety order and 60 percent with depression are not treated, according to ADAA.

Chronic absenteeism has also been linked to trauma, which can include experiences ranging from abuse and neglect to the loss of a loved one. More than half of students will experience a traumatic event by the time they reach adulthood, according to Waterford.org.

Effects of Poor School Attendance

When children are absent from school, they miss out on consistent instruction that is needed to develop basic skills. Children in early grades are particularly susceptible to falling behind in fundamental reading skills, which can have a snowball effect that impacts future learning.

Children who have learning and thinking differences can be especially vulnerable to the impact of absenteeism because missing school reduces opportunities for any interventions that might be necessary. If teachers fail to realize that they need an intervention, they are more likely to attribute a learning difficulty to absenteeism, essentially confusing the symptom for the cause.

Students who fail to read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely than students who achieve proficiency to drop out of high school, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, citing a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Adults without a high school education generally earn lower incomes and experience higher unemployment than their peers who do earn a high school diploma, putting them at greater risk for poverty.

Poor attendance can also have a negative effect on social and emotional development. For example, students who are chronically absent in the early years of their education may not learn crucial school readiness skills (abilities such as critical thinking, problem solving, and creative thinking), and can fall behind their peers in social-emotional development. Excessive absences are also associated with lower scores on standardized tests, which typically assess primary skills and concepts.

While students pay the highest cost if they miss too much school, high absence rates also put a burden on teachers. Making up for lost instruction adds to their workload, and the valuable classroom time it takes up is a detriment to all students.

Addressing Chronic Absenteeism

Just as chronic absenteeism has no single cause, it has no simple solution either. Parents, teachers, administrators, and policymakers can all play a role in addressing high absence rates and improving children’s chances of receiving complete and effective education.

Strategies for Parents

Parents who are concerned that their child has a problem with school attendance can employ several strategies:

• Talk with the child . Conversations are the first step to understanding root causes and working toward a solution.
• Contact the school . Teachers, counselors, and administrators may be able to provide additional information that helps determine what is causing a child to miss school. Contacting the school also starts a conversation that can be mutually beneficial, and it demonstrates engagement.
• Consider an evaluation for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan . Both programs can provide special accommodations and support for students who are struggling with disabilities.
• Set attendance goals with the child . Creating a plan and tracking progress can encourage better attendance and provide opportunities for conversations and support. Simple steps such as making sure a child gets enough sleep and taking steps to prepare for school the day or night before can also be effective.

Strategies for Educators

Teachers, administrators, and policymakers can work together to address chronic absenteeism. Such efforts begin with gaining a better understanding of the importance of attendance:

• Raise awareness . Training programs can help educators and administrators understand the importance of attendance and the long-term effects of chronic absenteeism.
• Report and study absenteeism data . Identifying students at high risk and the most prevalent causes of absenteeism helps create evidence-based solutions to attendance problems. Identifying problems early is crucial for success.
• Develop trauma-informed practices . Schools equipped to provide emotional support and resources to students who have suffered trauma can address a major cause of absenteeism.
• Set clear expectations . Both students and their parents need clear guidelines about attendance rules and the consequences for missing school.
• Schedule a meeting or visit with family . Reaching out to families personally (in person or using technology that allows social distancing) can be used to develop an individualized attendance plan for families.
• Recognize good attendance . Celebrating students with good attendance and demonstrating concern (rather than frustration or dismissiveness) when students struggle with attendance creates a positive environment that encourages students.
• Implement intervention programs . Some students may require counseling, mentorship, or behavioral interventions.
• Engage with specialists for case management . Specialists who can offer assistance might include child welfare agency staff, mental health professionals, or other social support system employees.

Turning Negatives Into Positives

Parents and educators who do the difficult work of improving student attendance have powerful motivation. Every negative impact associated with chronic absenteeism has a positive corollary for high attendance. Students who regularly attend school and graduate from high school build a foundation for more positive life outcomes:

• Better academic performance
• More work options and earning potential
• Greater opportunities for higher education
• Higher civic engagement
• More developed life skills that positively influence health and economic decisions

However great the challenge, improving attendance directly contributes to more equitable education and better student outcomes.

Empowering More Effective and Equitable Education

Chronic absenteeism is one of the most critical challenges facing educators. Addressing such a prevalent and significant barrier to education requires administrators with exceptional leadership and policy expertise.

American University’s School of Education prepares educators to create equitable learning environments and effect positive change. It promotes modern education that addresses more than just what students learn––it provides students with opportunities to reach their full potential and lead positive social change.

Suited for education leaders who believe in progressive change in education, American University’s online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership (EdD) program develops students in four primary domains: systems change, personal leadership, social justice and antiracism, and policy and research.

Discover how the online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership at American University enhances practical experience and theoretical knowledge, advances education careers, and develops professionals who transform education.

Education Policy Issues in 2020 and Beyond

Path to Becoming a School District Administrator

What’s the Difference Between Educational Equity and Equality?

American Academy of Pediatrics, School Attendance, Truancy & Chronic Absenteeism: What Parents Need to Know

Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Anxiety and Depression in Children

Attendance Works, 10 Facts About School Attendance

Attendance Works, “Data Matters: Using Chronic Absence to Accelerate Action for Student Success”

Children International, Child Poverty in the U.S. Attendance Works, “Mapping the Early Attendance Gap”

The Classroom, “The Effects of Excessive Absenteeism in Schools”

Economic Policy Institute, “Student Absenteeism: Who Misses School and How Missing School Matters for Performance”

National Center for Learning Disabilities, “The State of LD: Introduction”

National Center on Educational Outcomes, “Students With Disabilities & Chronic Absenteeism”

National Conference of State Legislatures, “Pre-Kindergarten-Third Grade Literacy”

PACER Center, “School Attendance Makes a Difference”

Stopbullying.gov, Facts About Bullying

Understood, “Chronic Absenteeism: What You Need to Know”

US Department of Education, 2017–18 Civil Rights Data Collection: General Overview, Changes, and List of Data Elements

US Department of Education, “Chronic Absenteeism in the Nation’s Schools”

US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Protecting Students With Disabilities

US Department of Health and Human Services, National Health Statistics Reports, “Chronic School Absenteeism Among Children With Selected Developmental Disabilities: National Health Interview Survey, 2014–2016”

Waterford.org, “What Your School Needs to Know About Trauma-Informed Practices”

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Mary Louise Culpepper

How to write an effective reflective policy essay.

We seek a reflective policy essay as part of your application. Make sure yours is an effective one.

The reflective policy essay has been designed for us to learn more about your experience with real-world policy challenges, as well as your ability to learn from mistakes and to problem-solve. This written work will enable us to understand more about the professional and personal experiences that have shaped your public service passion, and to understand better what you might bring to the MPP classroom.

What is a reflective policy essay?

We are looking for essays that tackle policy and/or policy implementation problems that you have experienced.

First, we want you to briefly describe something you’ve experienced where a lack of good policy and/or implementation procedures led to bad outcomes or unintended consequences. Please be specific, and make sure we understand your personal connection to the situation. We do not want a generic, theoretical policy essay. You have 300 words for this first section.

In the next section, we would like you to analyse what went wrong and what could have been done differently. Be sure to make clear your point of view in this experience: as a public servant, a citizen, or a commentator. Remember, we want to understand how you think and learn, and what unique experiences you have had that will enrich the classroom experience for others in the diverse MPP cohort. In conclusion, we want to see concrete policy proposals that would correct the problems you identified and produce positive outcomes going forward. An excellent policy brief will consider alternatives and address barriers to implementation as well as costs. It will also bring in evidence to support your arguments. You have 1200 words for this second section.

The importance of critical thinking

This essay should demonstrate your ability to think critically and creatively. It should also demonstrate your commitment to positive change and your understanding of real-world policy challenges. It is an important part of the application and we are looking forward to reading your submission!

Mary Louise Culpepper is Senior Admissions Adviser at the Blavatnik School of Government. Find out more about how to apply to the Master of Public Policy .

Saved You a Spot

The Education Blog

The Importance of Policies in Schools

Creating a policy within a school can be seen by many as a bureaucratic and overbearing task. To be honest it is but the real question is, is it worth it? In reality, as everyone cannot be everywhere all the time to ensure that people carry out their tasks correctly and responsibly; policies provide useful and necessary assistance to ensure this. Guidelines and rules help to increase the efficiency of work processes and a policy does just that.

Policies are important because they help a school establish operating procedures and create standards of quality for learning and teaching, as well as set out expectations and accountability. Without these, schools would lack the structure and function necessary to provide the educational needs of students. Therefore, policies are key for the success of a school, and provide many other privileges provided they are written well, to the point and kept up to date.

Many policies are just written and never changed after that. Adherence to them and making necessary changes to mirror the changes that occur on a school level are imperative as policies only stay valuable for as long as they are properly implemented and monitored. Can there be such as thing as too many policies? I think that yes, there is always the risk of getting carried away and having too many policies. Having too many policies leads to information overload for both staff and pupils. When that happens, adherence to all the policies is less likely to happen. This can lead to frustration, causing tension between between teachers and administrators.

In a nutshell, policies are important and should be part of any school system for its smooth operation. They are necessary for administrators, teachers and pupils so long as there is not an excessive amount with information overload for all, as that would be counterproductive.

What policies do you think are the most important for any school to have?

Leave a comment below. Like and share this post.

Till next time…

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Home  /  News  /  Why Is Education Important? The Power Of An Educated Society

Why Is Education Important? The Power Of An Educated Society

Looking for an answer to the question of why is education important? We address this query with a focus on how education can transform society through the way we interact with our environment. 

Whether you are a student, a parent, or someone who values educational attainment, you may be wondering how education can provide quality life to a society beyond the obvious answer of acquiring knowledge and economic growth. Continue reading as we discuss the importance of education not just for individuals but for society as a whole. 

Harness the power of education to build a more sustainable modern society with a degree from  Unity Environmental University .

How Education Is Power: The Importance Of Education In Society

Why is education so important? Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” An educated society is better equipped to tackle the challenges that face modern America, including:

• Climate change
• Social justice
• Economic inequality

Education is not just about learning to read and do math operations. Of course, gaining knowledge and practical skills is part of it, but education is also about values and critical thinking. It’s about finding our place in society in a meaningful way. 

Environmental Stewardship

A  study from 2022 found that people who belong to an environmental stewardship organization, such as the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, are likely to have a higher education level than those who do not. This suggests that quality education can foster a sense of responsibility towards the environment.

With the effects of climate change becoming increasingly alarming, this particular importance of education is vital to the health, safety, and longevity of our society. Higher learning institutions can further encourage environmental stewardship by adopting a  framework of sustainability science .

The Economic Benefits Of Education

Higher education can lead to better job opportunities and higher income. On average, a  person with a bachelor’s degree will make $765,000 more  in their lifetime than someone with no degree. Even with the rising costs of tuition, investment in higher education pays off in the long run. In 2020, the return on investment (ROI) for a college degree was estimated to be  13.5% to 35.9% . 

Green jobs  like environmental science technicians and solar panel installers  have high demand projections for the next decade. Therefore, degrees that will prepare you for one of these careers will likely yield a high ROI. And, many of these jobs only require an  associate’s degree or certificate , which means lower overall education costs. 

Unity  helps students maximize their ROI with real-world experience in the field as an integral part of every degree program. 

10 Reasons Why School Is Important

Education is not just an individual pursuit but also a societal one.  In compiling these reasons, we focused on the question, “How does education benefit society?” Overall, higher education has the power to transform:

• Individuals’ sense of self
• Interpersonal relationships
• Social communities
• Professional communities

Cognitive Development

Neuroscience research  has proven that the brain is a muscle that can retain its neuroplasticity throughout life. However, like other muscles, it must receive continual exercise to remain strong. Higher education allows people of any age to improve their higher-level cognitive abilities like problem-solving and decision-making. This can make many parts of life feel more manageable and help society run smoothly. 

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is key to workplace success.  Studies  show that people with emotional intelligence exhibit more:

• Self-awareness
• Willingness to try new things
• Innovative thinking
• Active listening
• Collaboration skills
• Problem-solving abilities

By attending higher education institutions that value these soft skills, students can improve their emotional intelligence as part of their career development in college.

Technological Literacy

Many careers in today’s job market use advanced technology. To prepare for these jobs, young people likely won’t have access to these technologies to practice on their own. That’s part of why so many STEM career paths require degrees. It’s essential to gain technical knowledge and skills through a certified program to safely use certain technologies. And, educated scientists are  more likely to make new technological discoveries .

Cultural Awareness

Education exposes individuals to different cultures and perspectives. Being around people who are different has the powerful ability to foster acceptance. Acceptance benefits society as a whole. It increases innovation and empathy. 

College also gives students an opportunity to practice feeling comfortable in situations where there are people of different races, genders, sexualities, and abilities. Students can gain an understanding of how to act respectfully among different types of people, which is an important skill for the workplace. This will only become more vital as our world continues to become more globalized.

Ethical and Moral Development

Another reason why school is important is that it promotes ethical and moral development. Many schools require students to take an ethics course in their general education curriculum. However, schools can also encourage character development throughout their programs by using effective pedagogical strategies including:

• Class debates and discussions
• Historical case studies
• Group projects

Unity’s distance learning programs  include an ethical decision-making class in our core curriculum. 

Ready To Learn More About Unity Environmental University?

Communication Skills

Effective written and verbal communication skills are key for personal and professional success. Higher education programs usually include at least one communication course in their general education requirements. Often the focus in these classes is on writing skills, but students can also use college as an opportunity to hone their presentation and public speaking skills. Courses such as  Multimedia Communication for Environmental Professionals  provide many opportunities for this. 

Civic Engagement

According to a  Gallup survey , people with higher education degrees are:

• More likely to participate in civic activities such as voting and volunteering
• Less likely to commit crimes
• More likely to get involved in their local communities

All these individual acts add up to make a big difference in society. An educated electorate is less likely to be swayed by unethical politicians and, instead, make choices that benefit themselves and their community. Because they are more involved, they are also more likely to hold elected officials accountable.

Financial Stability

The right degree can significantly expand your career opportunities and improve your long-term earning potential. Not all degrees provide the same level of financial stability, so it’s important to research expected salary offers after graduation and job demand outlook predictions for your desired field. Consider the return on investment for a degree from an affordable private school such as  Unity Environmental University .

Environmental Awareness

We have already discussed why education is important for environmental stewardship. Education can also lead to better environmental practices in the business world. By building empathy through character education and ethics courses, institutions can train future business leaders to emphasize human rights and sustainability over profits. All types and sizes of businesses can incorporate sustainable practices, but awareness of the issues and solutions is the first step.

Lifelong Learning

The reasons why education is important discussed so far focus on institutional education. However, education can happen anywhere. Attending a university that values all kinds of learning will set students up with the foundation to become lifelong learners.  Research  demonstrates that lifelong learners tend to be healthier and more fulfilled throughout their lives. When societies emphasize the importance of education, they can boost their overall prosperity.

The Role Of Unity Environmental University In Society

Environmentally conscious education is extremely valuable and should be accessible to all.   Unity Environmental University  offers tuition prices that are comparable to public universities, and financial aid is available to those who qualify. Courses last five weeks so that students can focus on only one class at a time. This ensures all learners are set up for academic success. 

Unity believes in supporting students holistically to maximize the power of education. This includes mental health services,  experiential learning opportunities , and  job placement assistance . Students in our  hybrid programs  can take classes at several field stations throughout Maine and enjoy the beautiful nature surrounding the campus for outdoor recreation.

Sustainable Initiatives

Some highlights from Unity Environmental University’s many sustainable initiatives:

• All programs include at least one sustainability learning outcome
• All research courses are focused on sustainability research
• Reduced building energy use by 25% across campus
• 100% of food waste is recycled into energy 
• Campus features a  net-zero LEED Platinum-certified classroom/office building

While many schools value sustainability, Unity stands out because  everything  we do is about sustainability. We also recognize our responsibility to model how a sustainable business can operate in a manner that’s fiscally viable and socially responsible.

Make An Impact At Unity Environmental University

While the phrase ‘education is power’ may sound cliche, it is also resoundingly true. Higher education has the power to transform individuals and societies. Unity Environmental University understands its power to make a positive impact on the world. That’s why we were the first university to divest from fossil fuels. 

This year, we celebrated our  largest incoming class ever , showing that students want an education system that aligns with their values. In addition to our commitment to sustainability, we offer flexibility to students with start dates all year round for our  online degree programs .

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The Importance of Policies and Procedures in Schools

Policies are important because they help a school establish rules and procedures in order to function effectively and ensure everyone is connected.

Schools are highly complex and create standards of quality for learning and safety, as well as expectations and accountability. Without these, schools would lack the structure and function necessary to provide for the educational needs of students.

Some policies will be common throughout all schools, whilst others will be designed specifically for each school. State and Federal based legislation and guidelines will provide the guidance to assist with the development of the content of your policies and procedures. Additional guidelines for example from the National Safe Schools Framework (NSSF) provides further information on the development of policies and procedures.

https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/national_safe_schools_framework.pdf

Other bodies such as the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) provide forums to assist in the drafting and refinement of governance documents in collaboration with teachers, parents, carers, and students.

The policies written by schools should include clear plain language and definition of terms in order to function effectively. Schools must have clear policies and procedures that guide day-to-day processes. These policies cover everything from attendance, to student discipline, to emergency procedures, to the curriculum.

A clear suite of policies and procedures assist in the demonstration of compliance with Corporate governance, Teaching standards, Student welfare and Education programs.

SCHOOL COMPLIANCE MADE EASY

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — School — The Importance of School

The Importance of School

• Categories: School

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Published: Mar 6, 2024

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Importance Of School Rules (Essay Sample) 2023

Table of Contents

Importance Of School Rules

Introduction.

Remember when, as a child, you were always reminded about the importance of school rules and regulations? Your parents and teacher probably repeatedly told you that obeying school rules is ultimately for your own good.

How Can I Get Essay For Free and Is it realistic to expect a low-cost, High-Quality Essay from a Cheap Paper Writing Service ?

In this essay, I talk about the advantages of school rules and why are school rules important. Rule-following sometimes gets bad flak, but I want to offer a fresh perspective on the overall importance of school policies.

If you want your own custom essay on the benefits of school rules and regulations, feel free to send us a message so that we can help.

Related: What Are the Basics of Writing an Essay

Importance of school rules and regulations essay

Following rules formally begins when a child starts class. The humble classroom is a place where kids first encounter the need to follow rules outside the home. 

Rules are there for a reason: they are guidelines that enable a student to be disciplined and have good decorum. There are rules that discuss how to conduct oneself among peers, while other mandates talk more about the technicalities and schedules a student must follow.

This essay aims to explore in-depth the significance of having academic policies and how they benefit the students.

Creating focus, empowering education

Firstly, having academic regulations is important because it creates healthy and safe boundaries for students to focus on their studies. It gives them the best chance to excel in their classes.

The same focus also creates a strong awareness of what is allowed and what is not. Just as regulations spell out how students are expected to behave, they also clarify the consequences of misbehaving. This serves as a preventive measure for bad conduct, as students are made aware early on what they should not be doing. When explained properly, rules will be understood by students as guidelines created for their overall safety and well-being.

Related: Understanding the Basics of an Essay

Establishing the school’s academic reputation

Academic regulations do not only benefit the students themselves. As more students happily adhere to policies, the school’s reputation gets a boost.

It must be said that parents are the ultimate decision-makers when it comes to their children’s schooling. Many of these discerning parents do not just consider geographic location when it comes to selecting their kids’ future schools. They take a long, thoughtful look at the school’s track record; whether or not it is known for producing people of good character. It is the graduates of the academy who serve as the most effective testimonials for the academy.

Holds a safe space for character formation

Regulations also exist to help a student get back on his feet after breaking an ordinance. In situations where a rule is disobeyed, academies also have protocols in place to help a student learn from his mistakes and become better.

Whether disciplinary action refers to suspension or community service, it is meant to empower students to recognize mistakes when they are made and resolve to do things differently next time.

Preparation for a future with more rules

People will always encounter policies, in and out of classrooms. We are all accountable to someone. As such, rule-following in class is a solid foundation for dealing with larger and stricter regulations as one gets older, graduates, and enters the workforce.

It also teaches students to respect authorities and maintain good relationships with them. Respect is an important trait to master in class, as being respectful can take you to places that will put you on the road to success.

If respect is not learned in class through rule-following, a student may either face the consequence of not being allowed to graduate; or struggle with compliance in real-life. If you think about it, their future jobs and families are at stake. The community they live in will also be affected, as these are places where respect is a currency.

Related: why write a squid game

Some might say that rules and regulations are stifling and suffocating. They might think that they limit one’s freedom to enjoy life.

In this case, a change in perspective is needed. Fences are not meant to keep us in, but to provide a clear safe space for us to truly thrive. This is essentially what rules are meant to do. Boundaries are a healthy way for us to grow, learn, unlearn, and relearn.

At the end of the day, while rule-setting may get the ire and criticism of some, they ultimately serve the greater good. Regulations are not meant to keep students from having fun while learning. On the contrary, they are there to protect the culture and atmosphere where learning is meant to happen.

I implore every parent to also train their children to appreciate rules, even before they enter school. A lot of the foundational training on compliance should really start at home. Give your child every chance to succeed in the real world.

Short Essay About School Rules And Regulations

Implementing school rules stirs up both positive and skeptical conversations among people. They wonder if it really is effective in promoting good behavior. I firmly believe that adhering to policies cultivates not only academic values but also moral values.

Students tend to think that policy-following is like their school raining on their parade, that it is a way to simply get them under control. I think that academic policies and regulations actually create a comfortable environment where they can thrive. They help learners can feel safe and enjoy the curriculum their teacher has mapped out for them.

Academic rules do not only pertain to dress code or class schedule; they also outline disciplinary actions that serve as consequences to rule-breaking. Such actions exist for the better welfare of all students, whether policy-breaker or policy-follower. It provides an avenue for support for a student who may be experiencing peer pressure or low self-esteem; or a way to repair the consequences of one’s mistakes. Educators also benefit as they can maximize their class time without any disruptions. The main reason why these classroom rules exist is to empower students to take responsibility for their actions.

What To Include In An Essay About Rules And Regulations In School

If you are crafting a general piece about academic policies and regulations, it’s important to identify the angle you want to approach it from. Do you want to focus on the state of school policies today? Do you want to feature a specific school’s new rules and evaluate them? Do you want to do broad strokes on the importance of school policies? Finding your angle is important because without it, you may end up with an extra-long essay that reflects directionless thoughts.

10 Reasons Why Rules Are Important In School

What are 10 reasons why classroom policies are crucial to the success of the student, educator, and academe?

• They set healthy boundaries for all the members of the school to thrive in.
• They protect student-educator relationships inside and outside school.
• They provide helpful guidelines for learners on how to properly conduct themselves around others.
• They teach students the value and importance of respecting authorities, not just in school but in all aspects of society that they will eventually be part of.
• They provide a safe environment for healthy friendships to form.
• They prevent students from inflicting unnecessary harm to another.
• They add to the school’s good image, thanks to the quality of graduates it produces.
• They promote good behavior among classmates.
• They allow students to have ownership over their own decisions, including any consequences resulting from their actions.

Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more.

“Why This College?” Essay Examples

May 17, 2024

As you apply for college, you’ll notice that there are several different essay writing genres you’ll need to familiarize yourself with. There’s the Common App Essay , of course, along with many specific supplemental essays like the Community Essay and the Diversity Essay that will be required by particular schools. In particular, there is the “Why This College?” Essay. The “Why This College?” Essay can be an important component in your college application, as it’s an opportunity for you to describe why you specifically would be a good fit for a particular school. It’s a popular requirement for many colleges and universities and in this article, we’re going to show you a few “Why This College?” Essay examples, and share some tips and tricks for how to write a “Why This College?” Essay.

As you peruse these examples and tips, remember that there’s no one perfect way to write a “Why This College?” Essay. Rather, there are important generic conventions you can work with and build upon to craft an essay that is unique to you as a specific college candidate. Think of a novel. You can expect a novel to have a title and chapters and contain a fictional story. At the same time, novels are written across a plethora of genres, have characters that are as different as Vladomir Harkonnen and Elizabeth Bennet, and can be short reads or thousands of pages long. It’s the same in this case. As you learn how to write a “Why This College?” Essay, you’ll see that some elements of the essay will be fixed, while others will be entirely up to you to create!

What Kind of Prompts Are There for the “Why This College?” Essay?

Many schools require some form of the “Why This College?” Essay for their supplemental application materials, and the prompts can be general or specific.  Take these extra general ones from Yale and Dartmouth , for instance:

• What is it about Yale that has led you to apply?
• In short, why Dartmouth?

These open-ended prompts can feel like both a blessing and a curse. Without particular guidelines, you might feel freer to describe your particular fit within a university and it might be easier to brainstorm about the content you’d like to highlight in this essay; however, beware of open prompts: they can make it tempting to veer into generality!

In other instances, the “Why This College?” Essay prompt will be specifically tailored for many schools, and this specificity can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Take, for instance, these two examples from Northwestern :

• Community and belonging matter at Northwestern. Tell us about one or more communities, networks, or student groups you see yourself connecting with on campus.
• Northwestern’s location is special: on the shore of Lake Michigan, steps from downtown Evanston, just a few miles from Chicago. What aspects of our location are most compelling to you, and why? [i]

“Why This College?” Essay Examples (Continued)

The positive side to specific prompts like these is that they’ve given potential applicants a couple of springboards to begin diving from as you write – you can immediately begin detailing your specific interests and likes about Northwestern that make you an ideal candidate for the school. A potential downside is that you’ll honestly need to do research here before you can even begin brainstorming about either of these questions authentically! Specific prompts may also mean that you’ll need to totally start from scratch with each “Why This College?” Essay (for these Northwestern prompts, you certainly couldn’t plug in a different “Why This College?” Essay where you’ve written about your dream of editing for the Harvard Crimson or your hope to network in nearby New York City!).

So, with prompts like these, how to even begin writing a “Why This College?” Essay? Check out our tips and “Why This College?” Essay examples next!

Also, check out our list of college application essay topics to avoid .

Tips on How to Write a “Why This College?” Essay

Regardless of the prompt, your response needs to be specific. This is possibly the most important thing to remember as you learn how to write a “Why This College?” Essay.

First and most importantly of all, focus on fit. Remember that this is your opportunity to showcase why you’re specifically a good match for a college – not why a college is a great general choice for anybody. Ultimately, this is an essay about your potential relationship with a school. If you were writing an epic love poem, you might obsess over your beloved’s hair, eyes, etc. – but obsession isn’t a relationship! On the other hand, if you were asking someone out, you might want to focus, instead, on why you’d have a great time together because it’s more persuasive (and that’s ultimately what you’re trying to do: persuade this school’s admissions committee that you belong there!).

Here are a few tips on specificity that we’ll review below as we analyze a few “Why This College?” Essay examples:

• Before writing your “Why This College?” Essay, do your research on each school to which you’ll apply. This means finding particular programs of study you’ll pursue, looking up course titles you’d like to take and even professors you’d like to study under. It means researching clubs and extracurriculars you’ll partake in, internship programs you’ll apply for, and details about the school that will further your goals as a student there.

At the beginning of your “Why This College?” Essay, you can include a brief anecdote or bit of personal information that will make your essay stand out. As with any college application essay, this is an opportunity to brag about yourself! For instance, if you’re going to mention a particular club or extracurricular you’d like to join at a university, you can use this anecdote to briefly remind your reader that you were the president of that extracurricular at your high school (especially if that detail doesn’t appear elsewhere in your application materials). NOTE: Including a personal anecdote like this is sometimes dependent upon word length. For longer “Why This College?” Essays, it’s a great choice. For shorter ones, this hook may be a feature you’ll have to reduce or skip altogether.

Don’t linger on the general features of the school, or on school qualities that apply to everyone. Don’t focus on the school’s reputation, rankings, or student-to-professor ratios. The school knows this stuff already! Everybody paints the rock at Northwestern and paints the fence at Carnegie Mellon and these schools’ admissions counselors have read about these sorts of traditions approximately a billion times. Avoid general features and focus, rather, on detailed aspects of the school community that are particularly compelling to you .

Details about campus culture or school location are okay to write about, but remember that you’re not trying to be John Keats here. Don’t just talk about the beauty of the leaves changing in the fall or the way the palm trees sway on the school’s tropical campus. Rather, focus on what the school’s location can do for you as a scholar . Is there something particular about the school’s locale that can further your scholastic goals? Perhaps it’s situated in a region known for a particular area of study, with the best professors in the field nearby (e.g. Silicon Valley for computer science). Or maybe its setting can provide ample internship opportunities for a student with your major (e.g. Washington, D.C. for political science majors).

Edit for details. As you write your thousandth college application essay, it can be so tempting to simply copy-paste and go through the motions of writing unique drafts. While it’s okay to have a little carry-over between essays, it’s essential that you don’t have any major bloopers (like getting the school’s colors or motto wrong) in a “Why This College?” Essay.

Honesty is the best policy! It’s better to write something authentic to you than something you think the school wants to hear. After all, no matter how prestigious a school or program might be, if you can’t think of why you’d fit in there, you may want to reconsider whether a school is meant for you!

“Why This College?” Essay Examples

Below, we’ve included three fictional “Why This College Essay?” examples. The first two are good examples, along with commentary on what makes them strong and what these authors might improve upon to make them even better. The third essay is an exceptionally poor one, designed to help you see common pitfalls within this essay genre so you can think about how to avoid them yourself (or even how to correct mistakes you’ve already made in drafts!). Think of this third, poor essay as a way to test how well you’ve familiarized yourself within the genre.

Good “Why This College?” Essay Example 1:

As current Editor-in-Chief of my school magazine The Clarion , I’d like to pursue a Journalism major at the College of Northeastern Ohio, where I will deepen my experience in writing and design through classes such as “Reporting with Visual Journalism” and “International Writing.” Additionally, CNO’s Amanpour Journalism Project will give me hands-on experience as a journalist working in a newsroom. There, I’ll explore aspects of journalism such as digital storytelling and broadcasting, along with elective courses like “Feature Interviews” and “Documentary Television.”

My love for writing and communication stems from my multilingual upbringing. In high school, I explored Latin America on a study abroad trip to the Dominican Republic, where I relied on my Guatemalan heritage to further my Spanish-speaking skills. Through CNO’s International Language Studies program, I hope to attain a Spanish minor and explore Spanish-speaking countries in their study abroad program while immersing myself in international media.

With the interdisciplinary emphasis at CNO, I’ll additionally have the flexibility to study politics through a Political Science double major. I’ve written many articles on global communication for The Clarion , and I hope to further my writing on political communication with the Amanpour Project’s “Writing in Conflict Zones” class and other interdisciplinary classes with Professor Joan Walters. CNO’s robust communications offerings give me the opportunity to specifically study my interests in writing, politics, and Spanish simultaneously with the resources of multiple departments.

This essay does a great job of both showcasing the writer’s unique experiences and exploring how the college will specifically help her pursue her major and career goals. Additionally, the author has done a dynamite job researching particular classes and programs within the university that she’d like to take, listing several by name and course/program details.

How we might fix it up:

This essay primarily focuses on academics. Since academics are usually the most important reason why you’d want to attend a particular university, this definitely isn’t a major problem! However, the writer could potentially explore other extracurriculars or campus offerings that might make her a great fit for this university.

Good “Why This College?” Essay Example 2:

Data. From our politics to what we binge on Netflix, data collection and information systems have become part of the fabric of our lives. But when we think about sports, we don’t always think about numbers – and I want to do just that. The Massachusetts Institute of Stanford Mellon offers a top-ranked Data Science and Information Systems major, which will provide me with transferable skills that can be applied to my dream career path: sports marketing and data analytics.

I would like to go to a university where I can immediately participate in research. In high school, I created an algorithm that helps me predict how much fans will spend on team gear, based on their previous purchases and levels of engagement with games, betting, and online searching. The MISM Data and Numbers Lab allows undergraduates to access their databases and start conducting research right away (without having to wait until grad school!) and courses like “Analysis of Algorithms” and “Marketing and Numbers” provide the tools to conduct research on issues like sports marketing. At MISM, I hope to study with mentors like Professor Bill Jobs, whose work on information systems and regional spending might facilitate my own independent research. Additionally, MISM has alumni networks that facilitate internship and job placement in both Silicon Valley and with major sporting equipment stores like Rick’s Sporting Depot.

Finally, MISM offers a variety of extracurriculars that I would love to join, particularly the Little Pucks program, which provides community outreach to aspiring hockey players with physical disabilities. Since my sophomore year, I’ve volunteered at our local rec center, volunteering with kids who have special needs and helping them learn about and play sports. As I pursue a career in sports marketing and data analytics, I want to make a positive impact on companies and consumers alike. I’d love to live up to MISM’s motto: “Knowledge for service.”

Again, this writer does a fantastic job showcasing his own strengths and specifically demonstrating how this university has particular offerings (courses, labs, professors, extracurriculars, etc.) that will help him in his chosen major and career path. The generalities of this essay (like the school motto) are also used for a purpose: to illustrate how the writer hopes to use his education to give back to the community.

This is a great draft. To make it even better, we might consider how this essay focuses a lot on what the school can do for the writer. The writer might want to consider: how will I, in turn, contribute more to the campus community?

Poor “Why This College? Essay” Example:

When I took a campus visit at Princevard University last year, I was sure to stop at the Wishing Fountain in the middle of the quad. There, I threw in a penny and recited Princevard’s motto, “Veritas in vota” – “truth in wishes” and made my wish: that I will get accepted into Princevard this fall. I’ve known that I wanted to attend Princevard ever since I was a little boy and found out that my Great Uncle Howie graduated from there in 1965. At Princevard, I would study in their English program so that I could pursue my dream of becoming a novelist and a teacher when I graduate.

Ranked at #7 in the nation, Princevard’s reputation is another reason why I would like to attend; a degree from Princevard will open up doors to jobs and internships that many other schools could never open. Finally, I hope to join one of Princevard’s fraternities because the school offers more Greek organizations than any other university on the East Coast.

Well, it’s a start. If you’ve written a similar draft to this one, which breaks many of our “Why This College?” Essay writing rules, don’t despair! Instead, use this draft as a springboard for your next one.

How we might fix up this essay:

You’re probably familiar enough now with the genre conventions of the “Why This College?” Essay to think of a few reasons why this essay is a poor one. Now, let’s see how we can take even a poor first pass and turn it into a viable essay:

Our main goal with a draft like this is to turn all of this generality into an essay that specifically tells the school why this student would be a good fit there. Hint: avoid the sentiments about ranking and general location!

While this essay begins with a personal anecdote, it doesn’t tell us anything about this particular student. Instead, it focuses on a vague campus tradition. Remember that personal anecdotes serve as an opportunity to hook your reader and tell them something unique and positive about yourself.

There’s not much need to mention that a family member attended a university unless a) you are such a strong legacy there that your name is literally on a building (in which case, you should probably have a donating family member make a call on your behalf to the admissions department) or, b) your family history is somehow relevant to your future career and attendance at that school (e.g. your mother went to law school there and you want to become a lawyer and join her firm). If the latter, be sure you’re using this detail as a vehicle to demonstrate why this university is right for you.

While it’s great to talk about your major and career aspirations, be specific! Most schools have English departments so it’s not super useful to point this generality out. Writing that “Princevard University offers a unique dual English program with concentrations in both Creative Writing and Literary Theory, which would enable to me to pursue an ultimate graduate degree in literary and cultural studies while honing my craft as a novelist,” on the other hand, is a much more useful and detailed statement that demonstrates fit and brags a little about the applicant’s writing aspirations!

Similarly, many universities have Greek life organizations. If you’re going to mention an extracurricular, name which ones and why. Perhaps a particular Greek organization on this campus is affiliated with your major; maybe a chapter is politically motivated with a cause you’ve previously championed; maybe a fraternity is historically associated with your ethnicity or race and you’d love to take part in that community.

Closing Thoughts on the “Why This College?” Essay

As you write a “Why This College?” Essay, remember that this essay is perhaps the first conversation you’ll have about your relationship with a university – a relationship that, if you’re accepted, will be a formative one for the rest of your life. Good luck!

[i] “Completing Your Northwestern Application,” Application Materials: Undergraduate Admissions – Northwestern University, 2024. https://admissions.northwestern.edu/apply/requirements.html

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Jamie Smith

For the past decade, Jamie has taught writing and English literature at several universities, including Boston College, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Carnegie Mellon, where she currently teaches courses and conducts research on composition, public writing, and British literature.

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Cellphone Headaches in Middle Schools: Why Policies Aren’t Enough

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Middle school has always been a difficult time for kids. But when you tack on their near-constant use of cellphones, this stage of development can become very problematic.

Research shows that early adolescents are particularly susceptible to the seductive risks tied to cellphone use: Think cyberbullying, catfishing (creating a fake identity online to mislead someone), and straight-up addiction. Putting in place strong cellphone-usage policies at school can help curb these associated problems.

Although the majority of K-12 schools (77 percent at last count) have policies that prohibit nonacademic use of cellphones during school hours, according to the National Center for Education Statistics , some teachers, including middle school educators, embrace the use of cellphones for in-class assignments —from making podcasts to taking nature photos for digital journals in science class.

But cellphone policies should be just one piece of a much broader and thoughtful digital educational strategy, experts emphasize.

“Most schools have done very little to address the digital citizenship piece of the technology end, and it’s often very random and hodgepodge—not just from district to district but from building to building,” said Liz Kolb, a clinical professor of learning technologies and teacher education at the University of Michigan. “There’s nobody in the school who’s actually in charge of this curriculum, which makes it difficult to figure out who’s going to teach it.”

It’s a problem worth remedying, say experts, who explain why middle school students are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of social media and how schools can help.

‘In middle school, peers are more important than parents’

During adolescence, students naturally begin to pull apart from their parents and seek approval from their peers. Some psychologists describe it as a process whereby adolescents engage in behaviors and attitudes that they feel help them establish independence from their parents but can oftentimes be very impulsive.

Cindy Bourget, a school counselor who works at Elk Mound Middle School in Wisconsin, sees it all the time. “In middle school, peers are more important than parents,” she said.

Of course, that’s nothing new. What is relatively new is the ubiquity of social media, which allows adolescents to connect with peers—and other sources of information, not always reliable or well-meaning—in a near continuous manner.

Research shows that middle school students are particularly susceptible to the negative effects of social media on their well-being. In a sweeping 2022 study that examined survey results from more than 17,400 teenagers and young adults on how social media use affected their life satisfaction, respondents indicated that social media use during puberty has a particularly negative effect.

Bourget said she hears a lot of feedback related to social media from middle school students, particularly girls, indicating that they’re having trouble navigating the online world. “The conversation surrounding healthy relationships has shifted so dramatically, from ‘how do you engage in a conversation with a boy’ to ‘how do you know if this person is trying to traffic you?’” she said.

Social media has also exacerbated the threat of more common adolescent challenges, like schoolyard bullying. “Before social media, when you went home from school, you could shut it off, talk to adults in the room. Social media has made it so there is very little room for the other voices to penetrate,” Bourget said. The “other voices” Bourget references are those belonging to teachers, parents, and other trusted adults—those who insert reason into what, for many adolescents, has become an otherwise 24-hour reel of input via social media dominated by content driven by peers, advertisers, and even predators.

But unhealthy online communication doesn’t just come from predatory strangers or bullying peers. When middle school kids are allowed to use cellphones at school, the devices provide parents unfettered online access to their adolescent children during the school day, which experts say can be unhealthy, too.

“School is the place where kids get to be independent for the first time,” said Michael Rich, a pediatrician and the director of the Digital Wellness Lab , a nonprofit research center at Boston Children’s Hospital. “They’re building their own society. If you have mom or dad in your head all day long, [adolescents] never get to learn or practice taking care of themselves or being themselves in that environment.”

‘It becomes too much of a distraction’

Rich’s position on cellphones in middle schools is clear: “I think phones should not be in schools,” he said, intentionally avoiding the word “ban.”

“I think we should approach this not as a ban, but as an opportunity,” said Rich. A ban, he explains, can feel threatening to parents—many of whom have expressed the strong desire to be able to contact their child during the school day via cellphone as their (parental) right and a safety issue.

“The minute you talk about this as a ban, parents resist,” said Rich. Instead, he suggests reinforcing to parents the notion of a cellphone-free middle school as one that allows adolescents to gain independence, as they learn how to take care of themselves and behave in a way that reflects the people they are—or at least those they aspire to be. “I think smartphones interrupt that in really profound ways,” Rich said.

Bourget agrees with Rich that middle school students should not have access to cellphones during the school day. “Their brains are not developed to handle it,” she said. “It becomes too much of a distraction.”

‘They don’t know that all these [online] things ... are designed to be addictive’

Middle school students may not have the impulse control to avoid using their cellphones at school, but they can be taught to understand how social media feeds their brain’s desire to engage in the online world, Kolb said. “They don’t know that all these [online] things they’re using are designed to be addictive.”

She suggests that conversations with students focus less on how much time they spend on their phones and more on how this time on social media makes them feel. “This allows students to take ownership, to recognize that it’s OK that I’m using my device but that I need to be smart about it so that my body and brain can be recharged.”

Bourget believes in downplaying the what of “policing” cellphone use and focusing instead on the why . “They’re at an age when boundaries are something they’re going to push against,” she said. At her school, Bourget tries to focus conversations about social media in ways that resonate with her audience. For example, she’s quick to point out to 7th grade boys—many of whom are enamored with professional athletes—how the misuse of social media can dash the hopes of such stardom. It’s a lesson they’re more likely to remember than simply that “cellphones shouldn’t be used in school,” she said.

Ideally, the University of Michigan’s Kolb said, such conversations are couched within a comprehensive K-12 curriculum that addresses a range of health issues. “It’s not a one-time conversation,” she said.

That may seem like a big commitment for schools. But, Kolb explains, the negative effects of social media can quickly become bigger problems when there’s no existing education or curriculum to fall back on, leaving teachers to manage problems episodically.

“Drama, friendship issues, cheating, bullying and the feelings of depression, stress, or anxiety that comes from it,” she said, “it all trickles into school, and then schools have to address the symptoms.”

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Importance of School Resource Officers Essay

At present, when crime and violence are at a high level and public schools are becoming places for terrorist acts and violence, it becomes necessary to strengthen measures to ensure safety on school grounds. School Resource Officers (SROs) play a crucial role in this process. They not only contribute to the strengthening of school security but also serve as influential leaders and mentors for students. In this essay, the reason why School Resource Officers should be present in all schools will be discussed.

One reason why we need School Resource Officers (SROs) in schools is to promote positive relationships between law enforcement and students. Historically, there has been a lot of mistrust and tension between law enforcement and certain communities, particularly those of color. This can create a sense of fear and distrust in students, especially those who have experienced discrimination or negative interactions with police officers. SROs can help to bridge this gap by building relationships with students and fostering a sense of trust and safety within the school community (Zhang 15). They can work with teachers, administrators, and counselors to create a positive school environment that prioritizes the safety and wellbeing of all students. Establishing positive relationships with SROs can help students better understand and appreciate law enforcement and their role in keeping communities safe (Curran et al. 40). Furthermore, SROs can help to prevent criminal activity by identifying and addressing potential issues before they escalate. They can work with school administrators and local law enforcement agencies to develop safety plans and protocols that can help to prevent violence and criminal activity on school campuses (Zhang 46). In short, by promoting positive relationships between law enforcement and students, SROs can help to create a safer and more supportive learning environment for all students.

Another key reason why we need SROs in schools is to prevent and respond to incidents of school violence. School violence is a growing concern across the United States, with many instances of gun violence and other forms of violence occurring in schools. SROs are trained to identify and respond to potential threats before they escalate, ensuring that students and staff are safe from harm (Henderson 61). They can also help to prevent violent incidents from occurring in the first place, by building positive relationships with students and working with school staff to implement effective security measures. SROs also play a critical role in responding to emergencies and crisis situations. In the event of a school shooting or other violent incident, SROs are often the first responders on the scene, working to contain the situation and protect students and staff (Curran et al. 41). Their training and expertise in crisis response can make all the difference in ensuring that everyone stays safe and that the situation is resolved as quickly as possible. In short, SROs provide a vital layer of security and protection for schools, helping to prevent violence and respond effectively to emergencies (Curran et al. 42). Their presence can help students and staff feel safer and more secure, creating a positive learning environment for everyone.

Finally, School Resource Officers (SROs) are important is their ability to act as positive role models and mentors for students. SROs are often assigned to a particular school or district and have the opportunity to build long-term relationships with students. By being present in the school environment, SROs can interact with students in a non-threatening and non-enforcement capacity, building trust and rapport (Zhang 25). As such, they become valuable resources for students who may need support, guidance, or mentorship. SROs can serve as positive role models for students, demonstrating strong leadership, good character, and ethical behavior. They can also act as a source of inspiration and motivation, encouraging students to make positive choices and pursue their goals. This can help students develop a positive self-image, increase their confidence and self-esteem, and promote a sense of personal responsibility. SROs can also play a critical role in supporting students who may be experiencing personal or family issues, such as mental health concerns, substance abuse, or domestic violence (Curran et al. 79). They can connect students with appropriate resources and provide guidance and support, helping to prevent these issues from escalating and impacting their academic and personal lives. In summary, SROs are important because they can act as positive role models and mentors for students (Henderson 45). By building trust and rapport with students, they can provide guidance, support, and encouragement, promoting positive behaviors and personal development. Ultimately, SROs can help create a safer, more supportive school environment that benefits everyone involved.

In conclusion, SROs are necessary in all schools in modern society where safety is a top priority. They can help ensure safety within the school grounds, be essential resources for students and school staff, serve as role models for students, and help reduce violence in schools. Their presence in schools can also contribute to the development of responsible citizens and leaders in society. SROs are not just security guards or police officers, they are highly qualified and experienced law enforcement personnel who have received special training to work with children and teenagers. Of course, some may argue that the presence of SROs may cause students to feel anxious and uncomfortable. However, if they are properly trained and provide their services within policies and procedures that protect the rights and interests of students, this effect can be minimized.

Works Cited

Curran, Chris, et al. “Why and When Do School Resource Officers Engage in School Discipline? The Role of Context in Shaping Disciplinary Involvement.” American Journal of Education , vol. 126, no. 1, 2019, pp. 33-63.

Henderson, Pamela. The Impact of School Resource Officers on the Education of Youth in Arkansas . Arkansas State University, 2020.

Zhang, Gary. “The Effects of a School Policing Program on Crime, Discipline, and Disorder: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation.” American Journal of Criminal Justice , vol. 44, 2019, pp. 45-62.

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What I’ve Learned From My Students’ College Essays

The genre is often maligned for being formulaic and melodramatic, but it’s more important than you think.

By Nell Freudenberger

Most high school seniors approach the college essay with dread. Either their upbringing hasn’t supplied them with several hundred words of adversity, or worse, they’re afraid that packaging the genuine trauma they’ve experienced is the only way to secure their future. The college counselor at the Brooklyn high school where I’m a writing tutor advises against trauma porn. “Keep it brief , ” she says, “and show how you rose above it.”

I started volunteering in New York City schools in my 20s, before I had kids of my own. At the time, I liked hanging out with teenagers, whom I sometimes had more interesting conversations with than I did my peers. Often I worked with students who spoke English as a second language or who used slang in their writing, and at first I was hung up on grammar. Should I correct any deviation from “standard English” to appeal to some Wizard of Oz behind the curtains of a college admissions office? Or should I encourage students to write the way they speak, in pursuit of an authentic voice, that most elusive of literary qualities?

In fact, I was missing the point. One of many lessons the students have taught me is to let the story dictate the voice of the essay. A few years ago, I worked with a boy who claimed to have nothing to write about. His life had been ordinary, he said; nothing had happened to him. I asked if he wanted to try writing about a family member, his favorite school subject, a summer job? He glanced at his phone, his posture and expression suggesting that he’d rather be anywhere but in front of a computer with me. “Hobbies?” I suggested, without much hope. He gave me a shy glance. “I like to box,” he said.

I’ve had this experience with reluctant writers again and again — when a topic clicks with a student, an essay can unfurl spontaneously. Of course the primary goal of a college essay is to help its author get an education that leads to a career. Changes in testing policies and financial aid have made applying to college more confusing than ever, but essays have remained basically the same. I would argue that they’re much more than an onerous task or rote exercise, and that unlike standardized tests they are infinitely variable and sometimes beautiful. College essays also provide an opportunity to learn precision, clarity and the process of working toward the truth through multiple revisions.

When a topic clicks with a student, an essay can unfurl spontaneously.

Even if writing doesn’t end up being fundamental to their future professions, students learn to choose language carefully and to be suspicious of the first words that come to mind. Especially now, as college students shoulder so much of the country’s ethical responsibility for war with their protest movement, essay writing teaches prospective students an increasingly urgent lesson: that choosing their own words over ready-made phrases is the only reliable way to ensure they’re thinking for themselves.

Teenagers are ideal writers for several reasons. They’re usually free of preconceptions about writing, and they tend not to use self-consciously ‘‘literary’’ language. They’re allergic to hypocrisy and are generally unfiltered: They overshare, ask personal questions and call you out for microaggressions as well as less egregious (but still mortifying) verbal errors, such as referring to weed as ‘‘pot.’’ Most important, they have yet to put down their best stories in a finished form.

I can imagine an essay taking a risk and distinguishing itself formally — a poem or a one-act play — but most kids use a more straightforward model: a hook followed by a narrative built around “small moments” that lead to a concluding lesson or aspiration for the future. I never get tired of working with students on these essays because each one is different, and the short, rigid form sometimes makes an emotional story even more powerful. Before I read Javier Zamora’s wrenching “Solito,” I worked with a student who had been transported by a coyote into the U.S. and was reunited with his mother in the parking lot of a big-box store. I don’t remember whether this essay focused on specific skills or coping mechanisms that he gained from his ordeal. I remember only the bliss of the parent-and-child reunion in that uninspiring setting. If I were making a case to an admissions officer, I would suggest that simply being able to convey that experience demonstrates the kind of resilience that any college should admire.

The essays that have stayed with me over the years don’t follow a pattern. There are some narratives on very predictable topics — living up to the expectations of immigrant parents, or suffering from depression in 2020 — that are moving because of the attention with which the student describes the experience. One girl determined to become an engineer while watching her father build furniture from scraps after work; a boy, grieving for his mother during lockdown, began taking pictures of the sky.

If, as Lorrie Moore said, “a short story is a love affair; a novel is a marriage,” what is a college essay? Every once in a while I sit down next to a student and start reading, and I have to suppress my excitement, because there on the Google Doc in front of me is a real writer’s voice. One of the first students I ever worked with wrote about falling in love with another girl in dance class, the absolute magic of watching her move and the terror in the conflict between her feelings and the instruction of her religious middle school. She made me think that college essays are less like love than limerence: one-sided, obsessive, idiosyncratic but profound, the first draft of the most personal story their writers will ever tell.

Nell Freudenberger’s novel “The Limits” was published by Knopf last month. She volunteers through the PEN America Writers in the Schools program.