Latest

Missouri school districts adopt policies allowing teachers to hide private conservations with students from parents

May 20, 2022 | | Print Article

At least 68 school districts in the Show-Me State have adopted identical policies from the Missouri School Board Association that state the district is not required to disclose conversations between teachers or counselors and students about “academics and personal issues” with the children’s parents or guardians.

The policy, which falls under the broader “Interviews with or Removal of Students” category, claims, “school counselors meet with students to discuss academics and personal issues, teachers often discuss academic performance with students, and school officials meet with students when investigating disciplinary violations.”

Thus, the policy states, “The district will not honor requests by parents/guardians to be informed prior to these discussions, be present during the discussions, or prohibit conversations between a student and staff members.”

The Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) provided the policy as a sample, and according to Fox News Digital, “nearly all the school districts adopted it at the end of 2020 or beginning of 2021.”

Andy Wells, the Missouri president of No Left Turn in Education, believes the timing of the implementation of the policy is no coincidence.

The timing, says Wells, who has three children of his own enrolled in a school district with this policy, coincided with protests from parents at school boards in Loudoun County, Va, over parental rights and liberal curricula in the classrooms. The hot-button issue became a rallying cry for voters during the state’s 2021 gubernatorial race.

“What this tells me, is… when everything was first starting, when parents were first starting to ask questions about what’s going on in their schools, schools were scrambling on how do we not let parents know what’s going on,” Wells told Fox News.

“Now, [teachers] are given permission to have a private conversation with a student without parental knowledge, parental consent, and the parents don’t even have the right by the policy to stop the conversations from happening,” he added.

 

The policy, know by the MSBA as Policy JFGA, references “20 U.S. Code § 1232g – Family educational and privacy rights” — a code Wells says doesn’t apply to JFGA.

“I am not a lawyer, but I can read, so I looked at the [U.S. Code] that this fell under, and that’s ‘Family Protection Act’ that says parents can have openness to their child’s records, and that nothing can be hidden from mom and dad,” Wells said. “How in the world did that tie in?”

Not surprisingly, those on opposite sides of the debate interpret the policy as though they are reading two different documents.

“Nothing in Policy JFGA gives authority to school personnel to keep information from parents of minor children, except in the circumstance where the Children’s Division is investigating whether the child is a victim of abuse by a parent,” MSBA Corporate Counsel and Associate Executive Director of Board Services Kelli Hopkins said in a statement.

“All MSBS model policies comply with state and federal law,” she added.

But according to America First Legal senior advisor Ian Prior, “These school systems are seemingly in a race to see who can generate the most lawsuits.”

“This [policy] is a blanket statement stating that in no circumstances will parents be included in staff discussions with students, whether those discussions are personal, academic, or disciplinary,” Prior said. “That is unconstitutionally overbroad, as such a rule will very likely infringe upon parents’ 14th Amendment right to be the primary decision maker with respect to the health, welfare and education for their children.”

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

$10
$15
$25
$50
Other
$
Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

16 thoughts on “Missouri school districts adopt policies allowing teachers to hide private conservations with students from parents”

  1. I homeschool my granddaughter. There’s a learning curve at first, but it is VERY rewarding, and my granddaughter does not have inappropriate conversations with her teacher, and the LGBTQ+ agenda is not shoved down her throat, nor is she taught that she is bad because of her race. She also isn’t exposed to children who believe they are gay or trans, or gay or trans teachers. Plus, we have prayer and read the Bible together. We have a local homeschool group for socialization, and other friends she visits on play dates. School socialization caused my son to develop school phobia.

  2. This is but another Lib/Dem school system advancing the GLOBALIST agenda, attempting to break down parental influence through indoctrination, gender confusion, lies, and age-inappropriate influence. This scourge is in an effort to undermine our “American Way”. We must Wake Up and stop these attacks!

  3. Sorry folks. I’d be the first one in the line to the courthouse. I do not trust the public school systems around children. Period.

  4. I saw this episode. Mr. Horton didn’t want Arnold to tell anyone about the conversations he had at Mr. Horton’s bike sho.

  5. Boy it seems like these teachers really want to hide conversations with their students.

  6. The warning stands: get your children out of the public school systems. You might think they are good where you are but they are not.

  7. As a police officer there are ages, different by state, when you cannot talk to a young person without a parent or guardian present. Exceptions are abuse complaints then a court appointed attny must be present.

  8. If every parent who CAN homeschool their kids WOULD homeschool them, we’d put most of these teachers out of business and on the street where they couldn’t get near our kids to groom them. I’m telling you right now if I find out a teacher is talking to one of my kids about anything inappropriate, that teacher is getting the ever-lovin’ s*** kicked out of them in the parking lot.

  9. I am a teacher and well versed in educational law. Write a letter to the school and your local board of groomers and tell them your child is not to be talked to or questioned about anything outside of curricular matters without your attendance or full consent. Have it delivered certified mail. You can also pass the information on to their teachers and instruct them that if they need any clarity, they can speak to the principal. Trust me, if it happens, you have a hard and fast parental rights violation lawsuit any lawyer would be thrilled to take.

  10. The ONLY conversations that can be kept “private” are those that automatically require the teacher to inform law enforcement of a crime committed by the parent.

  11. Another reason why we conservatives need our own version of a national, conservative ACLU!

  13. I think I’ll just laugh at the arrogance of these petty tyrants who think the can exempt themselves from the law, liability, and accountability with self proclamations. If you think you are going to have secret conversations with minor children, and not involve their parents, i guarantee you will end up incourt and pay the piper or my name isn’t Reedy Tu Su.

  14. Another reason to homeschool the children.

    Failing that, the parents and their neighbors need to raise hell at school board meetings and bombard their state congressmen and senators with challenges to this idiocy.

  15. Classic effort to undermine parental authority and shift children’s loyalty to schools & government. Very communistic, and very dangerous. We already have a wasted generation so weak it needs “safe spaces” when they hear words they don’t like. This has to stop or we won’t have any generations strong enough to withstand China, Russia etc. But maybe that’s what Democrats want?

  16. ANY school district that hides ANYTING from the parents, the TAX PAYING parents that fund this new level of insanity , should immediately be disbanded. MY kid would be out of there in seconds.
    Enough is Enough.
    CALL YOUR STATE REPS..let’s start our OWN cancel culture…
    Had enough yet America ?

Comments are closed.

Latest Articles