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The Chambers County School District made two changes to the district’s policy during the school board meeting on Wednesday night. The board approved a revision to the truancy policy and a new policy on the distribution of explicit images.

The new “explicit images” policy was created in response to recent state legislation requiring local board’s of education to adopt rules and terms for disciplinary action. 

Section seven of House bill 168 states that the State Board of Education will require each local school board to develop a written policy on student discipline and education related to the distribution of private or explicit images. 

The adopted policy, provided by the school board, states the following:

No student shall distribute, display, solicit, possess, or produce a sexually or pornographic explicit image of any individual, including sexually explicit images of a child. This prohibition applies whether or not the image is of an identifiable person nor whether the age of the individual can be determined. This prohibition includes images of known and unknown individuals and those generated by artificial intelligence.

This policy shall be incorporated into the Code of Student Conduct and treated as a Class III violation.

The revised policy on truancy is also required from the state board of education. The revised policy is as follows:

The Board shall not tolerate truancy or habitual and unlawful absence from school. The parent or legal guardian is responsible for requiring any student under his/her control or charge and under seventeen (17) years of age to attend school regularly except for legal absences as defined by Alabama School law and State Board of Education rules and regulations. 

If a student under seventeen (17) years of age becomes a truant, the parent or legal guardian of said student may be guilty of a misdemeanor before a court of competent jurisdiction and subject to punishment by law.

If the parent or guardian files a written statement in court to the effect that he/she is unable to control such student, the student may then be subject to action of the juvenile court which will determine whether said student is a dependent, neglected, or delinquent child.

Because attendance has a significant impact on achievement, the CCSD works with the Chambers County Juvenile Services to correct attendance issues. CCSD has adopted the Chambers County Early Warning Truancy Program as a means for addressing the number of chronic absenteeism that the school system has experienced ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. The steps of the CCEWT program are the following:

Step 1) The school Principal or designee will notify the parent or guardian by email or letter that the accumulation of two unexcused absences has called for their attendance at an Early Warning Meeting held at the school hosted by the Principal or their designee where a plan is developed to correct the behavior.

Step 2) Three days after the third unexcused absence in a semester, the local school designee or principal will notify the District Truancy Deputy to contact a central office director. The student’s parent or guardian will be contacted by letter by either the Director of Elementary Education or the School Improvement Specialist from the district level. The District Truancy Deputy will conduct a home visit to explain previous actions and next steps, which include filing a complaint or petition against the student (10 years or older) with Chambers County Juvenile Services if the issue is not corrected. 

Step 3) Three days after the fourth unexcused absence in a semester, the local school designee or principal will notify the District Truancy Deputy to contact the Assistant Superintendent. The student’s parent or guardian will be contacted by letter, phone, or email from the district level notifying them of a meeting with the Assistant Superintendent to explain previous steps and next steps, which include filing a complaint or petition against the student (10 years or older) with Chambers County Juvenile Services. The parent or guardian will be notified that another unexcused absence that is not followed with an excuse within three school days will result in a warrant being filed against them for truancy at the Chambers County Courthouse.

Step 4) Three days after the fifth unexcused absence in a semester, the school truancy officer will contact the Superintendent. The student’s parent or guardian will have a warrant filed against them for truancy by the Superintendent at the Chambers County Courthouse.