Cobb school board briefed on rule changes for security system, Parents' Bill of Rights and more

Dec. 9—MARIETTA — Cobb County School District staff briefed school board members on three new administrative rules and two rule modifications Thursday.

Two rules are being modified, concerning the district's security system and employee transfers. The three new rules deal with Georgia's Parents' Bill of Rights, animals in schools and school counseling programs.

One of the rules modified is "Access Control," which was revised to include language about which employees get access to the emergency alert badges associated with the recently installed Centegix security system now in place at all Cobb schools.

Board Member Brad Wheeler asked whether district officials would decide who receives badges or if those decisions would be made at each school.

"At the school site, it's determined who gets badges, and pretty much every employee at a school site is going to receive the Centegix badge," said Superintendent Chris Ragsdale.

Ragdale added that the rule change is as much about clarifying what should be done if an employee loses a badge as it is about who gets badges in the first place.

"Basically, the bottom line of this is to make sure that, should a badge get lost, that this administrative rule requires the employee to immediately notify their supervisor of that so it can be deauthorized," Ragsdale said, "because obviously, that's a significant security risk should that be found by someone."

The other rule modification dealt with employee transfers within the county, which will now state that employees may not request a transfer until they have been at their current location for at least two years.

"It actually appears that they're tightening some of the controls down in regards to when you can transfer and how you'd be eligible to transfer," said Jeff Hubbard, president of the Cobb County Association of Educators. "The secondary part of that is that now, you're not going to be able to transfer until a job is actually posted, rather than just putting your name out there."

The district codified the Parents' Bill of Rights as a rule to comply with legislation signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in April.

District staff said Cobb schools is already in compliance with the guidelines laid out in the rule. However, the new legislation compelled the district to formalize the rules, which deal with parents' rights to opt their children out of district videos and photos, opt out of sex education, object to classroom content they deem "divisive or harmful to minors," and access their children's educational records and instructional materials.

"This is just a one-stop shop requirement, that we had to write an administrative rule specific to those five areas," said Darryl York, director of policy and planning for the district.

While the rule references the law Kemp signed in April, Board Member Dr. Jaha Howard asked that staff add language to the rule that specifically cites the law.

"I just think it would be helpful," Howard said. "Ten years from now, we just can more easily understand why this (rule) even exists, knowing there is overlap with things that already exist."

Ragsdale noted the board does not vote on the rules, but that consensus among the board on changes to draft language was required.

The board agreed to Howard's request for the language about the Parents' Bill of Rights law to be added to the rule.

The new rule about animals in schools defines only dogs as service animals, though one section of the rule clarifies that "miniature horses" may be permitted "if the miniature horse has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of the individual with a disability."

Other sections of the rule address "emotional support/comfort animals," which are allowed in schools. They are described as animals that "are not trained to perform a disability-specific task and are not Service Animals as defined by law or this rule."

The rule also addresses "classroom pets," which the district says may be fish, parrots, reptiles, amphibians, hamsters and guinea pigs.

The third and final new rule presented to the board outlines how schools should implement their counseling programs. It calls for information to be sent out annually about counseling programs and lists activities, such as college preparation and individual counseling, that should be undertaken by schools.