MERC offers a range of model policies designed to promote fairness, transparency, and academic excellence in schools. These policies cover crucial topics such as ensuring fairness in girls’ sports, promoting bias-free education, safeguarding parental rights, enhancing transparency in school decision-making, and accommodating religious practices. With these comprehensive guidelines, MERC helps school leaders and communities create environments that prioritize student well-being, uphold individual rights, and maintain academic integrity. These sample policies are intended to supplement or replace policies in your current manual. Review your policy manual to determine how these sample policies may benefit your district.
Foundations and Basic Commitments
Religious Accommodations for Students and Employees
This policy ensures that the District reasonably accommodates the religious beliefs of students and employees, unless such accommodations cause substantial disruption, legal conflict, or undue hardship, with a clear process for submitting and appealing requests.
Board Governance and Operations
Agenda Development
This policy outlines the procedure for preparing and distributing the school committee agenda, including how items can be requested, the chair’s authority to finalize the agenda, the provision of necessary materials, and the process for making adjustments or additions to the agenda during meetings.
Policy Adoption
This policy outlines the procedure for adopting, revising, or deleting school committee policies, including proposal submission, subcommittee review, public input, two readings for approval, and immediate implementation unless otherwise specified, with an expedited process for non-substantive changes.
Personnel
Staff Participation in Political Activities
This policy establishes that while school employees retain their civic rights, including political participation outside of work, they must maintain political neutrality during official duties by avoiding political campaigning, influence, or displays on school property, except in unbiased, curriculum-relevant instruction.
Related: Memo on Staff Participation in Political Activities
Instruction
Student Submission to Educational Surveys and Research (Version 1)
This policy permits the administration of surveys, analyses, or evaluations that collect sensitive personal information from students if prior written parental consent is provided, it protects the right to opt out, and it ensures parents have access to related instructional materials and the ability to file complaints if rights are violated.
Student Submission to Educational Surveys and Research (Version 2)
This policy prohibits the administration of surveys, analyses, or evaluations that collect sensitive personal information from students, ensures transparency by allowing parents/guardians to inspect related instructional materials and third-party surveys, provides procedures to protect student privacy, offers opt-out options, and mandates annual notification of these rights.
Flag Displays
This policy ensures that school district property remains a politically neutral learning environment by limiting flag displays to officially recognized flags and clarifies that school district property is not a public forum for free expression, while preserving students’ rights to free speech.
Instructional Materials
This policy ensures that instructional materials meet educational and ethical standards, support diverse learning needs, and exclude inappropriate content, while allowing parents to opt their children out of materials that conflict with their beliefs, subject to reasonable limitations and appeal.
Library Materials
This policy outlines the selection, maintenance, and use of library resources to support the educational program, ensuring materials are age-appropriate, diverse, and educationally valuable, while affirming parents’ rights to restrict their child’s access to materials that conflict with their beliefs and protecting the privacy of circulation records.
Patriotic Observances and Flag Displays
This policy promotes patriotism and civic education by requiring daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, display of U.S. and Massachusetts flags, observance of American History Month, educational programs on Veterans Day and Constitution Day, and the posting of “For God and Country” plaques, while respecting individuals’ rights to opt out of participation.
Reconsideration of Instructional Resources
This policy establishes a formal procedure for students, parents, staff, or community members to request the reconsideration or removal of instructional materials, ensuring concerns are reviewed objectively by the superintendent and, if appealed, by the school committee, with final decisions made in accordance with established criteria.
Parental Notification Relative to Sex Education
This policy ensures that parents and guardians are notified, informed, and given the opportunity to opt their children out of any curriculum primarily involving human sexual education or sexuality issues, with access to materials and a clear process for review or appeal.
Sex Education Programs
This policy provides age-appropriate instruction on human sexuality with the goals of promoting accurate knowledge, communication, decision-making, and self-esteem, while requiring parental consent for student participation (“opt in”) and ensuring transparency and community involvement in curriculum development and review.
Students
Interscholastic Athletics
This policy supports student participation in interscholastic athletics and intramural activities, ensuring safety, equal opportunity, and adherence to regulations while prohibiting penalties for students or coaches who decline to compete against mixed-sex teams.
Parental Rights and Transparency
This policy ensures that the District provides full transparency to parents regarding their child’s mental, emotional, and physical health, including incidents of bullying, injuries, and changes in gender identification, and requires parental consent for non-emergency health interventions.
Student Records – Name, Sex, and Means of Address
This policy outlines the district’s requirements for maintaining official student records, including legal name and sex, and provides procedures for requesting changes to those records, as well as guidelines for addressing students using their legal names and pronouns unless otherwise requested according to specific criteria.
Related: Memo on Student Records
