Sewanhaka school board changes 2 policies

The Island Now

The Sewanhaka school board on Tuesday revised the district’s social service law pertaining to Child Protective Services and made a minor revision to its portable devices policy.

The district added a provision requiring its five high schools to cooperate when the state’s Child Protective Services agents come to interview a student who may be living in an abusive or otherwise unsafe home environment.

CPS has sued a school district that did not work with the agents, and Sewanhaka wants its policy to be clear that its schools should comply, said Bernadette Gallagher-Gaffney, the district’s attorney.

CPS agents sometimes come to schools to interview students who they believe are in need of help, Gallagher-Gaffney said.

It decides to interview students based on information put into a state registry that indicates whether a child is believed to be abused at home or that their home environment is unsafe.

The district also changed its policy regarding electronic devices students bring to school to bring it in line with the district’s introduction of a “one-to-one” iPad program.

Sewanhaka distributed the Apple tablets to all its seventh-graders this year as part of a plan to provide all students with iPads over three years.

The district’s policy did not explicitly say that students can use those devices in class, so it needed an update for the technology initiative to be technically allowed, Gallagher-Gaffney said.

“The code of conduct was amended to allow students to use those devices with teacher permission,” as well as any other teacher-approved devices students bring from home, she said.

Also on Tuesday, the school board honored students who made the semifinals of the National Merit Scholarship Program, including seniors from Floral Park Memorial High School, H. Frank Carey High School, New Hyde Park Memorial High School and Elmont Memorial High School.

David T. Fowler, the school board president, said about 1.5 million students from 22,000 high schools entered the competition by taking the PSAT exam.

“All these students show outstanding academic promise and dedication to their educational pursuits,” Fowler said.

By Neglah Sharma

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