State & Local Policy

Richmond, Henrico schools want to crack down on fight videos
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 14, 2015

Local school officials want students to stop filming fights and posting them online.
Richmond and Henrico County school leaders are considering adopting student codes that specifically prohibit filming students and staff members at school and during events.

“We did try to flesh it out a little more this year to make it clear to students and parents that the consequences could be really substantial if students chose to videotape students or a staff member, especially during a confrontation,” said Harry Morgan, Richmond’s director of pupil personnel services.

Videos of fights in local schools have surfaced with increasing regularity, appearing on YouTube and in some cases on TV, embarrassing schools.

Virginia to pilot online public high school in the fall
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 14, 2015

Virginia students soon may be able to get their public high school diploma without ever stepping inside a school for classes.

The state Department of Education this fall will offer a program offering a full-time, online high school on a first-come basis. If the pilot, open to 100 students across the state, proves successful, officials could make the program permanent and open it to additional students.

The school will be run through the state’s Virtual Virginia online class program, which features state-approved curriculum and state-employed teachers.

Created in 2002, the online program has received national recognition and provided coursework to more than 40,000 Virginia students.

Future Competitiveness of Virginia Higher Education Panel Meets in Richmond
NBC 29 (WVIR)
It's getting tougher to afford a college degree so students, and lawmakers came together Monday to find ways to address the problem. A new panel in Richmond is dedicated to making sure students and families can afford a quality education in Virginia. They agree some things can be done differently to make the process cheaper and more efficient.

The Joint Subcommittee on the Future Competitiveness of Virginia Higher Education convened Monday afternoon. The panel, a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, is made up of lawmakers, including several who play a large role in making decisions on the budget.

The group will hold meetings over the next two years before making final recommendations in November 2017. The panel will look at financial aid, efficiency of services, and some creative solutions for streamlining the education process.

 

National News

Colleges are using big data to identify when students are likely to flame out
Washington Post
June 14, 2015

Virginia Commonwealth University, like lots of U.S. colleges, has worked to keep its freshmen around for sophomore year. Research has shown that students are most at risk of dropping out early in their college careers, and freshman retention rates also factor into college rankings.

Although VCU has had success in getting students to return to its Richmond campus for a second year, the university has struggled to get them all the way to graduation. Now the school is turning to big data to help it identify students who are most at risk of falling through the cracks.

Those students, referred to by some as the “murky middle,” tend to be sophomores or juniors with grade-point averages between 2.0 and 3.0, students whose academic performance has not raised any alarms and yet who ultimately are not on track to graduate. Not graduating affects a school’s standing and also can cause lasting damage for the students who don’t make it.

Drinking is central to college culture – and to sexual assault
Washington Post
June 14, 2015

Beer pong, body shots and keg stands. Fraternity parties, house parties and bar crawls.

College, for many students, is a generously spiked four years.

And with all that alcohol comes an increased risk of sexual violence, according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll that provides new evidence of the link between intoxication and sexual assault.

Heavy drinking is one of the most significant predictors of sexual assault in college, according to the poll of 1,053 current and recent college students. Analysis of the results found that women who say they sometimes or often drink more than they should are twice as likely to be victims of completed, attempted or suspected sexual assaults as those who rarely or never drink. Several male victims also pointed to alcohol’s role in their assaults.

When Guarding Student Data Endangers Valuable Research

The Upshot - New York Times
June 13, 2015

There is widespread concern over threats to privacy posed by the extensive personal data collected by private companies and public agencies.

Poll Snapshot - Views on Online Education

Excerpted from Dr. Vacca's December Ed Law Newsletter - STUDENT OFF-SCHOOL GROUNDS COMMUNICATIONS: POLICY IMPLICATIONS

"Overview
In the “post-9-11 era” safety and security are top priority goals in all settings including our nation’s public schools. Fueled by reports of school and college shootings, increases in street gang membership, potential terrorist threats, and an escalation of domestic abuse (including child abuse) incidents, local school boards across the country spend inordinate hours working to develop and implement policies and procedures to make school buildings safe, secure, healthy, and disruption free.

Violence in Schools. It is difficult to get an accurate accounting of violence in public schools. Not only do incidents go unreported, the literature in education law reflects differing opinions regarding the frequency of violent events taking place in our nation’s public schools. Some reports show a decrease and leveling off of violent and or criminal behavior (e.g., nonfatal student victimization, incidents of crime reported to the police), while other reports indicate an increase. (See, e.g., National Center for Educational Statistics, 2013). However, “social networking” (texting, emailing, Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, et al.) is often mentioned as a common thread source of major disciplinary problems (e.g., threats, intimidation, harassment, pornography, obscene language, instigation of physical confrontations) in today’s public schools (see, e.g., Cyberbullying Statistics, 2014). In some communities this growing problem has prompted school systems to implement a program called “Think Before You Link.” As our local newspaper recently reported, “this is an on-line course [free] for students from grades three through eight with a focus on cyber-safety, on-line bullying and internet ethics.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, A18 (November 30, 2014)

Off School Grounds Behavior. Because student “social networking” activities are more often than not created off school grounds, on non-school time, using privately owned not school-system owned technologies, school officials are faced with the following question: What can be done about student communications that have their genesis off school grounds? Courts have generally held that material produced by students at home, on their own time, using their own computers, that does not constitute a threat (i.e., actual threat) of harm or interfere with or disrupt activities inside the school, are protected by the First Amendment. Killion v. Franklin Regional School District (W.D. Pa. 2001) However, courts also have made it clear that school officials cannot be deliberately indifferent to student behavior, on or off school grounds, that: (1) threatens (i.e., communicates an intent to do actual harm to) the safety and well-being of students and staff, and/or (2) forecasts actual disruption of the school’s learning environment, and/or (3) encourages or promotes illegal activity. In essence school officials are expected to “take reasonable steps” to protect students in their care. (Vacca, 2004 and 2008)"