Policies at the Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation are getting some adjustments, due to recent changes in state law. The corporation’s medication policy saw the biggest update. School personnel will now be allowed to administer “low THC hemp extract” to students, as long as they have a prescription and written permission from a parent or guardian, and the product meets various state and federal requirements.
Superintendent Dan Foster noted that the school corporation had little say in the new language. “Again, that’s Indiana law coming directly from School Board Association legal counsel,” he said, “so there’s not a lot we can do about it.”
Another update explicitly allows students to possess and use USDA-approved sunscreen at school. “There was surprisingly a lot of discussion in the State Legislature last year on the sunscreen thing,” Foster told board members.
Meanwhile, some other policies also got some clarifications, based on recent legislative changes. The policy giving parents the right to inspect certain instructional materials now specifies that those may include materials “in connection with instruction on human sexuality.” A recently-adopted suicide awareness and prevention policy has been updated to specify that the training that school employees have to complete each year should be research-based and recommended by the Indiana Suicide Prevention Network Advisory Council.
Meanwhile, the employee background check policy has been updated to more clearly define which employees have to have a background check as those who are “likely to have direct, ongoing contact with children as a result of the individual’s position.” Similarly, student handbooks are being updated to more precisely explain cyber bullying.
The Eastern Pulaski School Board approved the policy revisions unanimously.
