1613 - STUDENT SUPERVISION AND WELFARE

Roane County Schools

Bylaws & Policies

1613 - STUDENT SUPERVISION AND WELFARE

Administrators shall maintain a standard of care for the supervision, control, and protection of students commensurate with their assigned duties and responsibilities, and are expected to establish and maintain professional staff/student boundaries that are consistent with their legal, professional and ethical duties of care for students.

The Superintendent shall maintain and enforce the following standards:

	A.	An administrator who transports students in a private vehicle shall do so in accordance with Policy 8660.
	B.	Each administrator shall report to the Superintendent any accident, safety hazard, or other potentially harmful condition or situation s/he detects in a reasonably prompt manner.
	C.	Each administrator shall take appropriate action upon receiving information regarding threats of violence by students.
	D.	An administrator shall not send students on any personal errands for the benefit of the administrator or other school staff.
	E.	An administrator shall not associate or fraternize with students at any time in a manner that may give the appearance of impropriety, including, but not limited to, the creation of or participation in any situation or activity that could reasonably be considered abusive or sexually suggestive or involve harmful substances such as illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco. Any romantic, sexual or other inappropriate conduct, including mere communication of such nature, with a student by any administrator will subject the offender to potential criminal prosecution and disciplinary action by the Board, up to and including termination of employment.
	F.	If a student approaches an administrator to seek advice or to ask questions regarding a personal problem related to sexual behavior, substance abuse, mental or physical health, and/or family relationships, etc., the administrator may attempt to assist the student by facilitating contact with certified or licensed individuals in the County or community who specialize in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of the student’s stated problem. However, under no circumstances should an administrator attempt, unless properly licensed and authorized to do so, to counsel, assess, diagnose, or treat the student’s problem or behavior. Nor should such administrator inappropriately disclose personally identifiable information concerning the student to third persons unless specifically authorized to do so by law.
	G.	A student shall not be required to perform work or services that may be detrimental to his/her health.
	H.	An administrator is strongly discouraged from engaging students on interactive media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Skype, blogs, etc., except when such communication is directly related to curricular matters or co-curricular/extra-curricular events or activities with prior approval of the principal.
	I.	Staff members are prohibited from electronically transmitting any personally identifiable image of a student(s), including video, photographs, streaming video, etc. via email, text message, or through the use of social media and/or online networking media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Skype, blogs, etc., unless such transmission has been made in connection with a pre-approved curricular matter or co-curricular/extra-curricular event or activity such as a school-sponsored publication or production in accordance with Policy 5722.

Since most information concerning a child in school, other than directory information described in West Virginia Board of Education policy 4350 and policy 8330, is confidential under Federal and State laws, any administrator who shares confidential information with another person not authorized to receive the information may be subject to discipline. This includes, but is not limited to, information concerning assessments, grades, behavior, family background, and alleged child abuse.

Pursuant to the laws of the State and Board Policy 8462, each administrator who has reasonable cause to suspect that a student is neglected or abused or observes the student being subjected to conditions that are likely to result in abuse or neglect, shall immediately, and not more than forty-eight hours (48) after suspecting this abuse or neglect, report the circumstances or cause a report to be made to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

West Virginia Board of Education policy 4350
West Virginia Board of Education policy 4336
WV Code 49-6A-2

Adopted 5/10/12