Listen Like a Local Park City & Heber City Summit & Wasatch counties, Utah

After failed teacher transparency bills, Utah’s state school board updates classroom material policy

Utah state school board members at a meeting in July 2021. On Thursday, the board updated a state rule giving parents greater say in the approval of classroom materials.
Rick Egan, Salt Lake Tribune

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, under new state board of education rules, districts and charter schools need to have a parent “reflective of the school’s community” involved in the process to approve materials.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that parents can have more say in what their children learn and what textbooks they use, under a change approved Thursday by state Board of Education members.

School districts and charter schools must now make the process of selecting specific books and videos, and the process of reviewing complaints about them, “transparent and publicly available” to parents, the revised rule about classroom materials states.

With the changes, all curriculum committees for schools must include at least one parent who has a child at the school and who is “reflective of the school’s community.”

Most districts already had curriculum committees in place and allowed parents to see materials upon request.

Find the full report here.

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