There are two new state laws that went into effect this school year.

One of those laws public schools are still working through is House File 2612 about chronic absenteeism. Greene County School District Superintendent Brett Abbotts says the law redefines what student chronic absenteeism is and sets higher thresholds for the number of hours or days a student can be gone in a grading period, but it also has more consequences if those thresholds are reached. He gives his overall impression of the new law.

“I’m a big proponent of it. I’m glad that there’s a little bit of teeth now, a little bit more expectation in terms of kids actually coming to school. Of course there’s always exceptions. But when I look at it like it’s just a choice of they didn’t want to come to school today or for no real good reason then we gotta do something about that. And again, we’re going to work with families and not against them.”   

Abbotts notes that the district is still formulating a plan that includes a board policy, consulting with multiple stakeholders and the county attorney that will adhere to the law. 

The other new law that is in effect is Senate File 496 that was signed by Governor Kim Reynolds this past summer and most recently sources say a judge overturned an injunction on that law, allowing it to be enforced this school year. This law has restrictions on age-appropriate materials and books that have descriptions or visual depictions of sex acts. 

Abbotts notes that the district has a pdf file of all of the books published on their website, under each school building’s webpage. He explains that even though the law does not state any specific titles of books, just a general description, that those books are to be removed. Abbotts shares his response when an audit was done of all of the school libraries.

“I guess in a good sense, we really didn’t have any of those types of books on our shelves. So it wasn’t something that we necessarily really had to worry about.”

Abbotts adds that when an audit was done on the instructional materials in classrooms, nothing had met the criteria in the new law. However, he says there is a protocol of a board policy in place should someone from the public have a concern or wants to challenge a certain book.