MIAMI – At Miami-Dade schools, parents are now required to sign permission slips any time outsiders come into the school, including people there for educational events, like Black History Month.
Some are calling the policy ambiguous.
A student’s mother told Local 10 News it happened at iPrep Academy and she and others are outraged.
Two days after Local 10 News aired a story about the permission slips, school board members are asking questions from district staff.
“Our schools do not require permission slips for the instruction of African-American history,” Miami-Dade Schools Deputy Superintendent John Pace said.
But the concern is over the implementation of a new state board of education rule and the impact it is having on classroom instruction.
“This is about equal access to the fullness of what education represents,” Miami-Dade School Board member Steve Gallon said.
Gallon brought up the issue up at a meeting Wednesday, asking what happens when a Holocaust survivor comes to the classroom.
“Even though that is related to the curriculum, you’d still have to have a form for that,” Walter Harvey, the district’s general counsel, said.
Gallon said he’s concerned about the unintended consequences this may have on children whose parents choose not to have them attend.
The local policy went into effect on Nov. 23, and already, staff members said they’re hearing from schools about how this permission slip issue may be affecting visits from college and military recruiters.
“Now there is an additional barrier put in to the experiences that were very frankly very important to me,” school board member Luisa Santos said.
It’s the second time the issue has come up. On Tuesday, several of the district’s audit and budget committee members also had questions.
“The concept and the idea that putting students in an auditorium for a Black History presentation requires a permission slip has gone far afield of what makes sense in America today,” committee member Stephen Hunter Johnson said.
District officials plan to ask the state for clarity on how to move forward.