Blue Valley schools will begin enforcing a new policy this school year, limiting communication between staff and students to district-approved applications. The change prohibits apps such as GroupMe and iMessage from being used by staff for school-sponsored activities, requiring all communication between staff and students to take place through the following platforms: Band, Remind, district email, Canvas, Microsoft Teams, Hudl and Bound. 

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Katie Collier said the updated board policy 6343, officially adopted this summer during the school board meeting on June 9, aims to ensure safe and accountable communication between staff members and students across the district.  

“Our goal is always to ensure that we have quality communication between our students, family, our schools and our staff, and if we can ever do anything to make that more efficient, streamlined or effective, we’re always going to explore those avenues,” Collier said. 

District-sanctioned applications and software solutions require staff to log in with their Blue Valley credentials, providing accountability and a record of messages that third-party apps like GroupMe cannot offer.

Assistant Principal and Activities Director for Northwest Kelsey Bakalar said all staff and coaches in the district are required to complete an online training followed by a quiz on PublicSchoolWORKS. She said one of the modules in the training focuses specifically on appropriate staff-student communication. 

Conversations about updating the policy began in the fall. According to Bakalar, the policy applies to all staff, including Rule 10 coaches, activity sponsors and temporary summer hires. 

Bakalar said staff were informed of the change when they returned Aug. 6, with further communication with coaches and sponsors on Aug. 7. Enforcement expectations will take effect immediately after staff are notified.