Naperville School District 203 will allow junior high and high school students to use rideshare services such as Uber, Lyft and others only in narrow circumstances going forward.
The board of education on Monday, June 15, approved what administrators are referring to as a first-of-its-kind policy within Illinois and comes after multiple requests from parents and guardians to excuse students from school during the regular instructional day via rideshare.
Age limit set for student eligibility
Administrators and the board of education have been discussing the rideshare policy proposal across multiple meetings. They had a preliminary discussion in mid-May.
The adopted policy is an amendment from the initial version and states rideshare services are only available to students aged 13 and up. It states rideshare requests should only come in during emergency situations.
Naperville 203 essentially discourages the use of rideshare services as an option for transporting students, but a liability waiver form is being made available for parents and guardians to sign each time a request is submitted. School staff will follow up with a parent or guardian to ensure the form’s validity.
To date, the Illinois Association of School Boards’ Policy Reference Education Subscription Service has not created a boilerplate ordinance for districts to adopt. The majority of Naperville 203’s board policies are first drafted through PRESS.
“This is a policy that we saw a need for, and we wrote, and we had reviewed by legal counsel to ensure it did not conflict with any other policy that the board had,” Superintendent Dan Bridges said.
Bridges credited Allison Boutet, Naperville 203’s assistant superintendent for junior high, with presenting the proposal late this past school year. At the recent board meeting, Boutet said the proposal came to be after multiple rideshare requests had come in to school offices.
“The building administration was asking, ‘What is our guidance?’” Boutet said.
Board members weigh in on latest version
The board voted, 5-1, in support of the policy. Melissa Kelley Black cast the dissenting vote, and Board President Charles Cush was absent from the meeting.
“I would have liked to have seen more feedback from the parents,” Kelley Black said. “I think that ‘emergency’ can be vague. It’s not that I oppose the concept. I always appreciate when there’s feedback.”
Board member Holly Blastic, who was absent from a previous discussion about the 13-year-old provision, said she appreciated having it added in to the policy.
“I did realize that often, when this will be used, it is going to be the parent, and not someone using the teen app, so the rideshare wouldn’t have a way to know the age of the student,” Blastic said. “Thank you for adding that.”
If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you!
