Idaho students head back to school. Here’s what’s changing in the Boise area this year
Idaho students will head back to school this month and should expect some changes this year.
From new state laws, to school closures and budget shortfalls, families in the Treasure Valley will need to navigate some new policies implemented at school districts. Here’s what students across Idaho and in the Boise area can expect this coming school year.
Boise School District
Class begins Wednesday for Boise schools, where all students will get free breakfast as part of an initiative administrators say will ensure kids have access to nutritious meals at the start of each day. The district approved the change as part of the 2024-25 budget.
Many schools in the district will also offer free lunch to all students as part of a program meant to help schools in high-poverty areas to provide meals to all students. You can find which schools here.
The district is also opening the Lincoln Early Learning Center, a new facility that will serve students ages 3 to 5. And the district is planning to open another early childhood learning center next school year to serve pre-kindergarten students on the Bench.
The district offers early childhood options at many elementary schools but is looking to shift to a center approach. With the centers, district officials said they can outfit buildings specifically for young kids, provide services and encourage collaboration among teachers. Early childhood learning centers also emphasize inclusion for students with disabilities, which helps with “cognitive, communication, and social-emotional skills,” Lincoln Assistant Principal Lisa Ramey-Hernandez said in a news release.
West Ada School District
Students in the West Ada School District can expect to see a few major changes this year.
- Cellphones will no longer be allowed in the classroom. The school board fell in line with policymakers nationwide, as school districts struggle with distractions and social media abuse, and passed a policy that directs the superintendent to create procedures to limit students’ access to personal electronic devices during instructional time.
- The district plans to implement a new monitoring system for students who ride the bus districtwide. All students will be given identifying badges that they will scan when they get on and off the bus. The badges don’t track student locations aside from the location of their stops, West Ada’s Chief Operating Officer David Reinhart said, but allow parents to know if their children get off the bus at the wrong place. The system will also be able to generate a list of all of the students on the bus if it’s involved in a crash.
“Parents are really anxious if their kid doesn’t get home to the stop that they thought they were going to,” Reinhart told the Idaho Statesman. Younger kids often don’t use cellphones yet, he added. “So it’s been well worth it. Just for kids, safety, communication with parents.”
- The district is launching new resources for students with behavioral needs and partnering with Varsity Tutors for Schools, a platform students can use for free for services that include on-demand chat tutoring and essay review. The platform will be available to all students until 2030.
Nampa School District
Students in Nampa and Caldwell school districts will be attending new schools after budget shortfalls and enrollment drops forced school closures and shifted school boundaries. The Nampa School District stopped operating four schools: Centennial, Greenhurt and Snake River elementary schools and West Middle School. Most of the buildings will be repurposed.
If you were a student at one of these schools, you can find your new school on the Nampa School District website.
The school district also moved to a four-day week. Students in elementary school will attend school from 8:51 a.m. to 4:21 p.m., and students in secondary schools will go from 7:30 a.m. to 3:36 p.m.
Caldwell School District
The Caldwell School District will close Lincoln Elementary, which served about 300 students over the past year. The district decided to close the school after a failed levy and budget cuts, but the building will be repurposed.
As part of the reorganization of its schools, the district will reconfigure its middle schools and move fifth and sixth graders to Jefferson Middle School and seventh and eighth graders to Syringa Middle School. Both of those schools previously served students in grades 6-8.
The district also implemented new “pay-to-play” fees after its supplemental levy failed. Students will now need to pay $100 to play a sport in middle or high school. Many school districts in the Treasure Valley already had pay-to-play fees, including West Ada and Kuna, according to previous Statesman reporting.
Idaho laws address ‘harmful’ materials, pronouns
New state laws implemented July 1 will impact all schools across Idaho. That includes a new law on “harmful” library materials for children.
School libraries will need to adjust to more scrutiny over the books they offer students and may create restricted sections. The law makes it easier to sue districts over books parents consider “harmful” to children, which could include books that contain sexual conduct, nudity or homosexual content. It allows parents to try to claim damages if a library doesn’t move a challenged material to an adults only section within 60 days. Students over 18 would be able to access that section or those with parent permission.
The Idaho School Boards Association advised school districts against reviewing every book in their collections. Rather, districts should already have some level of review in their collection policies and should respond to challenges as they come, according to guidance from the group’s legal counsel.
But the association said schools should be prepared to create some kind of restricted section, where they can move books after a successful challenge with a review committee or while they’re being reviewed.
The law is in litigation. A group of private schools and privately funded libraries sued state officials, arguing that the law takes away parental rights, threatens the independence of institutions and amounts to “unprecedented government interference,” according to previous Statesman reporting.
Other new laws that impact students:
- Districts will have to comply with a new law that requires parental approval for students who use pronouns or names different from their sex at birth — forcing teachers to potentially out transgender or nonbinary students to their families. It also protects teachers who refuse to use the pronouns students request.
- The state will offer more money students can use on dual credit courses, career technical education workforce training courses, college entrance exams and AP exams, giving students more opportunities to earn credits. Each public school student will be able to get $500 more than last year, while each private or home-schooled student could also get an additional $1,750. In the last fiscal year, about 43,000 students used the advanced opportunities program.
- A driver’s education law allows qualified parents to serve as private educators for Class D Driver’s Training Instruction permits. Parents with valid driver’s licenses who haven’t had their license suspended or revoked in the previous two years and live in a rural school district could qualify for the program. Lawmakers said this could help students in rural areas who have to travel long distances to take required drivers education.
This story was originally published August 13, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
