Seminole County Public Schools has made quite a bit of changes to this school year. One major addition is the School Sponsored Activity Parental Authorization form.
This form is a requirement for any school sponsored activity regardless of in or out of school that is not content related. For example, if a club wants to meet after school or volunteer for an event, every student attending the meeting or event is required to fill out the form. If the form doesn’t get filled out before the event, the student is not allowed to attend.
Students and teachers have started to find the form a burden, rather than a precaution. Getting every student to fill out the form and get everything organized has proven very tedious for teachers and students.
“In my opinion, the slips are repetitive and useless,” Joshua Evenden-Wallick (12) said. “There needs to be a better way for them to be done that is more clear and easily done for students.”
Ms. Brittany Stone, sponsor of three clubs—National Honor Society, History Club, and Crochet Club—had mixed feelings about the form.
“For clubs that do a lot of volunteering, I wish that there was an easier way to manage that,” Stone said. “I understand the necessity that parents have for wanting to know where their kids are, but I don’t think the number of forms we have to fill out is needed.”
Stone wished there was just one form for all of the events that are planned for a club, and then have students fill them out then and there. If there are any unplanned events that pop up, then there will be a form for each of those. Stone says it is just too much paperwork to keep track of.
While Stone isn’t a fan of all of the paperwork, she does, however, understand and appreciate the need for the form. “If you saw the number of forms we have to fill out for NHS, it is ridiculous,” Stone said. “However, I think it is good for parents to be informed and know these are the requirements, these are where your kids are meeting.”
With this permission slip being brand new, it has brought up the question of whether or not the form will still be required for following years. Stone can see both outcomes happening.
“I think for sponsors that have a lot of kids, for sponsors who are in charge of more sensitive clubs, it will be a thing because they have to,” Stone said. “But I think over time enough people will probably complain to where it will maybe go away.”
Assistant Principal Faith Cotter, tasked with managing school clubs, doesn’t see it going away anytime soon.
“From my perspective, it hasn’t interfered with anything from an administrative side of keeping track of things,” Cotter said. “From the club side, I think we are so used to putting things online nowadays, and doing Google Forms and Surveys and Docs, that it won’t make that big of a difference. I don’t anticipate it going away, but you never know, policies change all the time.”
No matter what way you look at it, SCPS has implemented this new policy, and it’s not going away any time soon.
