July 1993
INTRODUCTION

This website contains the policies of the Mississippi State Board of Education. These policies, whether developed in response to state or federal statutes OR to new problems or changes in the system, are intended to give direction to the educational process in Mississippi. No such manual is ever finished; the dynamic leadership and commitment of the State Board of Education (SBE), local school district personnel, and the remainder of the educational community, along with the other citizens, causes constant change, ever moving toward the goal of excellence for all children.

These policies are organized according to the classification system developed by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and adopted by the Mississippi School Boards Association. In order to codify state level policies, additions have been made to include identifying terms or descriptors that were not in the original NSBA code-finder. Otherwise, the alphabetical sequence was not disturbed.

This manual will no longer be provided as hard copy and sent to local school district superintendents and other appropriate members of the educational community. As the SBE revises/adopts policy, changes will be made monthly on the website. A hard copy of the manual will be kept on file at the Mississippi Department of Education.

The users of this manual are requested to let the State Superintendent of Education or the appropriate State Department of Education staff member know when they have concerns or questions about the manual or its contents. The SBE is determined that their intent be communicated effectively through this manual. User input is critical if that objective is to be reached.

USING THE CODE TO FIND SPECIFIC POLICIES

The manual is divided into 13 major classifications as follows:

Each classification (A-M) can be found in the manual by turning to the appropriate index tab. On the page immediately behind each tab, you will find an index alphabetized by subject. For example, if you wish to review the PERSONNEL section, find the G index tab. If you wish to see the subjects covered under PERSONNEL, review the four pages in the index immediately behind index tab G. If you are looking for the code for contracts for teachers, you will find that information on the first page of the index listed under GBA. If you turn to the individual policy listed under GBA, you will find that it deals with the required SBE teacher contract. If there had been two or more policies listed under GBA, you would have found them coded GBA-1, GBA-2, .... As you review the index for each major classification, you will find that there are no policies under some subjects in an index. That simply means that the SBE has not yet found it necessary to develop policy covering that subject. For example, on the first page of the PERSONNEL index under Professional Personnel, you find an entry entitled Gifts and coded GAJ. However, when you turn to Section G, you find no policy listed under GAJ. Thus you conclude that the SBE has no policy on gifts by professional personnel.

There is one additional section that may help as you look for a particular policy. The INDEX is immediately behind this section. Policies are alphabetized by subject areas and/or listed under the implementing office in the State Department of Education.

When you find a policy having two codes in the upper right-hand corner, this means that the identical policy is listed in two different sections. The definition of policy used in this manual is as follows: policy is any regulation, procedure, criteria, or guideline approved by the SBE.
 

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