522.72

PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES AND STAFF-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS

General Standards and Expectations 

District staff members are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that promotes the health, safety, and well-being of students, including by establishing and maintaining role-appropriate communicative, physical, emotional, and social boundaries in their interactions with students. This requires every staff member to consistently exercise sound judgment that is context-dependent and that gives due consideration to the staff member’s District-assigned role and responsibilities. 

In performing their responsibilities and interacting with students, District staff members are expected to (1) uphold the rights of students, as established by state and federal law and under District policies; (2) comply with the District’s separate policy that establishes standards for appropriate content and appropriate methods of communication with students; and (3) model and reinforce behaviors that are expected of students, including by following applicable rules, engaging in respectful interpersonal interactions, and acting in an ethical manner. When interacting with students, no staff member may engage in any activity or communication that constitutes, encourages, or invites (1) unlawful conduct; (2) conduct that would endanger the safety or well-being of any person; or (3) conduct that compromises role-appropriate boundaries and jeopardizes the staff member’s ability to serve effectively in his or her District-assigned role, such as by engaging with students in an inappropriately peer-like relationship that affects the staff member’s ability to serve as an effective authority figure. 

Examples of unlawful conduct that is, of course, also prohibited as a matter of District policy and that is among the most serious misconduct that a staff member could commit in interactions with students include any conduct that (1) constitutes an assault; (2) constitutes abuse; or (3) reflects the elements of a crime defined under Chapter 948 of the Wisconsin Statutes. Other egregious misconduct would include a staff member (1) engaging a student in a relationship that a reasonable person would perceive as being sexual or romantic in nature; or (2) engaging in communication or other conduct, or any course of conduct, that manipulates, coerces, or grooms a student to engage in, or to consider engaging in, an inappropriate relationship or other inappropriate behavior that endangers the welfare of a student. For these purposes: 

1. Grooming includes any course of conduct or pattern of behavior that a reasonable person would view as conditioning, seducing, soliciting, luring, or enticing a student to engage in, or to consider engaging in, inappropriate behavior.
2. Grooming can occur, for example, by exploiting a student’s vulnerabilities, by creating inappropriate emotional dependence, or by normalizing or desensitizing the student to inappropriate conduct. Grooming often involves, but is not limited exclusively to, sexual or romantic contexts.
3. Specific examples of conduct that could constitute or contribute to a finding of prohibited manipulation, coercion, or grooming of a student include the following:
   1. Using written, electronic, or digital communications or devices, including but not limited to, text messages, emails, social media, local bulletin board services, or online services or platforms, to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a student or for any exploitative purpose.
   2. The provision or promise of gifts, favors, privileges, inordinate special attention, or other items of value with the intent to lower a student’s inhibitions, gain and exploit trust, or create emotional dependence.
   3. Exploiting a power dynamic, such as by offering improper benefits or privileges or by inappropriately threatening to impose negative consequences in a quid pro quo posture.
   4. An act intending to isolate a student, or to encourage a student to separate from the support and protection of family or guardians or from peer relationships.
   5. Comments, suggestions, or conversations of a sexual nature directed toward a student, such as commenting on sexual attractiveness, using sexual innuendo, sharing information about a student’s or an adult’s sexual experiences, or communicating other sexually-explicit content or sexualized subject matter.
   6. Sexualized or other inappropriate physical contact or attempts to initiate such contact. For example, physical contact can be inappropriate if, taken in context, a reasonable person would view the contact as inappropriately familiar or intimate and lacking a sufficient, role-supported purpose.]
   7. Using threats, bribery, fear, intimidation, harassment, embarrassment, or guilt to, for example, facilitate the start or continuation of an inappropriate relationship or other inappropriate conduct.
   8. Soliciting or encouraging secrecy or concealment to avoid detection, oversight, or accountability for inappropriate communication or inappropriate conduct.

Application of Policy 

1. This Policy shall be interpreted and applied in a context-dependent manner that, when applicable, takes into account a staff member’s family, community relationships, non-District roles, and other legitimate non-District connections to students—including considering any individual rights that are related to or derived from such connections. At the same time, the District’s expectations for staff members to interact with students in a manner that does not endanger student welfare, that maintains an appropriate environment for student learning and school-related activities, and that maintains role-appropriate boundaries are not limited exclusively to interactions that occur only in specific locations or only during specific hours of the day. 
2. For purposes of this Policy, District staff members include District employees and District-authorized volunteers (i.e., an individual who has been approved by the District to provide volunteer services for the benefit of the District in one or more specified capacities). A District-authorized intern, student-teacher, or other clinical, practicum, or fieldwork student is considered a District-authorized volunteer, rather than an employee.
3. In this Policy, the term “student” (or “students”) includes (1) all pupils who are currently enrolled in or otherwise attending a District school; (2) any child who is a participant in any District-sponsored class, program, or activity that is offered for children and other school-age youth; and (3) any individual, regardless of age, who is enrolled in or who attends a home-based private educational program (as defined under state law) or any public, private, or tribal school at the secondary (i.e., high school) level or lower and with whom a staff member has some contact or interaction that has a direct or indirect connection to the staff member’s District-authorized role. Importantly, the base-level expectation that staff members shall not engage in unlawful interpersonal conduct involving a victim who is a child or other school-age youth does not depend on this Policy’s definition of “student.” 

Reporting within the District

All District employees and any District volunteer who the District requires to complete training on maintaining appropriate boundaries and anti-grooming are required to promptly report to an appropriate District official any known or reasonably suspected violation of this Policy by any staff member.  Reports may be submitted in person, by telephone, or in writing (including by email) directly to one or more of the following individuals: relevant school principal or assistant school principal, or the District’s Title IX Coordinator.

External Reporting/Notification

To the extent applicable to the staff member’s position and to the facts of a specific situation, District staff remain responsible for adhering to any external mandatory reporting and/or parent notification requirements that are established under state or federal law (e.g., relating to child abuse, threats of school violence, educator misconduct, reports of sexual misconduct as defined under section 948.098, etc.). Nothing in this Policy alters any such external reporting or parent notification obligation of any person. 

Consequences for Violations 

Staff members who interact with a student in violation of the law, this Policy, other District policies or rules, or applicable supervisory directives are subject to a range of disciplinary and non-disciplinary consequences that will be determined based on the District’s assessment of the nature and seriousness of the violation/misconduct. Consequences may include, for example, the termination of an individual’s employment, the termination of one or more District-authorized roles, and/or the termination or non-renewal of an applicable contract. 

Cross References:  Student Harassment, 411.1   

Bullying Policy, 443.71

Safe Schools: Policy and Prevention Strategies, 443.9

Reporting Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect, 454 

Photographing and Videotaping in the Schools, 492

Staff Communications with Students, 528.1
 

Legal Reference: Wisconsin State Statutes:  48.981, 115.31(b), 118.07(6), 118.07 (7), 175.32, 948.072, 948.098, and 995.55

Federal Laws:  47 U.S.C. §§254(h) and 254(l) and 47 C.F.R. §54.520]

Adoption Date: August 10, 2026