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Ellen Glasgow
General Manager, Mission Driven Organizations

2025 in focus: Top trends for school boards

January 6, 2025
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2025 trends for school boards

2024 brought school districts a fair number of challenges: security and cybersecurity, AI governance, school funding and school choice, and the politicalization of school policy in areas like book bans and LGBTQ+ policies, to name a few. Throughout it all, school boards also witnessed moments of resilience and innovation, with an unwavering dedication to their students, schools and communities.

What’s ahead for 2025? This blog explores the events of the past year, discusses trends that will shape the upcoming months, and provides guidance for school board members as they steer their districts through the ever-changing world of public education.

With 2025 around the corner, we again surveyed school board leaders to gauge their top challenges and goals. The verdict? Get ready for more of the same in 2025, according to Dr. Steve Schroeder, board member and governance officer with Sun Prairie Area School District in Wisconsin.

Read on for more insights and predictions for the coming year — and ways to prepare.

Securing school facilities and cyberspace

Student and staff safety, sadly, remains a top priority. In terms of physical facilities, districts have an expanding perimeter to protect. Security firm CENTEGIX estimates that more than 50% of school safety incidents occur in areas outside of the classroom, such as hallways, parking lots, and sports fields.

Ongoing and escalating threats in the digital world exacerbate the challenge. In our January 2024 blog, we pointed out the rise of ransomware and other cyber attacks against K-12 education. “Cybersecurity remains a constant priority,” said James Page, CIO of the New York State School Boards Association.

AI ascends on the agenda

Page also noted a rise in discussions about AI governance as educators increasingly use it for administrative tasks, personalized learning, lesson plan brainstorming and more. “AI is a big topic,” Steve Schroeder, board member and governance officer with Sun Prairie Area School District in Wisconsin, concurred.

As AI adoption grows, school boards face a growing roster of questions. What are acceptable, and unacceptable, applications of tools like ChatGPT — who decides this and how? Which evolving frameworks and laws will their community need to comply with in terms of disclosure and data protection? And what specifically should a robust AI policy for the district cover?

“Unfortunately, policy is an area in which many districts are currently lacking,” EdTech magazine noted in its September 2024 coverage of the issue.

The rise of cyberbullying and swatting

In other technology-related trends, the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) cited cyberbullying and swatting — making false emergency calls — among the top security issues facing schools today, along with incidents spurred by the current sociopolitical climate.

“Political and social issues, such as racial tensions, immigration policies, and debates over gender identity, can create a charged atmosphere in schools,” TASB noted. “These tensions can spark conflicts or disruptions during events such as board meetings or when schools double as polling locations.”

Any policies related to security need to factor in relevant digital regulations like David’s Law, which requires school districts to include cyberbullying in their bullying policies and notify parents if their child is a victim or an aggressor.

New rules around smartphone use

Smartphones — the hyper-connected devices students carry with them every day for studying, socializing and more — are increasingly conduits for such bullying. They’re also omnipresent forms of distraction in the classroom.

More and more school boards are looking at ways of regulating acceptable and unacceptable use of these devices and codifying these rules with official policy.

“My school district will be implementing a new policy in January around this,” said Helen Warwick, who has served on the boards of TASB and Marshall Independent School District in Texas.

Given the ubiquitous presence of smartphones in daily life and their many uses—positive and negative—such policies have inspired much discussion over the past year. “There is a lot of chatter about it in our community,” Warwick added.

Preparing for change in the Department of Education

State grants, special education, school choice, curricula, and more are all expected to change when the new administration takes office in 2025. Teachers are anticipating big shifts in training, tenure, and what they can cover in the classroom.

For principals and administrators, areas to watch include parental rights, student discipline, “back to basics” career-oriented instruction, and an overall transition from federal to state oversight.

“We’re keeping an eye on potential changes within the Department of Education and their impact on public education,” Page said.

Other shifts with a new administration

How will Supreme Court rulings related to transgender students shape policies in areas like bathroom access and sports participation? How could Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at HHS and Brooke Rollins at USDA impact school lunch programs? And might deportation policies impact student attendance, learning, and morale?

“The last time Donald Trump was president, rumors of immigration raids terrorized the Oregon community where Gustavo Balderas was the school superintendent,” a recent article in EducationWeek reported. “Word spread that immigration agents were going to try to enter schools. There was no truth to it, but school staff members had to find students who were avoiding school and coax them back to class.”

“The kids are still coming to school, but they’re scared,” said Almudena Abeyta, superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools in Massachusetts. The Boston suburb has been a longtime destination of immigrants from Central America, and it now includes a growing number of immigrants from Haiti. “They’re asking: ‘Are we going to be deported?’ ”

In all of these areas and more, school boards will be challenged to stay ahead of change—getting up to speed on new policies, making decisions on how to respond and informing their community throughout. Amid all of this complexity, board management software may become an essential tool, offering a one-stop place to:

  • Compare new and previous versions of school policies side by side
  • Effortlessly and securely collaborate on drafts, revisions, reviews and approvals
  • Seamlessly publish final policies to the community’s public-facing website

Drop in public school enrollment

Public school enrollment in the U.S. is undergoing a significant shift, with a marked decline in student numbers since the peak in 2019. This trend is attributed to various factors, including shifting family attitudes towards traditional education, the rise of alternative schooling options such as charter schools and homeschooling and demographic changes such as lower birth rates and decreased immigration.

Despite a slight rebound in 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics anticipates further drops, projecting enrollment to fall by 2.7 million by 2031. The impact of these trends is not uniform across regions or school types, with high school enrollments remaining relatively stable compared to significant declines in younger grades.

To counteract these challenges, districts are encouraged to expand public pre-K programs and modernize facilities to attract and retain students. Additionally, addressing broader social policies, such as improving access to affordable childcare, could help stabilize and potentially increase future enrollment.

The central mission of educating students

Amid all these digital and sociopolitical shifts, it’s important to remember that a school board’s core purpose remains evergreen: delivering high-quality education for their community.

“What should children be learning?” Schroeder asked. “What is the best way for them to learn to read and do math? How do we assess learning beyond standardized tests, in areas like empathy, creativity, the ability to see other perspectives, and critical thinking?” He noted that leadership in these latter areas starts at the top. “We need to find ways to agree with one another without being disagreeable toward each other.”

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Some districts are exploring four-day weeks in the classroom; others, school sessions that go year-round.

When school data tracking firm Burbio analyzed meeting minutes of over 2,000 K-12 school boards for their top priorities, pre-K and career and technical education ranked at the top, followed by a host of “bread-and-butter” issues directly related to classroom outcomes: tutoring, special education, tackling chronic absenteeism, and supporting newcomers and English language learners.

And when the International Association of School Boards surveyed its members, they discovered the most urgent issues revolved around academic performance and student growth, followed by teacher shortages and teaching quality.

Be ready for anything in 2025 — and beyond

Diligent proudly supports school boards in their continued, dedicated service to students, parents, staff and constituents. Learn how Diligent Community helps board members lead with oversight, insight and foresight. Schedule a demo today.

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