Across Wisconsin, school districts are reviewing policies, working with legal counsel, and preparing to meet the requirements of Act 89, the new law governing how employees and volunteers communicate with students. September 1 is the deadline for having a policy in place.
But lately I’ve found myself thinking less about the deadline and more about what comes after it. Adopting a policy and living it out day to day are two very different things.
A staff member probably isn’t going to pull up the board policy manual when a student texts them after school hours. A coach isn’t going to reread policy language before sending a quick schedule change. A volunteer may not even know where to find the policy in the first place.
In those moments, what matters is whether we’ve done the work ahead of time to make expectations clear. That’s the difference between having a policy and having a plan.
Act 89 is unique in that communication itself sits at the center of the policy. It sets expectations around both the content and platforms people use with students, including any communications that happen outside school hours. But approving those expectations doesn’t automatically mean everyone knows how to apply them.
What platforms should coaches use? What about volunteers? Where should an employee turn when they’re simply not sure?
Answering those questions takes more than an all-staff email with a link to the new policy.
The audience here is specific: teachers, administrators, coaches, advisors, support staff, and volunteers, everyone named in the new requirement. Each interacts with students a little differently, so their questions might look different too; a classroom teacher’s needs won’t mirror a coach’s, and an elementary volunteer’s situation won’t look like an academic advisor’s.
The policy provides the guardrails.
Implementation is what helps people understand how to work within them.
This is where your communications professionals can bring real value, not by owning the policy, but by asking the right questions. Where will people encounter this information? What existing materials need to change? What will someone need six months from now, in the moment they actually need it?
When a new policy is adopted, it’s tempting to ask right away: how are we going to communicate this?
I’d gently suggest a different starting question: what do people need to understand and do differently because of this?
Build your communication around that answer.
Maybe it means simple examples of appropriate communication in practice. Maybe coaches need guidance built around the situations they actually encounter. Maybe volunteer onboarding needs a refresh, or employee handbooks and technology guidance need to point in the same direction. In fact, legal guidance around Act 89 has specifically encouraged districts to revisit handbooks and related materials once a policy is adopted or revised.
This is where implementation becomes a strategy rather than an announcement, and I strongly believe this is a natural invitation to bring your communications professional into the conversation earlier, rather than asking them to send the policy out once everything’s already decided. Let them ask their questions: Where will people actually encounter this information? What existing materials need to change? Where might expectations conflict? What will someone need six months from now, in the moment they actually need it?
Those aren’t policy questions so much as they are people questions.
Act 89 also offers a natural moment to check in on the communication systems districts already have. If we’re asking employees to use certain tools with students, it’s worth asking honestly: do those tools actually support the expectations we’ve set? Are they available to everyone who needs them? Accessible to students and families with disabilities? Is there a supported alternative when a platform doesn’t fit someone’s situation?
This doesn’t have to become a massive undertaking. But if we’re setting expectations for how people communicate, it’s worth making sure the systems underneath can carry that weight.
Good strategy connects the policy, the people, and the tools.
This idea reaches beyond Act 89. Think about your district’s social media policy, brand standards, crisis communication protocols, website governance, and AI guidance. You may have thoughtful policies for each… but could the people responsible for following them tell you, in their own words, what they’re expected to do?
A social media policy tucked into a handbook doesn’t help a new principal decide what belongs on the school Facebook page. A crisis plan doesn’t do much good if the people named in it have never talked or run through their roles together. Policy establishes the expectation. Strategy creates the conditions for people to actually meet it.
This is part of why I believe communications professionals need a seat at the table sooner rather than later, not to own the policy, and not to interpret legal requirements… that’s what legal counsel is for. Our role is different. We think about audiences, anticipate the questions people will actually ask, and notice the gap between what an organization said and what people understood. That perspective is most useful while a plan is still taking shape, not after every decision has already been made and someone just needs an email written.
By September 1, districts need the policy in place. The more important work starts after that, and it doesn’t have to happen all at once. Maybe it begins with one conversation, bringing your communications lead in while the plan is still forming.
The goal was never simply to say we have a policy. It’s to give people what they need to put it into practice… with clarity, not just compliance.