The Wake County Public School System should make it clearer to parents what their rights are when filing grievances, and principals should have a standard for handling grievances, school board members said Tuesday.

Too often, parents don't understand that they can appeal the initial rejection of the grievance they've filed, board Chairman Tyler Swanson said during the school board's policy committee meeting Tuesday. And when appeals do make it to the school board, the folder of information about them can have varying levels of documentation.

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The board discussed its grievance policy after hearing from families earlier this month who want a formal procedure to appeal short-term suspensions. The district issued more than 13,000 of those suspensions during the 2024-25 school year, the latest year for which state data is available. The grievance policy is the closest thing the district has to an appeals process for that. The district plans to present further on the topic during an Oct. 6 school board work session.

The school board has a grievance policy for students and parents, outlining how they can file a grievance if they believe they've been harmed by an administrative decision and that the decision violates state or federal law, or state or school board policy. It's a written complaint that generally goes to principals, and it must detail what happened and what regulations are alleged to have been violated, as well as a proposed resolution.

Principals are supposed to investigate and then respond within 10 days of meeting with the family. Parents can appeal the principal's decision to the district superintendent, but they must do it within 10 days. If they're not satisfied with the superintendent's decision, they can then appeal that decision to the school board, which selects three board members to hear the grievance and rule on it, also within 10 days.

On Tuesday, board members took the opportunity to note how the grievance process itself can also be improved.

Swanson suggested the district establish a formal procedure for how officials should implement the grievance policy, so that principals are required to inform parents of their right to appeal. He also suggested there be a standard for what documents must be contained in each grievance "folder."

He wants to make sure families get what they need and that the whole process is "more customer service friendly."

Superintendent Robert Taylor said he's seen instances of both when a grievance folder filed with him had everything required and other cases in which the folder was empty.

Too often, Swanson said, "when it gets to the board level, there's stuff that hasn't been followed properly."

That means the board doesn't have all of the information it needs to decide, he said.

Board Member Lynn Edmonds suggested having a system for filing grievances that can also alert people about their grievances and when appeals or decisions are due.