Jargon seen as obstacle for student board members

On Board Online • May 18, 2026

By Paul Heiser
Senior Research Analyst

How can the role of student school board members be made meaningful? Reducing jargon would help, according to a national survey of more than 100 students who hold that role.

Other suggested changes included:

• Better onboarding and training.
• More peer coaching and support.
• Full voting rights.

The survey was conducted by the National Student Board Member Association (NSBMA), which has offered training for student school board members since 2023. While 30% of respondents felt they had a real role in district decision-making, the remaining 70% described their role as "symbolic, excluded or not taken seriously."

"We have student board members, but they only provide updates on student activities," said one respondent in written comments. "We're not making the best use of their presence."

Another said: "We're not invited into the conversation. We have to wait for a pause, and it's really hard to find that perfect gap to jump in."

Every respondent to the poll said that being taken more seriously was the one thing they would change about their roles.

According to NSBMA, student board member positions exist in more than 40 states. Eleven states - including New York - plus the District of Columbia have enacted legislation relating to student board members.

Also studying the role of student school board members are researchers at Columbia University's Teachers College. In June 2024, the college's Center for Educational Equity formed the School Board and Youth Engagement Lab (S-BYE) to develop a national database on student school board membership and, by its own account, is 42% done with its data collection.

Graduate students affiliated with S-BYE have reported that in districts that have student board members, 15% of them are allowed to vote. However, 95% are non-binding advisory votes. (The student board seats created by New York State law don't allow students to vote.)

S-BYE has also reported:

• 90% of districts that have student board members have written policies detailing their roles. Many set some kind of academic eligibility requirements, such as having a certain grade point average.
• 30.5% of districts nationally allow student school board members, and six in 10 of those districts had seated student board members in the 2024-25 school year.

These and other findings by S-BYE were announced on April 27 in a webinar titled "Beyond Tokenism: Empowering Student Board Members in School-Based Democratic Decision Making."

One slide was titled, "Bright Spots in Building Empowering Environments." It noted that Seattle Public Schools has clear expectations for the number of hours that student board members are expected to serve and that it pays student board members $18.69 per hour. Another district - St. Louis Park Public School District in Minnesota - allows student school board members who meet certain requirements to receive academic credit for their service.

S-BYE also praised NYSSBA as one of the nation's bright spots for its support of student school board members. It noted that NYSSBA has created a comprehensive toolkit for school boards to aid them in implementing the state's requirement that all school districts with high schools and all BOCES have at least one student on their governing boards.

The toolkit, called Empowering Student Voices, can be downloaded at bit.ly/4t75MAA . All NYSSBA resources related to student board members can be found at www.nyssba.org/main/ex-officio-student-board-member-implementation-resources .

"The Empowering Student Voices toolkit is targeted at adults in the school district, and we are working on a new toolkit for student school board members themselves," said NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider. "Also, we are developing an online course for ex officio student members, which we expect to launch in the fall."

"The intent of the Legislature was to improve governance by creating a way for all school boards to get input from the student perspective," noted NYSSBA President Christine Schnars, a board member for both the Jamestown City School District and Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES. "Also, the sponsors of the legislation have spoken about the importance of developing our next generation of public servants and volunteers. Both are worthy goals, and NYSSBA is endeavoring in many ways to help its member districts have a great experience with their student school board members."

Editor's note: NYSSBA's Leadership in Education Event on July 24 and 25 will include a panel of student school board members. For more information or to register, go to nyssba.org/events.