Here are the rules for public comment at school board meetings in Marion County districts

A new Indiana law that requires all school boards to take public comment before taking final action on an item went into effect July 1, after at least one board suspended public comment due to audience interruptions this past year.

All of Marion county’s 11 school districts have always allowed public comments to be taken during their meetings, but boards can set their own rules and regulations for when and how public comments can be accepted.

Although some rules vary from district to district, there is also a lot of overlap with some of the main rules the public must follow when addressing a school board. Here are some of the similarities:

• Most of Marion county’s school boards require anyone wanting to give a public comment at a regularly scheduled school board meeting to sign up before the meeting starts. This typically means giving your name, and address and mentioning any group you are affiliated with if that is appropriate in your case.

• Most school board meetings will have a certain section of the meeting that is dedicated to public comment where individuals are typically allowed three minutes to speak. Each district typically allows for the entire public comment section of the meeting to last up to 30 minutes, but the board can also vote to add more time if needed. Speakers are also typically only allowed to speak once per meeting or once per agenda item.

• All speakers must offer their comments up to the board as a whole and cannot be directed to board members individually. Statements cannot be abusive, disruptive, harassing, frivolous or repetitive. The presiding officer for the meeting may interrupt, warn or stop a person from giving their comment if that person is being disruptive to the meeting or not addressing the topic at hand.

• The presiding officer may also request the assistance of law enforcement if the speaker continues to be willfully disruptive and can be removed from the meeting. A call for recess or for adjournment of the meeting can also occur if there is too much disruption from the public for the meeting to proceed.

Another important point for giving a public comment, but is not explicitly stated in all of Marion county's school board policies, is that board members generally do not respond to comments given at meetings.

The board members are typically taking the comments under consideration and may respond to some at the end of the entire comment period or at the next board meeting but that is generally up to the individual board members.

Here is what you need to know if you want to give public comment at one of Marion county’s school board meetings.

Indianapolis Public Schools

IPS recently made an adjustment to their policy at their June board meeting in light of the new law going into effect on July 1, and are now allowing oral public comments to be given at all public meetings of the board.

IPS typically has three regular monthly meetings that the public can attend. Their work session meetings, agenda review sessions and action sessions.

Previously IPS was only taking public comment during the agenda review sessions, action session, public hearings or at the discretion of the board president.

The board only takes action, or votes on policies, during the action sessions which typically happen on the Thursday of the last full week of each month.

Registration: Sign up by noon on the day of the meeting by registering online, or by contacting the IPS district office by phone or email. Must submit name, contact information and topic to be discussed.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per person. The board may limit the total amount of time devoted to the public comment section of the agenda based on the number of persons wishing to speak and the length of that day's agenda.

MSD Decatur Township

Registration: Sign up at the beginning of the meeting. Speakers recognized to speak will be asked to announce their name, address and topic to be discussed.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per speaker and overall public comment is limited to 30 minutes unless extended by a vote of the board. Speakers cannot pass their remaining time to someone else and can only speak once.

Franklin Township Community School Corporation

Registration: Not specified.

Speaker order: The order of speakers is ultimately at the discretion of the board president.

Time limits: Five minutes per speaker, but the time limit may be reduced if there is a large number of people wanting to speak.

MSD Lawrence Township

Registration: Sign up at the beginning of the meeting. Speakers must designate which agenda item they wish to speak on and announce their name, address and group affiliation if appropriate when recognized to give comment.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per speaker and the overall public comment period is limited to 30 minutes unless extended by a vote of the board. No participant may speak more than once on the same topic.

Perry Township Schools

Registration: Not specified.

Speaker order: Not Specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per speaker.

MSD Pike Township

Registration: Sign up at the beginning of the meeting. Speakers must announce their name, address and group affiliation if applicable when recognized to speak.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per speaker and the overall public comment period is limited to 30 minutes unless extended by a vote of the board. No participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak have been heard.

MSD Warren Township

Registration: Sign up at the beginning of the meeting. Speakers must announce their name, address and group affiliation if applicable when recognized to speak.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per speaker and the overall public comment period is limited to 30 minutes unless extended by a vote of the board. No participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak have been heard.

MSD Washington Township

Registration: Sign up at the beginning of the meeting. Speakers must announce their name, address and group affiliation if applicable when recognized to speak.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per speaker and the overall public comment period is limited to 21 minutes unless extended by a vote of the board. No participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak have been heard.

MSD Wayne Township

Registration: To give public comment at their meetings you must be someone who lives in the district, is a legal guardian of an enrolled student, is employed by Wayne township or owns a business operating within the district, according to the district’s bylaws. People wishing to speak must sign in at the beginning of the meeting and show either a driver’s license or similar ID showing they live in the district, are a guardian or work in the district.

Speaker order: By order on which they signed up on the sign-in sheet.

Time limits: Two minutes per speaker and the overall public comment period is limited to 60 minutes. All other comments after the allotted time may be submitted in writing to the superintendent for review.

The public information officer for Wayne township, Jeannine Templeman, told IndyStar that the board plans to revise the current policy’s language regarding comments on specific action items, procedures to hear comments on all action items and revise procedures for people registering for public comment.

Beech Grove City Schools

Registration: Not specified.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Three minutes per speaker.

Speedway Schools

Registration: At every regular school board meeting, anyone can give brief remarks to the board under the agenda item "Recognition of visitors." Anyone wishing to make a more formal comment to the board may request to be placed on the agenda by contacting the superintendent at least one week prior to the meeting.

Speaker order: Not specified.

Time limits: Not specified.

Contact IndyStar reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @CarolineB_Indy.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How to give public comment at a Marion county school board meeting