If your child's school sends home a notice announcing "planned school rule changes" this semester, most parents let it pass. Even when the changes touch rules that directly shape a child's daily life — hair and dress codes, phone-use rules — it's rarely clear who actually decides the content, or whether parents have any channel to weigh in. The short answer: a principal cannot set or change school rules alone. They must go through a statutory body called the School Steering Committee, and that process includes several points where parents can step in.

The school sets the rules, but the principal doesn't decide alone

Article 32 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act lists the matters the School Steering Committee must deliberate on, and item one is "enactment or amendment of the school charter and school rules." It sits alongside the budget and settlement, how the curriculum is run, and textbook selection. A principal may draft a proposed rule change, but it cannot take effect without going through the committee's deliberation. The more directly a rule touches student life — hair, dress, belongings, phone use — the more this procedure matters. The restriction on phone use during class is a good example: the law sets the principle, and each school fills in the specifics through its own school rules.

Public schools deliberate, private schools only advise — the weight of the decision differs

Not every school's committee carries the same weight. At public schools, the steering committee's resolution functions as genuine deliberation with practical binding force, but at private schools the committee only advises on matters of rule enactment and amendment. That's because final authority rests with the school corporation's board. If your child attends a private school, it helps to know in advance that even after the committee reaches a consensus, the corporation can still decide otherwise. At public schools, by contrast, the committee's deliberation translates directly into action, so voicing an opinion through this channel has a more immediate effect.

Who sits on the School Steering Committee — its membership

The committee is built around three groups: parent members, teacher members, and community members. Parent and teacher members represent the school community, and community members are recommended by those two groups and then elected by secret ballot among the parent and teacher members. Regulations set aside a substantial share of seats for parent members, so in principle the body is designed to give parents the loudest voice. The catch is that few parents actually know this structure exists. Asking the homeroom teacher about the schedule for electing parent members during parent-teacher conference week at the start of the term is one way not to miss it.

How to become a parent member — direct voting at a general assembly is the rule

Electing parent members is, in principle, done by direct vote at a general assembly of parents. There's an easily missed rule here: a school cannot complete the election solely through a reply slip in a notice, mail-in ballot, or electronic voting for the sake of convenience. Relying only on these indirect methods to elect members can create a procedural defect. In practice, many schools hold the general assembly while also offering mail-in or electronic voting to parents who can't attend. If your child's school sends a notice about electing parent members, checking whether a general assembly is actually being held is one way to gauge whether the process is being followed correctly.

Even without a seat, you can still watch the meeting

Not being elected as a parent member doesn't mean you have no way to know what's happening with a rule change. Before holding a meeting, the committee must announce the date and agenda in advance through a notice or the school bulletin board, and parents, teachers, and community members may observe the meeting based on that notice. If an agenda item you care about, like a rule change, is coming up, checking the date and venue in the announcement and attending as an observer is one option. Observing comes without a right to speak, though, so turning an opinion into an actual outcome requires also using the opinion-submission channel described next.

Rule changes require asking parents for input first

When the committee deliberates on something with major impact on students and parents, like school rules, it is required to gather parents' opinions in advance. National schools set the specific method through their own rules, and public schools through municipal or provincial ordinance — typically by attaching the draft amendment to a notice and collecting agreement or comments through a reply slip or an online survey. Skip that step and stay silent, and the draft tends to pass through as written. Conversely, when a number of parents comment on a specific clause, it's often actually reflected during the committee's deliberation. To check the full picture of school life, the NEIS parent service and School Information Disclosure site also let you view the full text of school rules together with the committee's meeting materials.

In order

Here's the sequence to check. ① A rule change goes through School Steering Committee deliberation (advisory only at private schools), not the principal alone ② the committee is made up of parent, teacher, and community members, and electing parent members follows the principle of a direct vote at a general assembly ③ even without a seat, you can observe the meeting once it's announced in advance ④ matters as significant as school rules require an opinion-gathering step before deliberation ⑤ the full text of the rules and the meeting minutes are kept at the school and available for viewing. Rather than letting a "planned rule change" notice go unread, filling out that one opinion-reply slip is a place to start.

This is based on Articles 31 and 32 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the related provisions on School Steering Committee composition and operation in its enforcement decree, and each metropolitan and provincial education office's School Steering Committee regulations. Compiled as of September 2026. The specific election schedule and method of gathering opinions can vary by school level and region, so please check your child's school notice and the relevant ordinance together. This article explains how the system is structured and is not a substitute for legal advice on an individual dispute over school rules.