It’s been 17 months since investigators issued a damning report urging Portland Public Schools to adopt policies governing proper student-teacher relationships, recommendations made on the heels of reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive that found a longtime educator evaded allegations of sexual misconduct for decades.

The school board approved such a policy Tuesday with a unanimous vote. It spells out limits on the ways school employees and other adults can touch students, text them, talk to them and invite them into their cars and homes.

The professional conduct rules were the last in a series of reforms officials in the state’s largest school district pledged to make in the wake of the investigation that concluded former educator Mitch Whitehurst exploited several loopholes in rules negotiated by the district and teachers’ union.

School board vice chair Julia Brim-Edwards, who presided over the committee that crafted the policy, said the new rules’ effectiveness will hinge largely on the way district staff are trained.

“It’s been a long road, but I expect that after tonight we will have a policy that takes the school district a big step forward with regard to setting clear and appropriate expectations for professional conduct between adults and students and better ensures student safety,” she wrote in an email.

Brim-Edwards told board members on Tuesday that Portland Public Schools couldn’t find any similar policies to model its own after. She said the committee solicited input from parents, district staff and community groups.

“We spent a fair amount of time developing and discussing what we wanted to do because we certainly didn’t want to damage the relationships that are important for students to thrive in our school system,” Brim-Edwards said.

She also said the school board’s responsibility from here on out is to monitor compliance, a sentiment echoed by the other folks on the dais.

“Just because we pass a policy doesn’t mean it’s being followed or it’s funded,” Brim-Edwards said.

As Chair Amy Kohnstamm solicited comments from the rest of the seven-member body, board member Rita Moore said she hopes the policy becomes “part of the DNA” of the district.

“Every adult needs to embrace their responsibility to ensure the safety of every student in this district,” she said.

The new policy explicitly bans district staff from asking students to keep secrets from other adults, being alone in a vehicle with a student and inviting students to their homes without “proper chaperones, parental notice and approval” unless noted in an explicit exception.

It also requires district staffers to set up professional social media profiles if they’re to interact with students. Even then, direct messaging with children will require parental permission.

The rules apply to teachers, contractors and volunteers: any adult employee who comes into contact with children in district schools.

You can read the full policy here

The policy also requires fresh training for teachers and other school employees. Sharon Reese, the district’s chief human resources officers, wrote in a note to the school board that many employees have already begun to undergo such trainings.

The district’s policy and governance committee began discussing proposals last October but progress stalled during contract negotiations with the teachers’ union, which at first demanded to negotiate language in the policy.

The union abandoned that demand in early summer. Its bargaining team instead reached an agreement with Portland schools officials over reforms to the district’s practices for managing teachers’ disciplinary files.

The professional conduct policy was developed as Oregon lawmakers drafted legislation to better identify and punish educators who engage in sexual misconduct. Senate Bill 155 passed on the final day of a tumultuous legislative session.

Whitehurst was never convicted of charges relating to the decades of female students’ allegations against him, which were unearthed when he was accused of harassing a colleague in 2014.

Whitehurst pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge but had his criminal slate wiped clean by a Multnomah County judge earlier this year.