Naperville families sending an Uber or Lyft to pick up their children at school will now need to prove it's an emergency.

The District 203 Board of Education voted 5-1 on Monday, June 15, to adopt Policy 7:92, restricting student rideshare use during school hours to documented emergency situations only. Administrators say no other Illinois school district has a comparable policy, noting that the Illinois Association of School Boards' template service, known as PRESS, has not created a boilerplate rideshare policy for districts to adopt.

The rule applies to students in grades 6 through 12. Only students aged 13 and older may use a rideshare during school hours, and only after a parent or guardian signs a single-use liability waiver for each request.

School staff will contact the parent to verify the form before the student leaves. The policy does not define which situations qualify as emergencies.

The policy covers Uber, Lyft, HopSkipDrive, and any other app-based private vehicle service. Outside school hours, parents who allow rideshare use do so at their own risk, and the district assumes no liability.

Assistant Superintendent Allison Boutet, who oversees junior high schools, presented the proposal after building administrators fielded multiple parent requests to dismiss students via rideshare during the instructional day.

"The building administration was asking, 'What is our guidance?'" Boutet told the board.

Superintendent Dan Bridges said the district wrote the policy from scratch and had it reviewed by legal counsel because no PRESS template existed.

The district has not announced an effective date or rollout timeline. Board President Charles Cush was absent from the June 15 meeting.

Board member Melissa Kelley Black cast the lone dissenting vote, saying she would have preferred more parent feedback and that the undefined term "emergency" could prove too vague.