Just a day after the state released its finalized model policies on the treatment of transgender students, it remains unclear how local school divisions will respond — but it is clear the document will be the latest catalyst for a debate that has gone on for months.
The Virginia Department of Education announced the new policies — named the “Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools” — in a press release Tuesday.
“These policies provide families the opportunity to weigh in on their child’s decisions and be a partner in their education,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons said. “We are elevating parents and giving them a seat at the table.”
The model policies replace those released in 2021 under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, in response to 2020 legislation that called for the drafting of guidelines on how transgender students should be treated. The document directs local school boards to adopt policies that are consistent with the model policies.
But the 2020 legislation that called for the model policies on transgender student treatment did not address whether school boards that refuse will face any consequences. Several school divisions refused to adopt Northam’s model policies released in 2021.
Among the issues addressed in the model policies are student identification, counseling practices and bathroom use.
In a statement released Tuesday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said: “All children in Virginia deserve to have a parent engaged in their life and to be treated with dignity and respect. The VDOE updated model policies reaffirm my administration’s continued commitment to ensure that every parent is involved in conversations regarding their child’s education, upbringing, and care.”
He added that the finalized policies take into account public comments and concerns received by the administration.
But critics say the policies ignore the majority of the 70,000 comments that were submitted about the 2022 proposal.
“We are horrified that VDOE opted to move forward with proposed model policies that at best invite – and at worst, require – discrimination, that violate state and federal law, and that have no place in Virginia schools,” said Breanna Diaz, ACLU of Virginia Policy and Legislative Counsel. “This action ignores the voices of a clear majority of Virginians who submitted comments opposing the model policies when the department first proposed them.”
The Pride Liberation Project, a student group that organized statewide student walkouts in protest of the draft policies in September, has dubbed the model policies “Don’t Be Trans.”
“As a current transgender student, Don’t Be Trans makes me feel extremely anxious to go to school,” said Spencer Vernon, a York County student and member of the Pride Liberation Project. “I feel like school isn’t a safe place for me anymore because these guidelines force me to hide my true self.”
The 2023 model policies largely reiterate the September draft, allowing school personnel to use pronouns that do not correspond to the student’s recorded sex only if a parent provides written permission and requiring that parents be notified of and allowed to refuse any “counseling services pertaining to gender.” The policies also state that teachers cannot be instructed or encouraged to conceal information about a student from a parent, including information related to gender.
Critics of the policies have said these guidelines can “out” students to their parents before they are ready.
The policies also state that teachers, staff and other students cannot be compelled to use a person’s preferred pronouns in “any manner that would violate their constitutionally protected rights.”
One of the biggest differences between the 2022 draft and the 2023 model policies is the addition of language concerning facilities use. The final policies state that single-user bathrooms will be made accessible, and add that “where state or federal law requires schools to permit transgender students to share otherwise sex-segregated facilities (such as bathrooms or locker rooms) with students of the opposite sex, parents should be given the right to opt their child out of using such facilities, and the child should be given access to alternative facilities that promote the child’s privacy and safety.”
School boards around the state are now tasked with reviewing the model policies and looking at how to adopt them or comparable ones for their schools. Portsmouth Public Schools is already in the process of reviewing the policies to see how they compare with previously adopted ones, a spokesperson said.
Since September, while the model policies were in limbo, discussion around them never ended in Virginia Beach.
A spokesperson from Virginia Beach Public Schools said the division’s administration is reviewing the model policies, and the board will also need to review and discuss them, and “until that time, we are not able to provide further comment.”
Board member Victoria Manning, who has previously expressed support for the model policies, told The Virginian-Pilot: “I look forward to having these policies that protect parental rights implemented in VBCPS right away.”
Throughout the last school year, dozens of students came to each school board meeting to urge the board to reject the model policies for being discriminatory. They said the policies if implemented would be harmful to transgender students.
Board member Jessica Owens presented a resolution reaffirming the division’s commitment to “nondiscrimination and antiharassment” of LGBTQ youth in its schools as a response to the students and community members who had expressed their concerns. This resolution narrowly passed in a 6-5 vote last month. It is unclear how, if at all, the resolution will impact the board’s decisions regarding the model policies.
She had said the resolution was never about rejecting Younkin’s model policies, but about assuring the community the school system would not adopt any policies that would violate state or federal law regarding discrimination.
The new model policies are discouraging to those who had spent months speaking out against their implementation.
“I think we all secretly hoped that it would just never be brought up again,” Emily LaBar, a recent Virginia Beach graduate who had spoken at nearly every school board meeting since September. “But now it’s back, and it really shows that this transphobia is just so prominent and aggressive in our society that it feels so hard to get rid of.”
She said that the policies remain discriminatory even after thousands of public comments criticized the policies for being just that.
“There’s no way this wasn’t intended to be discriminatory,” LaBar said.
Some groups have come forward in support of the 2023 model policies. Kate Anderson, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the new policies “ensure respect for parental rights and protect children’s mental and physical health.”
“Parents are the primary caregivers of their children and are in the best position to know what’s best for their own kids’ education and health care needs,” Anderson said. “Government officials and school administrators can’t usurp the role of parents in making those critical decisions for their children.
“Further, we applaud these policies because they restore a culture of free speech and religious liberty for students and teachers at Virginia’s public schools,” she said.
ADF is a nonprofit legal organization that works on issues relating to religious freedom and free speech. The group’s attorneys are litigating several Virginia cases challenging school districts on parent and teachers’ rights issues.
For now, school boards around the state will need to determine how they want to handle Youngkin’s finalized model policies.
LeBar said she and her other former classmates have already made plans to address the school board members about upcoming actions regarding the policies. However, she said that they could also be looking to start advocating at the state level as well.
The Pride Liberation Project said it is planning “ mass student mobilization” on the issue.
Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com
Kelsey Kendall, kelsey.kendall@virginiamedia.com
