Guidance on supporting transgender students
(District of Columbia) Schools increasingly being called upon to better support their transgender students can now turn to new guidance that offers tips and best practices for working through common concerns or dealing with awkward situations should they occur.
Released Monday by a coalition of civil rights groups, “Schools in Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools” is first-of-its-kind national guidance that acknowledges the issues school officials face and provides legal and social justifications as to why they must act.
“Many are unfamiliar with the needs of transgender students, and attempts to meet those needs can be fraught with emotion for all involved,” wrote authors Asaf Orr of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Joel Baum of Gender Spectrum, a San Francisco-based non-profit.
“(But) students have all kinds of needs — whether they are gifted and talented, speak a first language other than English or are transgender — and schools have a duty to provide for these needs,” they wrote.
The challenges faced by those who identify as transgender are openly discussed more now than ever. The issue generates headlines, whether about the “coming out” of prominent celebrities and students or a legal challenge over gender-specific facilities, and the topic is hitting closer to home in many schools.
According to a report released earlier this year by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, however, only one in 10 school districts has a policy that explicitly protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students from bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Nearly three in 10 have no anti-bullying policy at all.
Handling instances of bullying is an important step for school officials. Accommodating the use of a bathroom or locker room which doesn’t match a student’s anatomy, however, is often an early hurdle schools face when met with an openly transgender student seeking help from teachers or administrators.
These educators are also faced with questions from concerned parents: “What if a student who identifies as male claims to be female just so he can enter the girls’ facilities?” or “What if other students have privacy concerns about using a restroom with a transgender student?”
Authors of “Schools in Transition” suggest addressing the legitimate concerns of parents and other students to first help clear up any misconceptions regarding transgender students.. Then, they said, schools should allow a student who is still concerned to change in a more private facility such as a nurse’s office or restroom.
“It is important to remind students that behaving in a way that makes others uncomfortable is unacceptable and a violation of the school’s commitment to ensuring the safety of all students,” authors wrote, “but it must also be clear that a transgender student’s mere presence does not constitute inappropriate behavior.”
The guidance gives detailed suggestions for handling accommodations during overnight field trips, participation in school sports, physical education classes and homecoming or other traditional school events, and aims to dispel misconceptions about transgender people that exist or arise during those scenarios.
According to the report’s authors, schools must address these situations in ways that are reasonably fair to all parties, and administrators must not discriminate against transgender students who are protected in some ways under federal laws, including Title IX and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as well as some state anti-discrimination laws.
Although not legally required, authors also recommend that teachers and administrators use the name and pronoun preferred by the student. Doing so, they said, is a simple step in helping all students feel more accepted on campus.
“Consistently using a transgender student’s chosen name and pronouns signals that the speaker is respecting and affirming the transgender student’s gender identity,” authors wrote. “Although seemingly minor, these simple actions can have a profound effect on the student’s experience.”
The guidance also addresses how to keep personal records for transgender students, how to accommodate those transitioning publicly and privately, and more ways in which to create a more welcoming school environment overall.
(Link: https://www.genderspectrum.org/staging/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Schools-in-Transition-2015.pdf)
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