California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law on Monday that makes the state the first to institute a ban on any requirements for school officials to tell parents of students that their gender identification has changed.
In effect, the law prevents the enforcement of any school rules that would disclose a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation without a child’s permission, even to their parents.
Keeping Children Safe
Proponents of the new law say that it is essential for protecting kids because it stops outside authorities from interfering in a child-parent relationship.
“This law helps keep children safe while protecting the critical role of parents,” Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, said in a statement. “It protects the child-parent relationship by preventing politicians and school staff from inappropriately intervening in family matters and attempting to control if, when, and how families have deeply personal conversations.”
Attack on LGBTQ
Chris Ward, the California Assemblymember who introduced the legislation, feels there is a “growing national attack” on LGBTQ Americans.
“Although many LGBTQ youth have supportive families, some unfortunately continue to face rejection and are exposed to serious harm if pre-maturely forced to reveal their identity,” Ward said on the Assembly floor last month.
Dignity of Youth
In a statement released Monday after the bill’s signing, Ward used strong language to condemn political attacks on LGBT that he sees as on the rise.
“Politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California,” said Ward.
New Law
The new bill passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Newsom is called AB 1955.
This law has also been called the Support Academic Futures & Educators for Today’s Youth (Safety) Act.
What Does It Do?
This new law expands upon ideas already in California’s existing laws. For example, existing law requires the California Department of Education to develop resources to support LGBT students, provide community resources, and update in-service training for LGBT sensitivity.
This new law would require the Department of Education to come up with additional support and update existing resources for parents, guardians, and families of LGBT students.
Anti-Discrimination
Existing California law already forbids discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.
However, this new law bans schools and employees from disclosing information about a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without consent unless otherwise required by law. Schools are also prohibited from taking retaliatory action against an employee who respects a student’s wishes to keep their gender identity to themselves.
Bill Opposition
Parental notification advocate Jonathan Zachreson feels that it is important for schools to notify parents of changes to gender identity to maintain trust between parents and the school system.
“[Notification is] critical to the well-being of children and for maintaining that trust between schools and parents,” said Zachreson.
Push For Notification
Notification advocates have been making recent pushes for their cause which has resulted in several California school districts passing policies that require parents to be notified of a student who changes their gender identity.
Under this new law, these policy changes would not be enforced.
Ballot Measure
A recent ballot measure that would establish requirements for schools to notify parents of gender changes recently failed to gain enough signatures to get on the November ballot. Zachreson was behind the campaign which managed to gather about 400,000 of the 546,651 needed.
“While we are disappointed we didn’t meet the threshold to qualify for the ballot, we are encouraged by the amount of support from every sector of the state,” said Zachreson in a statement.
Tough Situation
Some teachers felt put in a tough spot after being under parental notification policies that had previously been enforced.
“It’s kind of a lose-lose situation for teachers and administrators or anybody that’s being asked to do this. I don’t think it’s safe for students,” said English teacher Shaye Stephens of Andreson Union High School District. “I do not think that we are the right people to be having those conversations with a parent or a guardian.”
Political Context
This latest law passage in California comes as other states are banning gender-affirming care for youth and preventing transgender athletes from participating in girl’s and women’s sports.
Currently, at least 15 states have some type of requirement related to parental notification in schools.
