Schools to begin preparing for new transgender rules

The state Department of Education will begin training principals and school staff over the summer on new guidelines aimed at providing consistent support for transgender students in Hawaii public schools.

The guidelines, which will be implemented in the upcoming school year, provide direction on “common issues of concern,” including access to sex-segregated facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms, the use of preferred names and pronouns, how a student’s name and sex are listed in official records, enforcing dress codes and participation in gender-based school activities such as choral groups and proms.

“Schools should accept a student’s sincerely held gender identity,” the guidelines for schools say. It adds that a student doesn’t need a medical or mental health diagnosis or treatment threshold to have his or her gender identity recognized and respected.

The department says it saw a need to clarify guidance because more students are expressing their transgender identity and more parents are asking schools to recognize and accommodate the needs of their transgender children. Schools have been addressing the needs of transgender students on a case-by-case basis while enforcing laws and policies banning discrimination, bullying and harassment.

“I think this reflects our values as a system,” said Stephen Schatz, the department’s deputy superintendent. “Our schools for the most part are doing a really great job already, regardless of the fact that we haven’t yet come out with any guidelines. I think our schools are very inclusive places, places of aloha.”

It’s unclear how many transgender students are enrolled in Hawaii schools. Nearly 14 percent of public high school students here reported being harassed or called gay, lesbian or bisexual at school back in 2009, the most recent data from the Hawaii Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The rate was slightly higher for middle-school students, at 14.6 percent.

The department Tuesday briefed the Board of Education’s Student Achievement Committee on the guidelines, which, unlike policies, do not require board approval. They’ve been reviewed by the state attorney general’s office.

Schatz said the guidelines have been in the works for the last six to eight months, and were modeled in part after policies in California and New York as well as from the nonprofit Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization that focuses on LGBT communities.

“This is pretty new territory for all of us,” Schatz said. “It’s very possible there will be changes along the way as we figure out if our guidelines are not specific enough, too specific or just completely miss the mark on something.”

Here’s a look at some of the topics covered in the guidelines:

>> Sex-segregated facilities: Students should have access to restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their sincerely held gender identity. In cases where a student, whether transgender or not, desires increased privacy or feels unsafe, schools should provide the student with reasonable access to alternative accommodations. Schools may take steps to designate single-stall, gender-neutral restrooms.

>> Preferred names and pronouns: Transgender students have the right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that corresponds to their sincerely held gender identity. Transgender students are not required to obtain a legal name change or to change their official records.

>> Student records: A student’s name and sex in their official record are based on their legal name and sex. Information about a transgender student’s legal identity, gender identity and assigned sex at birth should be treated as confidential.

>> Dress code: Students should be permitted to wear the clothing of their choice, regardless of whether it conforms to traditional gender stereotypes, as long as it does not violate the school’s dress code. Dress codes should be gender neutral.

Officials are still discussing how to accommodate transgender students in competitive sports. Under current practice, Schatz said, students participate on boys or girls athletic teams based on their assigned sex at birth.

BOE member Don Horner questioned what he saw as a lack of parent notification or involvement in the guidelines, which encourage schools to meet with the student and an administrator or counselor, but say that an initial meeting “may or may not” include the student’s parents.

“Nothing in here is any requirement that the parent would be involved,” Horner said, citing concerns especially about younger students.

Michael Golojuch Jr., chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s LGBT Caucus, contends students are entitled to privacy.

“There’s no need to ‘out’ a student to make sure that they get the support they need,” Golojuch said. “A child’s decision to come out to their parents is something that will have a lifelong impact on them, and so that is a decision that they need to make. This concern about a parent’s right to know about their child … if they are an involved parent and supportive of their child, their child will come to them.”

BOE member Amy Asselbaye said that under state law, children over the age of 13 can seek medical care without parental consent, and pending legislation would expand that to include mental and behavioral health care. “As we’re sort of treading new territory, we’re going to have to learn what best practices are,” she said.

Hawaii’s efforts come as transgender rights have gained national attention.

The Obama administration last month directed schools nationwide to grant transgender students access to facilities that correspond with their chosen gender identity, citing the federal Title IX law, which prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding.

A student’s gender identity is treated as their sex for the purposes of Title IX, according to a May 13 letter jointly signed by the U.S. Justice and Education departments.

“A school’s Title IX obligation to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of sex requires schools to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents or community members raise objections or concerns,” the letter said. “As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”