June 11, 2024
At tonight’s study session of the Rochester School Board, board members will review and discuss a draft of a new school board procedure on supporting transgender and/or gender-expansive students. A copy of the draft procedure is available here.
If the School Board approves the procedure at its regular meeting on July 16, 2024, it will replace guidelines that I issued to school administrators on the same subject on September 8, 2023. I developed and issued those guidelines because educators in Rochester Public Schools asked for clarity on what the law requires and how our school district wanted them to respond to issues that were arising in our schools regarding supporting students who are transgender or gender-expansive.
The administrative guidelines that I issued on September 9, 2023, clearly state that the RPS School Board will undertake the development of a procedure for supporting transgender and gender-expansive students during the 2023-2024 school year, and the board’s discussion of and action on that procedure at tonight’s study session and the regular school board meeting in July completes that process.
The Policy Committee of the RPS School Board began development of the procedure soon after the U.S. Department of Education issued the 2024 Title IX Final Rule on April 19, 2024. The Final Rule outlines the procedures that schools are expected to follow regarding students’ gender identity and a range of other important issues. A summary of the federal rule is available here. The new federal regulations are effective on August 1, 2024.
The draft procedure that the RPS School Board will discuss at tonight’s study session has been reviewed by the school district’s legal counsel, who has confirmed that the procedure fully complies with the new federal regulations and with all applicable state and federal laws. The procedure is also aligned with existing RPS School Board policies. Key laws and RPS policies that support the procedure are listed at the end of the draft document.
The proposed procedure, numbered 413A, begins by describing the purpose of the procedure and then defines key terms that are included in the text. The procedure then outlines the ways that Rochester Public Schools will approach the following issues:
Privacy
Parent access to information
Names, pronouns, gender markers, and district records
Gender-segregated facilities
Gender-segregated activities, classes, rules, policies, and practices
Dress codes
School trips
Intramural sports, extra-curricular activities, and interscholastic sports teams/activities
Compliance
Discrimination, harassment, and bullying
Because the issue of parental access to information on students’ gender identity in school has been a subject of public discussion in recent months, I would like to highlight two important provisions of the procedure in that area. First, the procedure makes clear that if a parent or guardian asks for information about their child’s experience of gender identity and a member of the RPS staff is in possession of that information when the request is received, that member of the RPS staff must provide that parent or guardian with that information. Second, nothing in the procedure prohibits an educator in Rochester Public Schools from contacting a parent about an issue or concern involving gender identity. It is true that the procedure does not require staff to report to parents or guardians on students’ gender identity, but that is consistent with RPS policies and procedures in a wide array of areas.
We trust our staff to share information with parents and guardians if and when they believe it is in the student’s interest to do so, but we do not – and realistically could not – require them to do so. We will provide staff with information and professional development on best practices in the implementation of all aspects of the Procedure on Supporting Transgender and/or Gender-Expansive Students following approval of a final version by the RPS School Board in July.