What The New School Gender Identity Law Does – And What It Doesn't

By Deborah Sullivan Brennan, the Voice of San Diego

August 6, 2024

A new California law prevents school districts from forcing teachers to tell parents if a student changes their gender, name or pronouns. But it doesn’t mean teachers can never inform parents.

Since Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill, there’s been confusion about what the law does and doesn’t do. And it’s unclear what it means for a suite of conflicting lawsuits against Southern California schools.

The SAFETY (Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth) Act by Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, prohibits school districts, charter schools and other public education institutions from requiring teachers to disclose students’ sexual orientation or gender identity to anyone without the students’ consent.

It also calls for adding resources to support LGBTQ students and their families, and protects school employees from retaliation for keeping students’ gender identity private.

In short, it prevents what proponents describe as forced outing of students to their parents.

“Just accommodate the student,” Ward said. “It doesn’t mean that your first reaction should be to out that student to the parent. They’re seeking a safe environment to learn, and that’s what the teacher should provide.”

So, does the law restrict teachers from using their own discretion about when to bring parents into the loop? That’s a little ambiguous, since there’s no language in the law on what an individual teacher can or can’t do.

I asked Ward how he interprets teachers’ responsibilities, and he said it depends on the situation. If a student is in distress, at risk of self-harm or experiencing academic problems, he said a teacher “may consider casting a wider net, bringing in parents or others.”

But if a teenager is questioning their gender, “that does not necessarily mean that they are on a destructive or downward path. You have to use some of your own common sense in how you’re dealing with teenagers,” he said.

The California Department of Education advises teachers not to tell parents of a student’s gender identity in most cases, stating that it may violate state anti-discrimination law. Any school records on the matter are also off limits, it states.

There’s an exception though, in case of emergency. Then state law “expressly permits the disclosure of information from a student’s records” if needed to protect the health or safety of the student or others.

The new SAFETY law takes effect against a backdrop of legislation in dozens of other states restricting transgender students’ rights to use bathrooms and locker rooms, participate in sports, or receive gender-affirming care.

And it plays out amid clashing lawsuits against Southern California school districts. Some challenge policies requiring teachers to inform parents if a student changes their gender, which plaintiffs say intrude on students’ rights to privacy.

At least one takes the opposite position, arguing that a school district illegally forced teachers to conceal students’ gender transitions from parents, violating the teachers’ religious beliefs and the parents’ right to information about their own children.

How the law affects those cases, and how teachers should approach sensitive conversations about students’ gender and sexual identity, are the subject of impassioned debates.

The SAFETY law states that school districts can’t force teachers to disclose information about trans or other LBGTQ students, or pass policies ordering them to do so.

On the other hand, it doesn’t stop districts from forbidding teachers to share students’ gender identities with their parents.

That’s what’s at stake in a lawsuit against Escondido Union School District, filed on behalf of two middle school teachers. They challenged a policy requiring them to honor students’ preferred names and pronouns in class, but use their legal identities in conversations with parents. That rule violated the teachers’ religious beliefs and forced them “to hide critical information about their students’ ‘social transition,’” the suit alleges.

In September a judge granted a preliminary injunction against the Escondido policy, ruling that it hurts children who need parental guidance and harms parents by denying their “right to care, guide, and make healthcare decisions for their children.”

On the opposite side, other lawsuits dispute policies for mandatory notification. After Temecula Valley Unified School District required teachers to tell parents about their children’s gender transitions, California School Superintendent Tony Thurmond sent a letter warning the district that the policy “was a violation of civil rights and was illegal,” said Trustee Steve Schwartz, who opposed the policy.

Temecula students held walkouts against the rule last year, and a group of parents, students and teachers sued to overturn it. A judge ruled that the case can go forward, but left the notification policy in place in the meantime.

A year ago, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Chino Valley Unified School District to halt enforcement of a similar policy requiring teachers to inform parents if students change their gender identity.

Last month, after Ward’s bill passed, the district slapped back, suing the state to block the new law.

Bonta said his office won’t provide legal analysis, but pointed to its recent motion seeking a final judgment against Chino Hills’ parental notification policy. Those rules “would unlawfully single out and discriminate against transgender and gender nonconforming students, causing them psychological, emotional, and physical harm,” the filing stated.

The Liberty Justice Center, a conservative nonprofit law firm, also sued the state over the SAFETY law, arguing that “School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have a constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school.”

Newsom’s press office dismissed the action as “a deeply unserious lawsuit seemingly designed to stoke the dumpster fire” over trans students’ rights.

The apparent clash between parents’ rights to be informed about their children’s lives and students’ rights to privacy has often been framed as a right-versus-left culture war battle, but the reality can be more complex. A New York Times report found that some parents who learned belatedly that their child was transgender said they supported the transition, but not the secrecy.

Meanwhile teachers find themselves in the hot seat trying to determine what information to reveal and what to keep confidential.

Amid the legal crossfire, it’s unclear how the numerous Southern California lawsuits over the issue will be resolved, and how the new state law will be applied in court.

For now, it appears teachers will be left to their own best judgment on what to share with parents.

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