Virginia releases updated transgender student model policies

[mahatmakanejeeves]

LOCAL EDUCATION

Virginia releases updated transgender student model policies

By Karina Elwood
Updated July 18, 2023 at 8:18 p.m. EDT | Published July 18, 2023 at 6:12 p.m. EDT

Virginia’s education department announced updated model policies for the treatment of transgender students in schools Tuesday afternoon, offering the first update since an early version released last year was put on hold to review tens of thousands of public comments, many of them opposing the guidelines.

The first version, issued in September by the administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), required transgender students to use school facilities and programs that match the sex they were assigned at birth and makes it harder for students to change their name or pronoun at school.

The final model policies include many of the same guidelines with an emphasis on parents’ rights “to make decisions with respect to their children.” The policies, a version of which each of Virginia’s schools systems would be required to adopt, require schools to use student names matching the sex on their official record. They also outline that teachers and other school personnel may not refer to a student by a different name or pronoun unless parents request the switch in writing. And students would be required to use school facilities matching the sex on their official record.

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The 2023 policies take effect Wednesday, according to the document. It will be up to each school division to adopt its own policy following the guidelines in the model.

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By Karina Elwood
Karina Elwood is a staff writer at The Washington Post covering Virginia schools and education. Twitter https://twitter.com/karina_elwood

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Institutionalized division

kick the can further down the road