District policies and practices related to transgender students in the news
Published: February 17, 2016
Assembly Bill 1266, which went into effect January 2014, guarantees transgender or gender nonconforming students the right to participate in classes and activities without regard to their birth sex. The law also states that transgender students may use locker rooms and bathrooms for the gender with which they identify, regardless of their sex at birth.
This issue gained media attention recently as a result of events in San Diego County’s Poway Unified School District. Poway was complying with AB1266, but a parent urged the school board to alert fellow students when a transgender student was in the locker room and to provide private changing areas for students who are uncomfortable changing in front of transgender schoolmates. For more background on developments in Poway Unified, please see this San Diego Union-Tribune story.
School boards addressing issues relating to transgender students, including evaluating on a case-by-case basis requests such as the one received by Poway Unified, should review CSBA’s sample policy on this issue: BP/AR 5145.3 – Nondiscrimination/Harassment, and its 2014 legal guidance: Final Guidance: AB 1266, Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students, Privacy Programs, Activities & Facilities for guidance on the law.