Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

State Board of Education

Guidance Document Change: Every day, throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, educators and school leaders work to ensure that all students have an opportunity to receive a high-quality education. As a part of that work, educators strive to meet the individual needs of all students entrusted to their care, and teachers work to create educational environments where all students thrive. The Virginia Department of Education (the “Department”) recognizes that each child is a unique individual with distinctive abilities and characteristics that should be valued and respected. All students have the right to attend school in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, or bullying. The Department supports efforts to protect and encourage respect for all students. Thus, we have a collective responsibility to address topics such as the treatment of transgender students with necessary compassion and respect for all students. The Department also fully acknowledges the rights of parents to exercise their fundamental rights granted by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children. The Code of Virginia reaffirms the rights of parents to determine how their children will be raised and educated. Empowering parents is not only a fundamental right, but it is essential to improving outcomes for all children in Virginia. The Department is mindful of constitutional protections that prohibit governmental entities from requiring individuals to adhere to or adopt a particular ideological belief. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees religious freedom and prohibits the government from compelling speech that is contrary to an individual’s personal or religious beliefs. The Department embarked on a thorough review of the Model Policies Guidance adopted on March 4, 2021 (the “2021 Model Policies”). The 2021 Model Policies promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools. The 2021 Model Policies also disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students, including transgender students. With the publication of these 2022 Model Policies (the “2022 Model Policies”), the Department hereby withdraws the 2021 Model Policies, which shall have no further force and effect. The Department issues the 2022 Model Policies to provide clear, accurate, and useful guidance to Virginia school boards that align with statutory provisions governing the Model Policies. See Code of Virginia, § 22.1-23.3 (the “Act”). Significantly, the 2022 Model Policies also consider over 9,000 comments submitted to the Department during the public comment period for the 2021 Model Policies.

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10/21/22 9:39 am

Commenter: Anonymous

Support Youth, Families and Mental Health

I support Governor Youngkin's proposal to put parents back into their rightful place to guide and support their children. As a mother, a psychologist, and a former guidance counselor, I know it is necessary to keep parents as the primary decision makers as they are ultimately responsible for their child's well being. Good psychology and brain research tells us that the brain's frontal lobe is not fully developed until we are 26. This area of the brain is responsible for reasoning, planning, decision making, social and sexual behavior. That is why children need their parents guidance and support as they make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. Although teachers and guidance counselors have important roles in our children's lives, they are not ultimately responsible for the child (feeding, clothing, educating, moral development, spiritual development, etc..). Parents should always be a part of the process and brought into helping to solve their child's problems. Attachment science tells us that the bond between a child and their parents is the most important in the health of a child and their ability to have healthy relationships in the future. To come between a parent and their child is to disrupt this important bond and to leave a child to greater likelihood of mental health problems and dysfunctional relationships.

My final comment is on the protection of male and female private spaces and sports. They must be separate to protect girls and women from sexual, emotional, and physical harm. Sex at birth is the only way to decide on which bathroom, locker room, or sports team a person may use or play on. Here are a few examples of the problems that occur when this is not done: North Carolina district forfeits volleyball games against school with trans player (msn.com) https://reduxx.info/male-sex-offender-identified-as-woman-to-access-womens-shelter-allegedly-raped-a-female-resident/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10871945/Lia-Thomas-teammates-say-UPenn-told-lives-questioned-place.html.

CommentID: 191786