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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10/26/22 1:02 pm

Commenter: Norman Birchfield

Strongly oppose - please support Virginia's trans youth

I strongly oppose this policy. Whether intentional or not, it emphasizes a right to discriminate against, harass, and cruelly disrespect transgender children. The policy grants this through stating that people have a right to mistreat transgender students if their personal or religious beliefs justify that mistreatment, harassment, or cruel disrespect. No individual should be given the right in a policy like this to treat others so.

Also, the policy fails to acknowledge the inherent rights of students to be treated as human beings. The policy ignores children's perspectives and only considers those of parents. Given the purpose of the educational system is for children to develop to their full potential and become successful members of society, the environment should be supportive of them and allow them to define how they are addressed and treated. It absurd that for a child's gender to be properly recognized by the school that the child's parent should need to write a letter. Whether intentional or not, the model policy fails to list gender identity as one of the areas that are protected under Code (2.2-3900). That code does not specify that discrimination against children at school is lawful in the absence of a letter from their parent.

Trans children are still highly vulnerable members of our society and they deserve our support and protection. This policy is antithetical to that. It is not the responsibility of the school to "out" transgender children as A.4 would suggest. This should be struck if the draft policy is not withdrawn. Referring to a child by the pronoun not associated with their gender identity (as determined by that child) is not consistent with creating a supportive environment where that child can reach their full potential. Instead it is disrespectful, legitimizes and perpetuates an unnecessary and unfair environment of cruelty that has been shown to contribute to higher rates of suicide. D.7 fails to recognize that sometimes parents can be abusive and that information dissemination regarding factors that a child fears may perpetuate or lead to physical or emotional abuse from parents should be treated differently.

There are many other problematic statements in the proposed policy that I also believe justify retracting it in its entirety e.g., dress code, bathrooms, sports teams. Please, please, please recognize that treating trans children respectfully by recognizing their gender as described by them and using the name they identify with hurts nobody and can save their lives.

CommentID: 198860