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.

Previous Comment Next Comment Back to List of Comments

10/26/22 4:47 pm

Commenter: Tiffany Campbell

I support the new policies, but don't hate those of a differing opinion.

I support the new policy, but don’t hate those who have a differing opinion

I am appalled at some of the comments submitted in this forum. Each side hating the other will never resolve anything. Where did civil discourse go? Where has the American value of diplomacy gone? If each side would honestly listen to the other, and have a true American spirit of respect and love and finding a win-win solution, or at least the closest thing possible, perhaps we could get somewhere in our society. I am grateful for Governor Youngkin's wisdom and decisive action on these issues. Schools should be a safe environment for everyone on every side of the issues.

The issue of encouraging teachers and staff to let parents know about a student’s change of gender or name/pronoun reveals a deeper issue. What are the beliefs surrounding the role of parents in a child’s life? What is the purpose of a family? Why are some using our school culture to encourage students to keep secrets from their parents? I understand that not every child finds themselves in a relationship with their parents that is favorable. If such a relationship exists that a child feels uncomfortable with their parent finding out about their sexual orientation, then the real need is for the parent-child relationship to become more secure, open and to be healed. Understanding that this is easier said than done, perhaps efforts could be made to strengthen family relationships and foster understanding and trust between parent and child, rather than cater to the fear-based idea of keeping a child’s life secret from parents, or the unsound idea that children should be protected from the influence of a parent. Of course, there is no place in the home for abuse, and those who abuse will be held accountable by a Higher Power. But it is wrong to automatically assume and act as though all parents will resort to abuse upon becoming aware of their child’s choices regarding gender orientation. It is not fair to the majority of families, who do have compassionate parents who care very much about their children feeling accepted and receiving the best mentoring possible for their development and growth into a happy human being.

Parents ought to be given a chance to be the mentor their children need in their search for truth and understanding about who they are or anything else they struggle with. If public schools won’t respect their self-evident right to do so, then parents should reconsider to whom they are delegating the responsibility of educating their children. Parents have the right to decide how their children should be educated and should be much more involved in the decisions about the daily environment their children are in.

The family is the fundamental unit of a healthy society. Even if you don’t believe that God exists and that God put us into families for a reason, no parent I know can deny the absolute joy and love that overwhelms you when you have a child. The connection and deep desire to protect and love them is real. How about we work on resources for families to learn how to heal their relationships, find common ground and truth and to love and accept one another, instead of pitting children against parents and modeling divisiveness, secrecy, and hate?

Concerning the bathrooms - experience has shown how unsafe it truly is for those claiming transgender identity to be allowed into the bathroom of their choice. Bullying doesn’t disappear just because they are allowed to go in the bathroom of their choice. If any children in schools are afraid of bullying by their own schoolmates in any way (regardless of the bathroom they use), then there is a problem with the Character Education of the schoolmates. Focus on teaching acceptance, love, and tolerance, diplomacy, respect, etc, instead of making the majority of children uncomfortable by allowing anyone in any bathroom at any time. Bullying has been a problem for a long time, not just because of transgender issues.

CommentID: 200057