I am against the new model policies for students. These policies are not based in practices supported by any evidence or research and are guaranteed to lead to dangerous outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth.
Specifically for high schools, accreditation is based on several categories including graduation and completion index, dropout rate, and chronic absenteeism. Policies like the newly introduced model policies will directly and negatively impact LGBTQ students' ability to meet these criteria and therefore impact their schools’ accreditation. Transgender youth in particular are six times more likely to miss school, while a third of surveyed LGBTQ students missed at least one entire day of school in the past month, all because they felt unsafe. If you want to address chronic absenteeism, addressing the reasons LGBTQ students feel unsafe in school is imperative. Creating more reasons for them to feel unsafe at school, for example by allowing teachers to misgender and misname them, will only exacerbate school avoidance and increase absenteeism
Even when they are present, LGBTQ+ students are not effectively supported. 40% of LGBTQ students avoid Health/PE because they feel unsafe or uncomfortable, despite 2 credits of Health/PE being required for graduation. LGBTQ students who reported that they were considering dropping out of school cite two large issues as their reasoning: academic issues (68.4%) and hostile school climate (60.8%), including issues with harassment, unsupportive peers or educators, and gendered school policies/practices.
When a student comes to a guidance counselor and says they want to get their GED because they can't stand being here anymore, which has happened on multiple occasions to one Henrico Co staff I know, the counselor does what is best for them. However, a GED does not count as a full graduation point, and a school environment that is so unsafe that they want to get their GED rather than stay long enough to graduate perpetuates lower scores on the graduation/completion index. When a student comes to talk about making it to graduation but cannot share that part of their struggle is transphobic bullying because the counselor will now be required to call their parents and explain why they are being bullied, the school cannot effectively support their success.
These policies harm students. They do not set them up to be successful. Virginia schools made significant progress last year with the 2021 Model Policies. They were evidence-based, unlike the new policies. Parents already have a choice - to accept and love their children for who they are, or not to do so. Every decision made in schools should be made by answering the question “What is in the best interest of the student?” Adhering to these new policies is not in the best interest of the students.