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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9/27/22 10:12 am

Commenter: Kenny Boddye, Occoquan District Supervisor

Parental Involvement Does not Mean Endangering Trans and other LGBTQ+ Youth

To whom it may concern,

Thank you for allowing the public to weigh in on this change of Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools.

I am writing today to oppose the proposed change in Model Policies, as the 2021 Model Policies were carefully crafted with collaboration from educators, parents, human rights activists, attorneys, other educational professionals, and more. The 2021 Model Policies established evidenced-based and trauma-informed procedures which were designed to uplift and protect trans youth, as well as other LGBTQ+ children, from discrimination, bullying, and abuse at home. The reversal of these policies lacks the same level of evidenced-based foundation, and was devised by a much more insular group of decision-makers.

Additionally, there is a good chance that these new model policies are in violation of the Virginia Values Act, which modernized Virginia law to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in their daily lives, including in public accommodations such as in schools. Not accommodating students' preferred names and pronouns, as well as forcibly outing them to their parents, is in clear violation of the Human Rights Act, as amended by the Virginia Values Act, of the Virginia Code.

The partnership between parents and educators is paramount to the thriving futures of our children, but not all children live in positive, affirming households or with understanding family members. The new model policies would open LGBTQ+ youth to potential abuse and abandonment at home just as it opens them up to discrimination and bullying at school. It's illegal, it's bad public policy and it's wrong for our communities.

CommentID: 145827