Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Education
 
Board
State Board of Education
 
Guidance Document Change: The Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools guidance document was developed in response to House Bill 145 and Senate Bill 161, enacted by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly, which directed the Virginia Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools. These guidelines address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to: compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws; maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination and harassment for all students; prevention of and response to bullying and harassment; maintenance of student records; identification of students; protection of student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information; enforcement of sex-based dress codes; and student participation in sex-specific school activities, events, and use of school facilities.
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2/3/21  8:27 am
Commenter: Olivia Tate

Strongly support — we must do everything we can to affirm kids’ identities as they are growing up.
 

This is doing the bare minimum in order to affirm and protect trans students. Many of this Is already done for cis-normative students so why NOT do it for trans students. As a teacher, it is important to me that my students feel safe in their own skin. They won’t learn otherwise. If we’re talking about learning loss during a pandemic, the real learning loss is when students don’t feel safe enough to come to school because they feel threatened by their environment. Or when they’re in school, they’re so focused on getting to the next period unharmed and uncriticized that they don’t pay attention.

CommentID: 94851