Federal guidance released today directs schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and other facilities that match their gender identity.
Current Atlanta Public Schools policy states that students shall not be subjected to discrimination or harassment because of the student's gender identity or expression. However, that board policy does not directly address transgender students' use of restrooms and locker rooms.
Atlanta superintendent Meria Carstarphen said she plans to review the new guidance and see if any changes are needed. But she said she welcomed the guidance.
“The guidance I think feels more right because schools have struggled with this,” she said. “Just having a good baseline of guidance that is supported by the Department of Justice takes a lot of questions out of people’s minds and we can serve students better.”
Starting last year, the district began staff sensitivity and awareness training on how to be supportive of diverse students, including diversity of gender identity, she said.
Currently, individual Atlanta schools generally approach students with changing gender identities on an individual basis, Carstarphen said. If a family brings a student’s circumstances to a school’s attention, school staff may develop a plan to support the student. That could include allowing the student to use the shared restroom of his or her choice, a single-user restroom or a staff restroom.
“The way we approach it is that every student and every family has their own circumstance,” she said.
Today's joint U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education letter reads, "A school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity. A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so. A school may, however, make individual-user options available to all students who voluntarily seek additional privacy,"
The letter also addresses single-sex schools, stating they are permitted to set their own sex-based admissions policies. Atlanta currently has an all-boys school and an all-girls school.
The directive is not a federal law. But schools that do not follow the directive could face lawsuits or a loss of federal funding.
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