Addressing student gender

District drafts policy to deal with differences in sexual identity

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At its meeting last week, the Rockville Centre Board of Education began the process of adopting a student gender-identity policy, which would allow transgender and gender-nonconforming students to have access to programs and facilities for the gender with which they identify.

The basis of the policy is that the district will respect the identity of transgender and gender-nonconforming, or GNC, students. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity is different from what was assigned at birth, while GNCs are those whose gender identity and expression do not conform to stereotypes or others’ ideas about how they should act or dress.

Under the policy, the district would honor students’ request to be treated as the genders they identify with, and would call them by new names if asked. It would also allow transgender and GNC students to use the restrooms and locker rooms for the gender they identify with and participate in sports for that gender, if they choose.

“If we break it down, we have a student who’s a transgender girl — biologically she’s a boy, but she feels she’s a girl — she presents as a girl and she renames herself, we treat her as a girl in every way,” said Board President Liz Dion. “That’s really what the policy is.”

The district started work on the policy now because the state recently released a guidance to school districts about how transgender and GNC students should be treated.

The policy will outline what the district can and cannot do with transgender students. If they change their names, the district will use their new names every time it can. If a name is legally changed, the district will change its records to reflect that, though it will retain records with the student’s original name in a separate confidential file.

If a student’s name has not been legally changed, the district will nonetheless use the new name everywhere it can. It will create new records (again, saving records with the student’s original name in a separate file), and will address the student by the new name. However, some documents sent to the State Education Department, and others used to ensure proper medical service, may continue to use the student’s birth name and assigned gender.

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