New Wake policy says teachers can’t encourage students to hide info from parents
North Carolina’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights” law could lead to new rules such as Wake County teachers being told to “never encourage or coerce a child to withhold information from a parent.”
Republican lawmakers passed into law in August a requirement that schools notify parents if their child changes their name or pronoun. The new legislation also limits discussion of LGBTQ issues in elementary schools and includes other requirements, such as letting parents inspect the books their children use in schools.
To carry out the new law, the Wake County school board’s policy committee on Tuesday backed five new and revised policies suggested by the N.C. School Boards Association. Among the suggested changes is adding wording about not withholding information from parents in a new “Staff Responsibilities and Code of Ethics” policy.
School board members complained that the law tied their hands in what changes they could make.
“It’s a lot of difficult changes, but also knowing we don’t have a lot of latitude to come in and make the changes is what breeds the frustration,” said school board vice chair Chris Heagarty.
Wake is working under a tight timeline. More policies that need changes will be presented in October.
The legislation was originally supposed to go into effect Sept. 15. But amid calls from schools for more time, state lawmakers included a Jan. 1 extension in the recently adopted state budget.
Wake lobbied on Parents’ Bill of Rights
Conservative groups have been lobbying Wake to emulate the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, which became one of the first school districts in the state to change its policies to follow the law.
“As school board members, your sworn duty and responsibility is to enforce the Parents’ Bill of Rights law to protect our young grandkids from sexual harassment, from homosex groomers lurking in our schools, unions, PTAs, libraries and moms for porn groups,” Duane Hansen said at last week’s Wake school board meeting.
But the Wake school board has also heard from LGBTQ students and teachers who say they are fearful about how the law will be put in to practice.
Ginny Clayton, a teacher at Cary High and advisor to the school’s GSA Club (Gender and Sexuality Alliance) said teachers chose to start the school year saying as little as possible about the new law. But Clayton told the board that the law “has cast a shadow over my campus.”
“I hear students wondering whether school is a safe place for them,” Clayton said. “They worry that any teachers who might hold personal anti-LGBTQ sentiments will feel emboldened by this law to treat them badly.”
As someone who is gay, Clayton told the board that she has never encouraged a student to keep their gender identity or sexual orientation a secret.
“But on the flip side, I have never encouraged a student to share their identity with others before they are ready,” Clayton said. “I have never outed a student. Here’s what I do when a student comes out to me. I ask questions and listen.”
Change in parental notification
Several current and former Wake students said teachers are now requiring LGBTQ students to have their parents fill out a form giving permission for all name and pronoun changes. Previously, the students said no parental notification was required as long as students weren’t requesting a change in school records.
Rowan Rusztowicz, 17, a transgender Cary High senior, said his parents have allowed him to use his preferred name. But Rusztowicz said the parents of some transgender students have refused to give permission.
In other cases, Rusztowicz said transgender peers have stayed silent this school year because they fear the repercussions of coming out to their parents.
“With this law, what’s occurring for the children who are able to be themselves, it’s not having as much of an impact on them,” Rusztowicz said in an interview. “But for the children whose only sense of freedom was in school where they could be themselves, that’s been ripped away from them.”
Rusztowicz and Nathaniel Dibble, 19, an N.C. State student who graduated from Garner High, want Wake to tell teachers that the new law only requires parental notification and not permission.
“We don’t want a policy that allows teachers to misgender students,” Dibble said in an interview. “We also don’t want teachers to deadname students.”
Wake changing survey rules
One of the policies that would see multiple changes under the new state law deals with student surveys.
Wake already requires prior written consent from parents before students are given surveys on “protected” topics such as their sexual behavior and mental or psychological problems. But under the new state law, Wake has to give parents at least 10 days advance notice so they can review the survey.
At the request of State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, the NC Youth Risk Behavior Survey is exempted from the requirement that parents have to opt in for students to participate.
The updated policy also requires principals to provide parents of students in kindergarten through third grade a copy of the document before their children receives a well-being questionnaire or health screening.
Heagarty said the new law leaves too many unanswered questions for schools.
Among the other policies reviewed on Tuesday:
▪ Adding new wording to a policy that requires school employees to notify parents if they suspect any criminal offense has been committed against their child. An exception is allowed if the incident was reported to law enforcement or the county child services agency and parental notification would impede the investigation.
▪ Adds revisions to the board’s policy on how parents can review and challenge instructional materials used in their child’s school. It now lists the timelines parents have for filing challenges.
There’s no change to the wording that decisions about book challenges are binding for two years.. There’s also no change to the requirement that a challenge can only be filed at a school if the parent’s child attends there.
▪ Minor revisions to the board’s policy on student health services. The new wording is in line with a clarification to the law that legislators included last week saying school personnel can provide emergency medical care without written parental permission.
This story was originally published September 26, 2023 at 5:32 PM with the headline "New Wake policy says teachers can’t encourage students to hide info from parents."
