Does the district any official guidelines on how a student who identifies with a different gender than they were born with should be referred to? It seems like at least one student is complaining that they are being called a she when they want to be called a he or vice versa. Does the student have to legally have their named changed or can they just announce to a teacher that they are now a different name/gender without any type of legal documents?

Written by on November 15, 2016

A. This information is taken out of the district’s DASA Regulation 7555R

All students should be addressed by a name and pronoun corresponding to their gender identity that is exclusively and consistently asserted at school.  Students are not required to obtain a court ordered name and/or gender change or to change their official records as a prerequisite to being addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their gender identity.  This directive will not necessarily eliminate inadvertent slips or honest mistakes, but it does prohibit intentional and persistent refusals to respect a student’s current gender identity.  The requested name shall be included in the student information system in addition to the student’s legal name, in order to inform teachers of the preferred name and pronoun to use when addressing the student.

The District’s approach of respecting a student’s decision to regularly use a name and the pronouns that correspond to the student’s current gender identity is not a commitment to change all existing school records in order to reflect those preferences.  Further, there may be situations where the District is required to use or report the legal name or biological sex of the student as that data is reflected in the District’s official records.  The extent to which official records of the District are modified will depend on a case-by-case evaluation of the information that the District receives and the type(s) of school records affected by the information that is received.  For example, when a student changes his/her legal name and that change is sufficiently substantiated, the District will issue a high school transcript under the student’s new legal name. This applies prospectively and only for active students. The district will not go back and change official records or documents of past or graduated students.

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