Schools Brace For New Law Prohibiting Notifying Parents of Students Pronoun Change

Schools across California have continued to scramble this month to be prepared for a new law coming into effect on January 1st that prohibits school districts from allowing teachers to notify parents if their child is using a new pronoun at school.

Assembly Bill 1955, by Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego), prohibits school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy or rule that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law. The law, also known as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act), also prohibits employees or contractors of those educational entities from being required to make such a disclosure unless otherwise required by law.

In addition, AB 1955 prohibits employees or contractors of school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, or the state special schools, or members of the governing boards or bodies of those educational entities, from retaliating or taking adverse action against an employee on the basis that the employee supported a pupil in the exercise of specified rights, work activities, or providing certain instruction. The State Department of education is also required to develop resources or update existing resources for supports and community resources for the support of parents, guardians, and families of LGBTQ pupils and strategies to increase support for LGBTQ pupils under the law.

Assemblyman Ward wrote the bill in conjunction with the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus earlier this year in response to more and more school districts in California proposing or passing policies requiring teachers to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender or asks to be identified by a different name or pronouns while at school. In a statement earlier this year, they said that those measures have had a measurable impact on the mental health of LGBTQ+ students, and can lead to a rise in bullying, harassment, and discrimination. Many also pushed for the bill explaining that LGBTQ students had the right to come out to their parents on their own terms and not through a school notification.

The bill subsequently passed both houses in June, and Governor Newsom signed the bill into law in July. His early signing of the bill gave schools an extra few months to prepare for the change over. In particular, many districts attempted to shut down alternative ways that parents could find out about pronouns changes rather than directly from the school.

However, with the law due to come into effect when students get back from winter break, schools have instead focused on having employees not reveal that information to parents and guardians.

An easily circumvented law

“It’s not as simple as having a meeting and saying ‘Don’t do it,'” school counselor, “Amanda,” told the Globe. “You know, we need the students permission to make that available, go over the consequences, go over situations where this might happen, and so on.

“And here’s the thing we found out and what other districts are finding out: This law will do nothing. We did test situations with other counselors and quickly found that parents can easily find this out on their own. Social media, for one, would ‘out’ most students pretty quickly. And even if the students are more secretive, there are so many non-school ways for them to find out about their pronouns. A district next to ours had a track meet where a volunteer, non-employee coach used their preferred pronoun, saying something like ‘They hustled pretty good’ right to their parents alerting them of the pronoun. If parents are close to their child, they’ll find out quick.”

Another counselor the Globe talked with added that “AB 1955 is just, best case scenario, going to delay the parent finding out. Oh, and just by saying ‘We can’t tell you that’, a lot of parents, will found out find out anyway. Like, they ask ‘Is my son going by she now?’ and we say ‘We cannot disclose that.’ it just confirms for them it’s true. We actually had someone from a district down in LA County tell us say that, when they told them “We can’t tell you that”, the parent on the other line said “I KNEW it. Thanks for confirming it for me.” and then they hung up before anything else could be said. By denying information, it accidently discloses the truth. That’s a huge issue, and that’s why AB 1955 won’t work at all.

“We had a workshop last week on this, and every single teacher said to the face of the person running it ‘There is no way this will work.'”

AB 1955 goes into effect January 1, 2025.