The trustees discussed the proposed "parent rights and responsibilities" policy during a Jan. 13 work session.
In a nutshell
Natalie Blasingame, vice president of the CFISD school board, proposed the policy, which would require parents to submit a written request for an accommodation allowing their child to use preferred pronouns at school. The proposed policy also includes a provision that allows staff to request their own accommodation if using a student's preferred pronouns conflicts with their own "sincerely held belief,” according to district documents.
Additionally, the proposed policy would require school staff to inform parents if their child requests to use a different name or pronoun at school that differs from their legal name or biological sex. District documents state that this notification is part of a broader process where the school district works with both students and parents to find appropriate and reasonable accommodations.
Katy ISD adopted a similar policy in August 2023, Community Impact previously reported. That “gender fluidity” policy has faced complaints of discrimination against transgender students and is currently under federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
This move also comes after CFISD's board in November approved a policy requiring students use restrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their biological sex identified on their birth certificates.
Read the full proposed policy below:
The discussion
Trustee Julie Hinaman expressed concerns during the Jan. 13 meeting that adopting a policy similar to KISD's gender fluidity guidelines could lead to investigations into the policy's legality. In response, trustee Todd LeCompte and CFISD General Counsel Marney Sims said the proposed policy complies with state law.
“I still don’t have a clear understanding of how this policy supports our district goals or supports students,” Hinaman said. “I am somewhat skeptical of bringing in a new policy that somewhat copies what’s been done in a neighboring school district.”
LeCompte, chair of the board's policy review committee, said several teachers approached him and expressed confusion about how to address students who wanted to use pronouns different from their biological sex. They cited that using the requested pronouns goes against their personal and religious beliefs, he said.
“[Teachers] had general concerns that they didn’t agree with the use of maybe a biological boy using pronouns for a female, and a couple people actually told me it was religious, and there was also a few people that told me they just didn’t believe in it,” LeCompte said. “I think this is something that we’ve been discussing on and off for probably the last several months. ... Giving the parents more of an opportunity to understand what’s going on with their children.”
Hinaman disagreed, expressing concern that the board could be creating unnecessary bureaucracy, especially since the school district already outlines parental rights in existing policy.
“In my experience, I have not heard one person at a campus, a teacher, a parent, a community member express a concern about this topic,” Hinaman said. “I feel like this may be a solution in search of a problem when a problem does not actually exist in our district.”
Zooming in
The proposed policy allows parents to have “ultimate responsibility and role to guide the beliefs and protect the health and well-being of their children,” according to district documents.
Blasingame said she came forward with the policy because she believes parents deserve the opportunity to parent their children.
“The parents choose, and I’ll always say it’s parents’ choice,” Blasingame said. “That is still not the role of the school to parent, and so I requested policy, and I appreciate the work that was done through the committee.”
According to district documents, the proposed policy defines gender identity as a belief that “espouses the view that an individual’s biological sex is different from that person’s biological sex or should be changed to ‘match’ a gender different from that person's biological sex,” and/or a belief that “supports hormone therapy or other medical treatments or procedures to temporarily or permanently alter a person’s body so that it ‘matches’ a gender different from that person's biological sex.”
Public input
Four speakers addressed the board to criticize the proposed policy Jan. 13, including Mandy Giles, founder of Parents of Trans Youth, an organization that supports families in the Greater Houston area and CFISD.
Giles said the proposed policy has “dangerous potential” because it “outs” transgender students to their parents.
“This proposed policy blatantly discriminates against your transgender students,” Giles said. “By mandating that parents be notified that their student wants to use a different name and pronouns, you are outing that child to their parents, and there is a very real risk of imminent rejection and harm for that child within their family.”
Stay tuned
The CFISD board is expected to vote on the proposed policy during its meeting on Jan. 16.
