SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has become the first U.S. state to ban school districts from requiring their staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identity change under a law signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The law prohibits school policies that require teachers and other staff to disclose a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation to anyone else without their permission. Supporters of the law say it will facilitate protect LGBTQ+ students living in hostile households. But opponents say it will hinder schools’ ability to be more lucid with parents.
The legislation comes amid a nationwide debate about local school districts and the rights of parents and LGBTQ+ students.
“This bill helps keep children safe while protecting the important role of parents,” Brandon Richards, a spokesman for Newsom, said in a statement. “It protects the relationship between child and parent by preventing politicians and school personnel from inappropriately interfering in family matters and trying to control if, when and how families have deeply personal conversations.”
The novel law comes after several school districts in California adopted policies requiring parents to be notified if a child requests a change in gender identity, sparking opposition from Democratic state officials who say students have a right to privacy.
But Jonathan Zachreson, a California attorney who supports the so-called parental notification policy, opposes the law, saying that informing parents of a student’s desire to change their gender identity is “critical to the well-being of children and to maintaining trust between schools and parents.”
States across the country have tried to ban gender-affirming care, ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, and require schools to disclose trans and nonbinary students to parents. Some lawmakers in other states have introduced bills with broad language requiring parents to be informed of any change in their child’s emotional health or well-being.
The California law sparked a heated debate in the state legislature, with LGBTQ+ lawmakers sharing how complex it was for them to decide when to come out to their families and arguing that transgender students should be able to share that part of their identity on their own terms. Republican Rep. Bill Essayli, who represents part of Riverside County, is a staunch opponent of the law. He criticized Democratic leaders for blocking a hearing on a bill he introduced last year that would have required parents to be informed of their child’s gender identity change.
In Northern California, the Anderson Union High School District’s school board adopted a parent notification policy last year, but the teachers’ union recommended that teachers not enforce the rule while it is locked in a labor dispute with the district over the policy, said Shaye Stephens, an English teacher and president of the district’s teachers’ union.
The reporting requirements put teachers in an unfair position, Stephens said.
“It’s a lose-lose situation, whether it’s teachers or school administrators or anyone else who’s asked to do this. I don’t think it’s safe for students,” she said. “I don’t think we’re the right people to have those conversations with parents or guardians.”
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Austin is a corps member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on issues that aren’t as often covered. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna
