The Virginia Beach School Board adopted policies related to the treatment of transgender students that align with model policies released by Gov. Glenn Youngkin over the summer.
Virginia Beach’s policies aren’t materially different from the state’s language, despite some board members’ previous concerns that the policies would duplicate or overlap with existing policies and procedures at schools.
Students warned the board before that the policies could endanger trans and non-binary children.
Virginia Beach’s approved proposals said students should use the bathrooms and locker rooms that pertain to the sex assigned to the student at birth, but all students, without permission or notes in official records, will be allowed to access modified facilities, like individual bathrooms.
The district’s proposal also says students will compete in sex-separated sports on the team that corresponds to the sex noted in their official records. If students have gone through the process to change their gender on official records, they can participate on the opposite team.
The school board decided in August they wouldn’t adopt state model policies as-is and instead opted to review them to best fit with the district’s needs.
In several meetings, school district staff described systems and processes already in place that may overlap or duplicate requirements in the state model policies, such as how student nicknames are recorded in official records and used in classroom settings.
The state Department of Education creates model policies and districts are legally required to adopt ones that are consistent with, but may not be identical to, the state’s model.
“The Model Policies ensure that all students are treated with dignity and that parental involvement remains at the center,” Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote in an official opiniondays after the Virginia Beach school board’s August vote.
“These policies are fully compliant with the law, and school boards across the Commonwealth should support and implement them. It's not just common sense, it's the law.”
The law Miyares references was passed in 2020 by Democrats to force school boards to adopt then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s trans-friendly model policies. Without an enforcement mechanism, only 10% of the state’s school boards ever did.
Miyares concluded in his opinion that the model policies don’t violate federal nondiscrimination laws and local school boards are required to adopt policies “consistent with” those created by the state.
Since then, two Virginia Beach mothers filed a lawsuitsaying the school board doesn’t have the authority to delay implementation of the state’s model policies.
Most of Hampton Roads’ other cities haven’t tackled Youngkin’s model policies yet. In Suffolk, the issue is before a school board committee before making its way to a full board vote. Even so, community members have still spoken about the policies to the board at recent meetings.
Suffolk’s board, like Virginia Beach, is considering creating their own policies that follow the state’s instead of adopting the model policies as written.
Suffolk Superintendent John B. Gordon created a draft of policies that include definitions of terms like cisgender, nonbinary and gender identity.
Gordon’s draft also includes additional local regulations that would require district mental health staff training to learn about LGBTQ identity langauge; “how unauthorized disclosures to peers, parents, school staff, and other third parties may negatively impact the student’s safety and well-being”; what resources are available to LGBTQ students and parents, and more.
His recommendations include the state’s model policies, but also emphasize the district’s role in determining if certain disclosures could harm the student and the policies must be carried out in a “non-stigmatizing way.”
Virginia Beach and Suffolk public schools are members of the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, which hold’s WHRO’s license.
