The Iowa Board of Education unanimously approved rules for a comprehensive education law requiring educators to notify parents and caregivers if their children ask to use a different pronoun.
The guidelines, first presented in the fall of last year, are designed to assist Iowa school authorities in navigating the provision of a state law concerning disclosing gender identity to family members. The law also requires that age-appropriate education standards and an online library catalog be available in schools.
The year-old law, in particular, mandates that educators notify the student’s family if a pronoun is changed to reflect a different gender identity. Teachers are prohibited from withholding information or misinforming parents and caregivers about a student’s gender identity.
The new Iowa policy and other state and local regulations forbidding school staff from informing parents if students request to use a different name or pronoun have been met with opposition from those who claim the requirement will forcibly out students. To comply with the state law, schools throughout the country are seeking to eliminate or ban protections for transgender and nonbinary children.
Governor Glenn Youngkin’s policy barring transgender and nonbinary students from changing their names or pronouns at school without their parent’s consent has been adopted by the Lynchburg City Public Schools board in Virginia, one of the districts to do so.
Senate File 496 is a law that gave rise to the new mandate that students notify their parents when they choose their pronouns, but two federal lawsuits against the bill hindered the passage of the regulations at the Board of Education meeting.
The Iowa State Education Association, Penguin Random House, authors whose works were banned due to the law, several educators, a parent, and the ACLU of Iowa filed cases a few days apart in November 2023 on behalf of numerous Iowa families.
A federal injunction has put certain parts of the book ban on hold. As a result, the much-anticipated regulations do not address the parts of the law pertaining to the prohibition of the teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity through the sixth grade and the ban on the majority of books that depict sexual actions.
Thomas Mayes, general counsel for the Iowa Department of Education, informed those gathered that he would not discuss any parts of Senate File 496 that are subjected to the injunction. He added, “It’s not my place or time to discuss ligation strategy in an open meeting.” All of the information on Chapter 12 rule amendments made by the Iowa Board of Education is provided here.
The rules specify sanctions for school staff who violate the law by failing to disclose information or giving false information about a student’s gender identity.
A warning is probably given for a first offence. If a person breaks the rules again, they must appear before the Iowa Board of Education Examiners and face more punishment.
