California lawmakers in a key committee on Wednesday approved a measure to prohibit public school districts across the state from setting policies requiring parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender.
The Senate Education Committee approved the bill on a party-line vote 4-2 following a nearly two-hour hearing.
“Students and their families cannot survive another year without this being resolved by the state,” said Kristi Hirst with the nonprofit Our Schools USA in support of the proposal. “The extremists will not stop wasting public money on their political crusade.”
The proposal comes almost a year after several school districts across the state began implementing the policies. The first school district to do so, Chino Valley Unified School District, has its policy on hold by the courts after Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the district last summer.
Critics of the measure argued that parents have a right to know. “It should be called the school secrets act, because that’s what it is,” said Aurora Regino, a parent who sued Chico Unified School District for its handling of her daughter’s gender identity. A judge dismissed the case.
“It puts vulnerable children at risk when they need their parents the most,” Regino said.
The author of the law, Democratic Assemblyman Chris Ward, has said the bill is meant to clarify that state law does not allow school districts to enact the blanket notification policies. He said the bill would not limit a school’s ability to notify parents if a child’s well-being is at risk.
