CCSD Board Adopt Transgender Policy on 4-3 Vote, Whats Next for Parents

CCSD Board Adopt Transgender Policy on 4-3 Vote, Whats Next for Parents

View In Browser POWER2PARENT.ORG Dear Powerful Parents, On Thursday evening, after over a year of discussion and meetings, the Clark County School Board of Trustees voted to adopt the gender diverse policy, 4-3 (Wright, Edwards, Brooks, Cavazos- For; Garvey, Young, Child- Against). Parents and community members who showed up at these meetings, emailed, called and engaged this process, thank you. Parents are understandably angry and disillusioned with this process and what this policy means, and there are still very real privacy and freedom of speech concerns for our students. However, your voices have influenced the process and helped shape this policy. Parents have rights, and we want to provide some context, perspective and a blueprint for what we can do moving forward.   What this policy means: Restrooms and locker rooms are open to members of the opposite sex if they are gender diverse or transgender. The good news: any requests for individual privacy will be accommodated. Any child can ask for private accommodations if they have concerns with a biological opposite in their private changing area or restrooms.   Accommodations for gender diverse or transgender students in hotel rooms on overnight field trips will require parental notification and consent from potential roommates of the transgender student. Parents must know and give approval for their child to room with a biological opposite. There are still freedom of speech concerns because of the policy mandates that the gender diverse student be addressed by their preferred pronoun. But individuals can, if they are concerned with having to call a biological boy a "she" or a "they" then individuals can choose whether to use a pronoun at all. Charter schools ARE NOT subject to CCSD policy. Charter schools are subject to the state regulation which has not been finalized. The Legislative Committee on Education is meeting on August 30th. If charter school parents want to affect the outcome of the state regulation, they should plan to be at that meeting. We will have more information next week about which lawmakers will be voting on that regulation.     What we can do: Engage your child. Ask your child the important open-ended questions each day about what they are learning, who their friends are, and if anything that happened at school made them sad or uncomfortable. Ask about the good things that happen as well. Communication is the key to helping our children understand and process their educational experience.   Educate your child. It is critical for parents to be aware of how this policy will affect their children at school. Talk to your kids about the policy if they are old enough, and make a plan for any eventuality. Privacy concerns can be addressed with the administration of the school. It is important for parents to have a relationship with school administrators and teachers so that when there are privacy concerns, they can be addressed appropriately and in a timely manner. Empower yourself. Parents are the consumers of CCSD. If they feel the public school system is not working for their family, there are a lot of great choices out there.  Power2Parent will be having school choice events to help educate parents about school choice. ESA's (Education Savings Accounts) are critical to expanded school choice. They must be funded by the legislature. ESA funding should be a campaign issue for every candidate running in the general election. Elections matter.  CCSD Trustees passed this policy and they are elected officials. It is important to know who your trustee is, how to contact him or her, and keep them accountable.       Moving forward, please mark your calendars for August 30th meeting of the Legislative Commission. They will be meeting to review and possibly adopt the regulation language for the statewide policy. Again, thank you for all you do to defend parental rights. Please forward this email to other powerful parents and community members. Respectfully, Erin Phillips, President Power2Parent is a parent-led, non-profit organization. We depend on your generous donations to continue our work defending our fundamental rights in this community and throughout the state. Thank you.   Donate Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2018 Power2Parent, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have expressed an interest in changes to the CCSD Sex Ed curriculum and/or parental rights in Nevada unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences