Cheers from the audience over the announcement of Dadalt's acceptance to UCLA became uncomfortable silence and murmers as Dadalt began a long list of her reasons for opposing the policy.

"I do not believe that their students would ever withhold information from their parents unless they were genuinely forced to," she said. "So if you're a parent, and you feel threatened by the fact that your student is going to a teacher instead of you, I think you need to rethink your parenting."

Parent-notification policies that target gender identity have spread to a relatively small number of the state's 1,000 school systems — most commonly in inland, rural or strongly conservative enclaves.

Supporters believe parents have a fundamental right to be involved in all aspects of their children's lives, especially on matters as consequential as gender identification. And they assert that state and federal law gives local school boards the latitude they need to approve such policies — and parents the right to demand them.

Opponents say parental notification policies are being used to violate student privacy and civil rights enshrined in state law and the education code — and that the near-universal outing of transgender students to parents would put some children at serious risk. They say that transgender and other nonconforming students are being singled out as convenient targets for political gain.

This issue is playing out in litigation up and down California.

In this instance, the state Department of Education ordered the Murrieta district, within five days, to provide written notice to all employees and students that the notification policy is "inconsistent" with state education code and will "not be implemented."

Two days later, in an effort to follow those instructions, the district administration sent out an unsigned notice, from the "Murrieta Valley USD Administrative Team," that appears to comply with the state directive.

The notice, dated April 12, said the notification policy had been approved by a 3-2 board vote on Aug. 10, 2023, with the expectation was that developing an internal process to carry out the policy would "take a few weeks to develop."

But it noted such a process "has never been developed, and as such, the policy has not been implemented nor enforced."

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.