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  • AI, other education technology can infringe on rights of disabled, LGBTQ students, report warns

    AI, other education technology can infringe on rights of disabled, LGBTQ students, report warns


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    The use of education technology in schools, such as artificial intelligence, digital surveillance and content filters, poses a threat to the civil rights of students with disabilities, LGBTQ students and students of color, a new report released Wednesday warns.

    Some technology used in schools to block explicit adult content and flag students at risk of self-harm or harming others have also created serious problems for already vulnerable students, cautions the report by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for civil rights in the digital world.

    The report is based on a wide-ranging online national survey about the technology used by schools, students and teachers. This summer, the Center for Democracy and Technology polled 1,029 ninth- through 12th-grade students, 1,018 parents of sixth through 12th grade students and 1,005 teachers of sixth through 12th grade students in a sample the organization said was weighted to be “nationally representative.”

    According to the Center for Democracy and Technology, the surveys also indicate widespread confusion about the role of artificial intelligence in the classroom, with a majority of parents, students and teachers saying they want more information and training about how to properly use it.

    Report outlines education technology’s risks to students

    The report outlines how school technology can, often inadvertently, harm students. The Center for Democracy and Technology says these harms are felt most acutely by vulnerable students.

    Students reported incidents of LGBTQ classmates being outed by digital surveillance, a potentially traumatizing event of sharing their sexual identity or orientation without their consent.

    Students with disabilities said they were most likely to use artificial intelligence — and they were more likely to report facing disciplinary action for using it.

    One-third of teachers said content related to race or the LGBTQ community is more likely to be restricted by filters. The center said this “amounts to a digital book ban.”

    Some schools have faced pushback for the way they deployed technology. After the American Civil Liberties Union sued a school district in Texas, the district loosened a filter that had blocked the website of the Trevor Project, a website aimed at LGBTQ youth.

    “There are certain groups of students who should already be protected by existing civil rights laws, and yet they are still experiencing disproportionate and negative consequences because of the use of this education data and technology,” said Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

    Although schools often have dedicated staff and other practices set up to ensure that students’ civil rights are being protected, Laird said its survey indicates that schools have not fully wrestled with how education technology is affecting the promise of an equitable education, resulting in civil rights and technology being treated as separate issues.

    “I think they’ve been kept separate, and the time is now to bring those together,” Laird said.

    Civil rights groups call for more federal guidance

    While schools have been conducting more outreach than in previous years, the survey shows an increase in student and parent concerns about data and privacy over the past year. Survey data collected in previous years shows both parents and students need more outreach and engagement on how schools are selecting and using technology.

    Last October, the White House released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, but civil rights groups — including the ACLU, the American Association of School Librarians, American Library Association, Disability Rights in Education Defense Fund and the Electronic Frontier Foundation — signed a letter accompanying the Center for Democracy and Technology’s report, petitioning the federal Department of Education for more guidance.

    “In the year since the release of the Blueprint, the need for education-related protections remains and, if anything, is even more urgent with the explosive emergence of generative AI,” according to the letter.

    Fifty-seven percent of teachers in the survey stated they haven’t had any substantive training in AI, while 24% say they have received training in how to detect inappropriate use of AI.

    The survey also found that 58% of students have used ChatGPT or other generative AI programs, and 19% said they have submitted a paper written using AI. Students report using AI both for school assignments and for dealing with mental health issues or personal problems with family and friends.

    Students with disabilities are more likely to use generative AI: 72% said they’ve used the technology. Parents of students with disabilities are more likely to say that their students have been disciplined for their use of artificial intelligence. The report calls higher rates of discipline among vulnerable communities “particularly worrisome.”

    These students and their parents — 71% of students with disabilities and 79% of their parents — express more concern than others about the privacy and security of the data collected and stored by the school.

    Licensed special education teachers are more likely to have conversations with students and their parents about student privacy and equity issues in technology, a “promising practice that could be extended to the rest of the school population,” the Center for Democracy and Technology recommends.

    School surveillance’s long arm

    The civil rights issues can go beyond the walls of the school. Some students, particularly students of color and those from lower-income communities are more likely to rely on school-issued devices when they are at home. Monitoring and tracking can therefore follow them home.

    “Their learning environment for those students is quite different than those who can essentially opt out of some of this tracking,” Laird said.

    Students who use technology devices to charge their personal phones may also find that this technology will scan and monitor these personal devices as well. Among students who have used their school device for charging, 51% said school software began syncing with and downloading content from their personal device.

    Monitoring technology became prevalent in the pandemic-era remote learning, but it has persisted, with 88% of teachers reporting their schools use the technology. The White House named preventing the unchecked monitoring of students a priority in its blueprint. The Center for Democracy and Technology says that the use of surveillance technology can cause a host of problems for students.

    Students with disabilities and LGBTQ students are more likely to report being disciplined as a result of technology that monitors them. Laird said that sometimes students are disciplined for something the technology flagged, but other times, they are disciplined because of their reaction to being flagged.

    Schools sometimes share data directly with law enforcement — even after school hours. Fifty-three percent of special education teachers and 46% of teachers in Title I schools said data was shared with law enforcement after hours. During an interview with the Center for Democracy and Technology, the parent of a ninth grader said that law enforcement was contacted even before she was notified when something on her child’s device was flagged by the school’s monitoring technology. Her son was questioned for an hour without her consent.

    “All of those things can result in students being removed from the classroom and losing instructional time,” said Laird. “And so if those students are being disproportionately flagged and being intervened in a disproportionate way, this could also be a potential violation of [a student’s right to a free and appropriate public education], which is specific to preventing discrimination on the basis of disability.”





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  • LGBTQ+ students in conservative crosshairs

    LGBTQ+ students in conservative crosshairs


    Parents rights supporters attend a rally in Simi Valley on Sept. 26. the night before the Republican presidential primary debate.

    Credit: Courtesy of Rebecca Holz / California Policy Center

    LGBTQ+ students are the latest target in a campaign to promote conservative policies in California schools under the banner of parental rights. Over the last two months, seven school boards have passed policies that require school district staff to inform parents if their children are transgender.

    Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County, Murrieta Valley Unified and Temecula Valley Unified in Riverside County, Orange Unified in Orange County, Anderson Union High School District in Shasta County, and Rocklin Unified and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District in Placer County all require that teachers and other school staff inform parents, generally within three days, if a student asks to use a different name or pronoun, or to take part in a program, or to use a facility associated with a gender other than the one they had at birth.

    Other school districts will follow, predicted Jonathan Zachreson, a Roseville City Unified board member and conservative activist. Almost every school district in Placer County, near Sacramento, is expected to consider the policy, he said.

    Proponents of the parental notification policies have said that parents have the right to know what is going on with their children at school and that minors do not have a right to privacy. Opponents say these policies could endanger already vulnerable students who should be able to decide when they want to come out to their parents.

    The flurry of parental notification policies are dividing communities, pitting teachers against students and creating fear and anxiety for LGBTQ+ students. Teachers in those districts find themselves choosing between their jobs and their relationships with students. Some worry if they follow the district policy, and break state law, they could end up in court.

    California’s parental notification board policies have their origin in Assembly Bill 1314, proposed by Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, which was denied a committee hearing at the state Capitol in April. Since then, Essayli has worked with parents rights groups and attorneys to write a model board policy they would like school boards to use in their districts. Each community can customize the model policy to their standards, Essayli said.

    Zachreson, founder of Protect Kids California, is part of that effort. He ran for school board after creating the Reopen California Schools Facebook page for parents frustrated by school closures during the pandemic, and later by masks and vaccination mandates.

    “We will take it district by district,” he said of the parental notification policy.

    Culture wars result in frustration, hostility

    The parental notification policies have divided communities, leaving anger in their wake. On Sept. 6, hundreds of people overflowed the school board chamber at Rocklin Unified in Placer County. Speakers in support and opposition to notifying parents that their children are transgender gave heated and emotional testimony, both sides accusing the other of busing in supporters from outside the community.

    “Look at the division in this room and outside this building tonight,” said Travis Mougeotte, a high school teacher and president of the Rocklin Unified teachers union. “It’s hard to be excellent when we’re focused on things that have nothing to do with the classroom, that have nothing to do with education, have nothing to do with making our classrooms and schools safer and better, inclusive environments for our students.”

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    LGBTQ+ community rallies in solidarity, opposing the Social Studies Alive! ban in Temecula Valley Unified.

    One speaker in opposition to the board policy called it a solution in search of a problem, while others accused the board members of proposing it only to advance their political agenda.

    Board member Tiffany Saathoff disagreed. “I have had parents, I have had teachers, I have had staff members request this policy,” she said.

    LGBTQ+ students anxious about being outed

    These cultural conflicts come on top of a backdrop of anxiety and stress as students settle back into their classrooms after the Covid-19 pandemic, said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at UC Berkeley.

    “I personally have a friend who would not be safe in his home if he came out to his parents as trans,” Asher Palmer, a Rocklin High School student who identifies as LGBTQ, said at the Sept. 6 meeting. “He would not be safe. His siblings would not be kind to him, and his parents would not be kind to him. … I hope you take my words into consideration and understand how unsafe children could become in their own households if this action is approved.”

    Many speakers highlighted the high rate of suicides among LGBTQ+ students. A national survey by the LGBTQ mental health nonprofit Trevor Project in 2022 found that 41% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered killing themselves in the past year. Transgender, nonbinary and people of color reported even higher rates. Less than 40% of LGBTQ youth felt emotionally supported by their families. About half of the 28,000 students surveyed said they felt their schools were gender-affirming, and those who did reported lower rates of attempting suicide.

    Rocklin resident Kurt Weidman spoke in support of the policy. “We believe we are protecting the children from those who destroy their innocence and exploit them for their own purposes,” he said. “On the whole, parents are the best protectors of children and have the natural right and duty for the care, custody and control of their children. Children in the main are naturally incapable of exercising self-governance until they reach the age of majority.”

    The day after the Rocklin Unified vote, many students and teachers wore rainbow ribbons to show support for transgender students. Teacher Mougeotte said that despite the outpouring of support, students in marginalized groups, such as transgender students, were quieter than usual that first day.

    A positive outcome of the debate was that students who may not have discussed gay rights before were having conversations about how the policy, how it affects their classmates and how it could affect other communities of students in the future, Mougeotte said.

    California Democratic leaders fight back

    Attorney General Rob Bonta says parental notification policies break state law and violate students’ civil rights and their right to privacy. He filed a lawsuit against Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County on Aug. 28. Bonta was granted a preliminary injunction to halt the parental notification policy to protect the safety of transgender and gender-nonconforming students while the court case proceeds.

    “The battle line has been drawn here,” Essayli told EdSource. “Somehow the government has decided they are the arbiters of information, and they decide what information parents can be trusted with and which they can’t.”

    Essayli said he would like to see the case get to the Supreme Court.

    “The court will reaffirm our rights and that kids are the domain of their parents and that the government cannot decide what information they can and cannot get,” he said.

    In another decision two weeks after the stay in the Chino Valley case, federal Judge Roger Benitez granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the Escondido Union School District from enforcing state guidance prohibiting school staff from informing parents if their children are transgender. It also forbids the district or state from disciplining the two teachers who are suing Escondido Union for requiring them to keep transgender students’ identities secret.

    Last week, Attorney General Bonta sent guidance to all California school superintendents and school board members reminding them of the Chino Valley Unified restraining order and that the state Department of Justice’s intent to enforce the law remains unchanged. A hearing in the Chino Valley Unified case is set for Oct. 13.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in the state Legislature are pushing back against conservative board policies. Last week, the governor signed legislation that provides all-gender restrooms on school campuses and prohibits book banning and censorship of instructional materials. He also signed a bill requiring schools to train secondary school staff to support LGBTQ+ students and another that would establish a state advisory task force to identify and address the needs of LGBTQ+ students.

    Teachers widely disapprove of notification policies

    Teachers and union leaders have come out as major opponents of parental notification policies, saying they would drive a wedge between educators and students and endanger already vulnerable students. Some teachers in Rocklin Unified, including Mougeotte, say they simply aren’t going to do it.

    “Why are we creating an environment that’s unwelcoming to students?” Mougeotte asked the Rocklin board on Sept. 6. “No matter what happens here tonight, kids that walk into my classroom tomorrow will no longer feel as safe and protected as they did today, no matter what. That’s on you. That’s not on me.”

    Teachers at districts with these policies worry they could lose their jobs if they don’t comply. They are also concerned they could end up in court or have their credentials suspended if they disobey federal and state laws, and policies.

    Commission on Teacher Credentialing officials could not give a definitive answer about whether a teacher would risk suspension or loss of their credentials if they followed board policies that are at odds with state law. Each report of misconduct is assessed to determine whether it should be reviewed by the credentials committee, said Anita Fitzhugh, spokesperson for the commission. The committee would determine whether to recommend an action to the commission, she said.

    Parental rights galvanizing Republican Party

    Across the country, conservatives — initially energized by unpopular pandemic school closures and safety restrictions — are using LGBTQ+ issues and critical race theory to rally supporters. In California, the Republican Party — which has struggled to win state seats for 30 years — has also turned its attention to local races, recruiting, training and endorsing candidates for school boards.

    Parental rights is the overarching issue for the Republican Party, but right now it is focused on the parental notification issue, Essayli said.

    “This is an issue we want to run on in 2024,” he said. “Parental rights transcend culture, language and faith. We had every faith group at the board meeting last night. It’s an 80/20 issue. I welcome this fight. I want the voters to know going into next year.”

    Parent rights proponents say school districts should make decisions for their students and not the state. They say parents are being ignored locally, but at the same time, they are taking direction from well-funded lobbies in Florida, Fuller said.

    “That cuts into their credibility,” he said.

    Parental notification could be on the ballot next year

    Protect Kids California has submitted a statewide proposition to the Attorney General’s Office that would require all state school districts to report transgender students to their parents, no matter what the community in that district or its school board wants. If they manage to collect 550,000 signatures it will go on the ballot in November 2024.

    “Generally, we will default to local school boards, but the issue is that the data we are seeing is harming kids,” said Zachreson, a co-founder of the organization.

    The organization also will ask the public to sign petitions for proposed ballot measures that would prohibit people who were born male from competing in women’s sporting events and another that would prohibit health care providers from prescribing hormones that stop or delay puberty or alter a minor’s appearance for the purpose of changing genders.

    Fuller thinks the initiatives will gain traction.

    “Especially when you have big Republican donors,” he said. “If you buy enough people in front of grocery stores pushing petitions, it’s likely they will get this on the ballot. It will have some appeal on the surface level.”

    What will conservative school boards target next?

    Teachers are worried about what conservative-majority school boards will turn to next.

    “We are really concerned about book bans,” said Mike Patterson, a California Teachers Association board member and South Lake Tahoe High School teacher. “As teachers, we have some academic freedom. We need to stay within the state frameworks, but we still have some academic freedom when we teach. I’m sure they are going to go after academic freedom and want us to go back to scripted learning, which we did a decade ago and was an abject failure. I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that is in our future.”

    Essayli is eying a California law that allows children as young as 12 years old to obtain medical treatment without parental consent in certain circumstances, such as obtaining birth control, treatment of communicable diseases, mental health treatment and treatment for drug or alcohol-related problems.

    But he’s focusing on the parental notification issue for now. “ The school board issue right now is sort of the flashpoint,” he said. “ It’s an issue that is easy to understand and articulate.”

     





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  • U.S. Supreme Court decision worries LGBTQ+ advocates, emboldens conservatives

    U.S. Supreme Court decision worries LGBTQ+ advocates, emboldens conservatives


    A selection of books featuring LGBTQ characters that are part of the Supreme Court case.

    Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File

    California school leaders will face a new reality when students return next month following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday that parents have a constitutional right to remove their children from classes that conflict with their religious beliefs.

    The court’s 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, written by Justice Samuel Alito, gives parents wide latitude in what they can claim conflicts with their religion. It goes far beyond books about gay marriage and gender identity at the heart of the case, which grew out of a dispute involving a Maryland school district, said Edwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Berkeley’s Law School, in an interview Monday.

    Conservative parental activists vow to move quickly to take advantage of the decision.

    In a statement, Jonathan Keller, the president of the California Family Council, called the majority decision “a direct rebuke to the kind of LGBTQ-centered curriculum that has flooded California public schools in recent years. This is our Red Sea moment. God just parted the legal waters. Now it’s up to parents to walk through.”

    Districts will have to scramble to design curriculum notification and opt-out protocols, said Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association.

    “This could be a Pandora’s box,” he said. “Right now, there’s a lot of urgency in the membership, with school really only a little more than a month away.”

    The high court’s ruling gave districts no leeway if parents interpreted that classroom content conflicted with their religious beliefs.

    “A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” Alito wrote.

    Given questions that the court’s conservatives asked during oral arguments in April, Chemerinsky said there was little doubt about the outcome of the case, which involved the Montgomery County Public Schools in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb near Washington, D.C.

    What is surprising, he said, is that the court’s decision  “didn’t have any limiting principle.”

    “Any time a parent has a religious objection to a child being exposed to material, the parent has to have notice and the opportunity to opt out,” Chemerinsky said. He said he thought the court might have found some way to limit the ruling’s impact, “because otherwise it’s going to lead to chaos.”

    A parent, he said, could object to the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution in biology class on religious grounds, citing the Book of Genesis. Or they may opt their child out of an English class if a teacher assigns a book with a witch in it, like “The Wizard of Oz” or “Harry Potter.”

    “Keep in mind how incredibly diverse our country is on the basis of religion,” Chemerinsky said. “There’s a church of Satan.”

    The decision made clear that the court is not limiting what may be taught. But some advocates for LGBTQ+ students are predicting that the result will be a retreat from controversial discussions and books.

    “The ruling sets a dangerous precedent that leads to a slippery slope of what curriculum or instructional materials can be opted out of and calls into question what can be introduced to our classrooms in the first place,” Tony Hoang, executive director of the civil rights group Equality California, said in a statement.

    Decisions will be made under pressure, Flint said.

    “It’s challenging to make this change on a short turnaround during the summer,” Flint said. “But we’re going to do our best to provide information to members and support them. I expect this will bleed over into at least the first part of the school year, if not longer.”

    Changes would likely include “ensuring parents get some kind of advanced notice about curriculum components that touch on controversial topics, gender identity and sexuality being a couple of those,” he said. “There’s not a lot of time.”

    Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District’s board and a candidate in next year’s race for state superintendent of public instruction, told EdSource that the best way to prevent the havoc of parents opting their children out of classes “is to stop teaching gender, ideology and all that other confusion. Boys are boys. Girls are girls.”

    Chino Valley has lost in court on policies Shaw pushed to require parental notification when a student identifies as a different gender. She has claimed that state leaders support policies that “pervert children.”

    State Attorney General Rob Bonta, who brought lawsuits against Chino Valley and who filed a friend of the court brief siding with the Montgomery County School District before the U.S. Supreme Court, said in a statement that California must “affirm and protect the rights of all students, including our most vulnerable individuals. By ensuring our curriculum reflects the full diversity of our student population, we foster an environment where every student feels seen, supported, and empowered to succeed.”

    “In California, we will continue to remain a beacon of inclusivity, diversity, and belonging,” he said.

    The office of state schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond did not respond to a request for comment.

    Anne Hubbard, superintendent of the three-school, 900-student Hope Elementary School District in Santa Barbara County, said she has a tentative plan for how opt-outs could work while she awaits legal guidance on the issue.

    Parents will fill out an opt-out sheet at the beginning of the year if they prefer their child to participate in an alternative activity instead of being in a class where LGBTQ+ issues are being discussed. They’ll go to another classroom, an office or the library, she said.

    But she is not going to stop teachers from using books that involve LGBTQ+ people. “I’m going to be telling the teachers they can read whatever books they want,” she said. “They can have what they want in their classroom libraries.”

    David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association, said that “teachers are going to continue to really focus on making sure that our curriculum makes every student feel safe and nurtured in our schools.”

    “That’s how kids learn. You can’t learn when you feel like you’re not in a safe place,” he said. “Continuing to push people to the margins — that’s not what we do in a democracy or in a pluralistic society that is committed to having every student feel safe and welcomed.”

    However, there is also fear that the ruling could lead to schools banning books or changing curriculum, he added.

    Shaw said she intends to campaign on the issue as next year’s election inches closer and will push back on advocates and teachers who continue to use lessons that include LGBTQ+ materials and literature.





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  • Chino Valley revamps parental notification policy; LGBTQ+ allies fear legal escalation

    Chino Valley revamps parental notification policy; LGBTQ+ allies fear legal escalation


    Chino Valley Unified school board President Sonja Shaw speaks at the parental rights rally in Simi Valley.

    Credit: Courtesy of Rebecca Holz / California Policy Center

    The Chino Valley Unified School District school board voted Thursday to adopt a revamped version of its transgender notification policy, which LGBTQ+ advocates fear would help the district withstand court battles and propel the case to the United States Supreme Court — a possibility previously expressed by Board President Sonja Shaw.

    Unlike the original policy adopted in July, the new policy does not use words like “gender” or “bathroom.” Instead, it broadly states that school officials should notify parents in writing, within three days, if their child requests to change any information in their official or unofficial record. It also cites previous decisions in favor of parental rights. 

    “These policies are rooted in distrust for our schools. And so you know, they’re breaking down these relationships that are essential to schools being successful,” said Kristi Hirst, a district alumna, teacher and parent, who also serves as the the chief operating officer of Our Schools USA — a national organization focused on protecting public education. 

    “What is unclear is what ‘unofficial records’ are, and my hunch is, that’s where…. targeting of transgender students is going to really be seen,” Hirst said.

    Thursday’s board meeting was packed with both supporters of the new policy, as well as members of the district’s teacher’s union, who wore matching red shirts in solidarity. 

    Supporters of the policy also spoke during public comment on Thursday with one of them claiming that the “initiative” would put an end to puberty blockers supposedly being administered and prevent “boys entering into women’s/girls’ spaces.” 

    One speaker told the board, “Safe teachers don’t lie to parents. Safe teachers don’t keep secrets from parents. Thank you for protecting our kids against unsafe teachers.”

    “Parents love and know kids best. Calling a parent abusive for wanting to get their child the proper psychological help is completely ignorant.” 

    Both the previous and new versions of the policy stress the district’s commitment to foster trust between schools and parents. They also share the same three statements of intent: to maintain trust between schools and families, involve parents in decisions about their child’s mental health and increase communication and build positive relationships that can positively impact student outcomes. 

    The older version of the policy which passed in July would have required school staff to notify parents within three days in writing if their child asks to use a name or pronoun that is different from what is on their official student record. Parents would also have to be informed if their child wishes to access sex-segregated spaces that do not align with their biological sex or request to change anything on their official or unofficial record. 

    Under the new policy, however, parents would only be notified of the following: 

    • Requests to change official or unofficial records. 
    • Extracurricular or co curricular activities their student is involved in.  
    • Physical injuries at school or during school sponsored activities.

    Both policies share the same guidelines in cases where a student experiences bullying, is involved in a physical altercation or has suicidal intentions. 

    “The updated policy strikes a balance between two important principles—prioritizing students’ well-being and upholding parents’ rights—and ensures that parents are kept informed every step of the way,” Shaw said in a Liberty Justice Center statement released Friday. 

    Chino community members have repeatedly claimed that such policies in Chino Valley Unified and beyond are detrimental to the mental and physical well-being of LGBTQ+ students. 

    A crisis hotline launched on Aug. 5 by Rainbow Youth Project USA and Our Schools USA has received nearly 650 calls since Chino Valley Unified passed its transgender notification policy, the Los Angeles Blade reported. 

    “All the students who have come to speak about this, they are hearing that rhetoric,” Hirst said, adding that the board’s decisions have fostered a climate of “mistreatment.”  

    “That is 100% going to filter down to schools, and it is. Your leaders, when they breathe that hate into the air, it spreads, and you can feel it.” 

    Hirst added that her daughter, who attends district schools, has also noticed an increase in physical fights and bullying against LGBTQ+ students. 

    Before the policy’s passage, “no one cared,” she said. 

    “There’s no teacher who has these nefarious intentions to kids and hides things from their parents. Nobody’s doing that. . . They [teachers] are constantly working to get parent volunteers and parent involvement.” 

    The lead up 

    In November 2022, voters elected a conservative majority to the Chino Valley Unified School District school board, with three members connected to Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, led by Pastor Jack Hibbs.

    The board voted in June to ban pride flags and in November passed a policy to have a panel remove books it believes to be “sexually inappropriate.” In July, Chino Valley Unified became the first district to pass a policy that would require school officials to notify parents if their child shows any sign of being transgender, which has since spread to other districts, and originated from Assembly Bill 1314, proposed by Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, which was denied a hearing at the state level. 

    The district’s board meetings have also drawn the attention of conservative groups such as Leave Our Kids Alone, a group that travels to various school board meetings to advocate “age appropriate curriculum” and to oppose curriculum and practices they view as indoctrination. 

    State Superintendent Tony Thurmond attended the board’s July meeting to speak out against the transgender notification policy during public comment but was kicked out of the meeting. 

    In August, California Attorney General Rob Bonta launched a civil rights investigation and filed a lawsuit against the district. Two months later, a San Bernardino County judge blocked the district from enforcing the policy, arguing it “treats otherwise similar students differently based on their sex or gender identity.”

    During the closed session of Thursday’s meeting, members of the board met with two law firms: The Liberty Justice Center and Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud, and Romo (AALRR) about the ongoing litigation. 

    Last September, the board hired The Liberty Justice Center — known for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court labor case Janus v. AFSCME — to provide them with pro-bono legal representation. 

    An argument for teacher support

    For teachers in the Chino Valley Unified School district, discussions about the transgender notification policy are inseparable from a push for better wages. 

    If the board has hundreds of thousands to spend on legal fees, it has the money to bargain in good faith and provide a Cost of Living Adjustment, the teachers union has argued. And on Feb. 22, the union declared an impasse. 

    “We can’t hire teachers; we can’t attract them. We have all these openings. We have parents coming to our board meetings complaining about violence in our schools that’s not being addressed. We have parents coming in complaining about rampant racism in our schools that’s not being addressed, bullying that’s not being addressed,” Hirst said. 

    “And so we have real issues that need to be addressed, and instead, all of our resources and time and energy is going on these culture war issues that don’t improve our schools.”

    In November, public records published by the Sacramento Bee and acquired by Our Schools USA found the district tripled their legal fees to AALRR since July, when they passed the first iteration of their transgender notification policy. In July, the Chino Valley Unified School District paid AALRR $30,903. 

    Those fees soared, amounting to $104,867 in August and $54,988 in September, in addition to the $307,000 spent during the 2022-23 academic year. 

    “We’d rather be home tonight grading papers, planning lessons, maybe trying to have some time with our families,” said Steven Frazer, the organizing committee chairperson for Associated Chino Teachers. “But it’s important that we’re here. It’s important that the board understands that we’re united in standing up for our rights, for student rights and just for what’s right.”

    Two weeks ago, hundreds of district teachers rallied for the cause — and made their voices heard again before Thursday’s meeting. 

    “I know this community really well. I love this community. And I’m watching the most beloved teachers just really struggling and wanting to leave,” Hirst said. 

    “There’s nothing in my kids’ educational experience that is as impactful as the quality of the teachers they have access to. And I’m really concerned that we’re not going to attract the best anymore.”

    This story has been updated to include a statement from Chino Valley Unified School Board President Sonja Shaw.





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  • LAUSD unanimously affirms support for immigrant and LGBTQ+ students leading up to Trump’s inauguration 

    LAUSD unanimously affirms support for immigrant and LGBTQ+ students leading up to Trump’s inauguration 


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

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    As anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric spread across the nation in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election for presendent, the Los Angeles Unified School District board affirmed its commitment to members of these communities by unanimously passing four resolutions on Tuesday.

    “The district will continue to do everything in its power to protect and defend the kids in our care,” one of the resolutions reads. “Doing so is the responsibility of all LAUSD employees.” 

    Here’s an overview of LAUSD’s efforts from Tuesday’s regular board meeting and what to expect in the two months leading up to Trump’s inauguration. 

    LAUSD as a sanctuary district 

    After Trump vowed to declare a national emergency and bring in the U.S. military to facilitate mass deportations, the district passed a resolution reaffirming that it will remain a sanctuary and safe zone for families. 

    “We survived the pandemic because we stood together,” said Mónica García, who authored the original sanctuary resolution in the 2016-17 academic year and previously served as the president of LAUSD’s board. “… It is so important that, as we may see policies that we do not support … that we stand together in response to the times.”

    Tuesday’s action comes about eight years after the original sanctuary resolution passed; it also requires district Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to present a plan to the board within 60 days, in time for implementation by Jan. 20, when Trump returns to the White House. 

    The resolution says Carvalho’s plan should involve training LAUSD educators, administrators and staff on responding to federal agencies and anybody else who seeks information or attempts to enter a campus. 

    Meanwhile, the resolution insists that LAUSD will “aggressively oppose” any laws forcing school districts to work with federal agencies and personnel involved with immigration enforcement. 

    “The good news is that we have seen it before, and we are in a position to act,” García said at Tuesday’s meeting. “The challenge … [is] there are families who are separated and who are traumatized because of the fear of what is to come. And we will continue to ask them to come to school and give us their very best.” 

    She added, “Whether it is two years or it is four years, it is every day that we exercise love and the power of this institution on behalf of children and families.”  

    A safe place for LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities 

    The second resolution would require LAUSD to add gender identity and expression to the list of groups covered by its “To Enforce the Respectful Treatment of All Persons” policy and require the district to update district policy bulletins as needed.  

    It also calls on the district to support legislation backing immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities — and to provide educational and mental health resources. 

    A response to Project 2025 

    A third resolution passed Tuesday promises that LAUSD will remain “inclusive, safe, and welcoming” for all communities in the face of any “immediate, incalculable, and irreparable harm” to public schools caused by Project 2025, a set of detailed policy proposals authored long before the election by hundreds of high-profile conservatives in the hope that Trump would push them if elected.

    It states that LAUSD will defend all students’ right to a public education and protect them from potential harm. 

    Carvalho will have to report back to the board within 60 days — and present an overview of the potential impacts of Project 2025 as well as a district response, the resolution states.  

    “This resolution is a bold and necessary shield against the looming threats to public education — a public good that we must protect fiercely and defend,” board member Rocío Rivas said Tuesday. 

    A new political education course 

    The fourth resolution emphasizes the importance of turning LAUSD students into critical thinkers capable of discerning facts from falsehoods and ready to participate in the American political system.

    “We’re not talking about [being] a Democrat or a Republican,” said board President Jackie Goldberg, who authored all four resolutions, during her last full board meeting Tuesday. “It’s about understanding the actual way the government works — as opposed to what the Constitution says. And there’s a big difference.”

    The resolution asks Carvalho to look into creating a high-level political education course and report back to the board in 160 days. 

    His considerations, according to the resolution, would include whether the course would serve as a requirement, areas that the curriculum would cover, the types of professional development that would be needed and the ideal grade levels to teach it. 

    The resolution also asks Carvalho to consider any other curricular changes in the grade levels leading up to the course to make sure students are prepared. 

    Anely Cortez Lopez, student board member, said at Tuesday’s meeting, “The understanding of the political landscape of the United States is vital in our schools as we continue as the change-makers of tomorrow.”





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  • Conflict over race, LGBTQ issues cost schools more than $3 billion last school year

    Conflict over race, LGBTQ issues cost schools more than $3 billion last school year


    Conservative groups and LGBTQ+ rights supporters protest outside the Glendale Unified School District offices in Glendale on June 6, 2023. Several hundred people gathered at district headquarters, split between those who support or oppose teaching that exposes youngsters to LGBTQ+ issues in schools.

    Credit: Keith Birmingham/The Orange County Register via AP

    Conflicts between parents, teachers and school leaders over parental rights policies focusing on LGBTQ+ students, limitations on teaching about race and racism, and book bans have come with a cost — both socially and financially.

    The conflicts are disrupting school districts, negatively impacting schools and classrooms, and costing districts money that could be used to better serve students, according to “The Costs of Conflict, The Fiscal Impact of Culturally Divisive Conflicts on Public Schools in the United States,” released last month.

    Researchers from UCLA, the University of Texas at Austin, American University and UC Riverside conducted a national survey of K-12 public school superintendents from 46 states — 467 in all — and found that these conflicts are prevalent.   

    Since the 2020-21 school year, uncivil discourse and hostile political rhetoric at school board meetings and on school campuses has been an ongoing problem. Two-thirds of the school superintendents surveyed for the study said they have experienced moderate to high levels of culturally divisive conflict in their districts, including misinformation campaigns, violent rhetoric and threats.

    Cultural conflicts cost U.S. school districts about $3.2 billion last school year, according to the study. Researchers estimate that districts with high levels of conflict spent about $80 per student. Districts with moderate levels of conflict spent $50 per student, and districts with low conflict spent $25 per student.

    “This is costing us general fund dollars,” said a superintendent from a midsize school district in a Western state. “In the 2023-24 school year, the district spent an additional $100,000 on security, hiring armed plainclothes off-duty officers … because people coming to the board meetings are unpredictable and sometimes violent.” 

    Researchers allowed superintendents to remain anonymous in the report.

    The superintendent also said the district spent more than $500,000 in legal fees on lawsuits associated with a board member and a campaign against the LGBTQ+ community, and lost $250,000 in outside funding from social services organizations because of the dispute. It also spent $80,000 on recruiting and training new staff to replace teachers, counselors and administrators who left because they did not want to work in such a divisive setting. 

    “Culturally divisive conflicts have substantial costs to the public and to our capacity as a state to mount quality learning experiences for all students,” said John Rogers, director of the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access and lead researcher on the report. “It has a fiscal cost that we’ve tried to lay out with some specificity, and it has broader social costs as well — there’s an undermining of social trust, there’s a deepening sense of stress and all of this is hugely consequential for how educators experience public schools and how young people are experiencing public schools.”

    Costs of conflict can’t always be counted in dollars

    Average-sized school districts of about 10,000 students spent about $811,000 each last school year to cope with cultural division, according to the study. The money was spent on legal fees, added security, additional staff time and on community, school board and government relations. Districts also incurred indirect costs because of staff turnover related to the conflict and because staff had to take time away from their other duties to deal with discord.

    According to the survey, the largest expense for districts with cultural conflict came from staff turnover, with districts of about 10,000 students spending between $148,000 and $461,000, depending on the level of conflict. 

    One superintendent said that cultural conflict has caused “incredible stress on leaders and teachers as they navigate imaginary slights and online drama in the community.” A Pennsylvania superintendent called the emotional stress and anxiety “nearly crippling.”

    “This research makes clear that culturally divisive conflicts in the nation’s schools are generating fear, stress and anxiety that is disrupting school districts and taking a personal toll on the educators and staff members who work in them,” Rogers said. 

    The stress has also led to increased staff absenteeism at schools, even in districts with lower levels of conflict, according to the report.

    Half of the superintendents surveyed said they had been personally harassed at least once during the school year. Ten percent reported being threatened with violence, and 11% had their property vandalized.

    As a result, superintendent turnover has also increased — from 14.2% to 17.1% — over the past four years. More than 40% of the superintendents who left their jobs in the last year said their decision was related to conflict, stress and politics, according to the report.

    “The relentless demands of leading a district can easily overshadow their own well-being, which, if neglected, not only affects their personal health but also the health and stability of students, educators, and families they serve,” said Rachel S. White of the University of Texas at Austin in a statement. “Reducing the extent to which superintendents experience unwarranted divisiveness is an important step to change the trajectory of increasing superintendent churn.”  

    Superintendents who were surveyed expressed concern that the time they spent managing cultural conflict, including responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, and unsubstantiated rumors and misinformation, is keeping them from focusing on improving instruction.

    California not immune to divisive conflict

    Rogers said that while cultural conflict wasn’t as common in California as in other parts of the country in 2021-22, it has grown over the last few years.

    Donald Trump’s election is likely to bring more cultural division to school campuses, Rogers said.

    “I think that a Trump victory will lead some on the right to take a message that these sorts of cultural attacks, that have been playing out across the United States and across California in the last couple of years, are an effective strategy for mobilizing the base and for energizing the electorate,” said Rogers, in an interview the day before the election.

     “A Trump victory will mean that Donald Trump will have more of a presence in our public life in the months to come. And so, that too will mean that he will be using language and framing that will further activate attacks on public schools around these culturally divisive issues.”





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