Florida public school district recommends keeping students’ ‘gender identity’ from parents in LGBTQ support guide

A large public school district in Florida encourages staff to keep students’ “gender identity” and information about “transitioning” from parents in its official support guide.

The guide comes from Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), the sixth-largest school district in the nation, located in Fort Lauderdale.

The guidance frequently addresses when and how to communicate information pertaining to student gender identity and sexuality, recommending students and staff keep such information from parents and “assess” when to share it, despite teachers being informed. 

“It is strongly suggested that school personnel privately ask transgender and gender nonconforming students how they want to be addressed in communications to the home or at conferences with the student’s parents/legal guardians,” the support guide states. 

“In addition, prior to notification of any parent(s)/guardian regarding the transition process, school staff should work closely with the student to assess the degree to which, if any, the parent(s)/guardian will be involved in the process and must consider the health, well-being and safety of the transitioning student.” 

In the wake of Florida’s recent Parental Rights in Education law, which prohibits teaching about sexuality in K-3rd grade, BCPS Superintendent Vickie Cartwright talked about the school’s policies in an interview with a local news station: “If we believe that abuse, abandonment, or neglect is going to occur by telling the parent, and we have a prudence, we don’t have to tell the parent.”  

“This is a partnership. Raising children is not just the role of one person, or just a parent, or a set of parents, or a set of guardians, or caregivers,” Cartwright said, adding that schools should provide “structures” of acceptance and respect. 

The school’s support document includes a “Transgender Planning Guide” which the student and “trusted adult” are instructed to fill out for “initiating use of the affirmed name and pronoun consistent with the student’s gender identity.”  

Guidelines also state that the planning document should not be circulated or kept in education records “with identifiable information.”  

 The support guide is inaccessible to viewers without Broward County Public Schools login credentials but has been archived here.