Although the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued a joint directive for public schools regarding transgender students last week, Superintendent Bill Husfelt said there will be no noticeable policy changes in the Bay district.

PANAMA CITY — Although the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued a joint directive for public schools regarding transgender students last week, Superintendent Bill Husfelt said there will be no noticeable policy changes in the Bay district.

“It’s not going to change anything we’re doing,” Husfelt said.

The memo clarifies that gender and gender identity are protected under Title IX of the Education Amendments, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs or activities that receive federal funding. It also provides “significant guidance” for district policies regarding transgender students, or students who identify and live as a gender other than the one assigned at birth. Districts that do not comply, the letter reads, are in danger of losing their federal funding.

Husfelt said the district already has informal policies, generally handled on a case-by-case basis, for students identifying as transgender. The student, parents, principals and other district officials meet and craft a solution for both the student and the general student body.

“We’ve been dealing with this for years,” Husfelt said. “We’re going to take care of all our students.”

While the memo covers several points and potential situations, the most controversial policy deals with the use of bathroom and locker room facilities. The policy states a student must be allowed to use the bathroom and locker room consistent with their gender identity, rather than the sex listed on their birth certificate, and transgender students cannot be made to use facilities “inconsistent with their gender.”

As of Tuesday, Husfelt said he had not seen the administration’s directives, so he could not comment on how they compare to the district’s policy. But historically, he said students have been comfortable with being given a third choice, usually a unisex bathroom.

The DOE guidelines do cover the use of a third space, or “individual user option” — though transgender students cannot be required to use such a space and it must be available to all students seeking “additional privacy.”

“We’re going to take each student and make them feel good at school,” Husfelt said. “I think that every educator is going to do that for every child.”

Not following the administration’s guidelines will put districts in danger of losing their federal funding and open them up to potential lawsuits. Several court cases cited in the DOE memo have laid the precedent for transgender student protections under Title IX, and students have sued school districts for not providing access to facilities that align with their gender identity.

In 2011, the National Center for Lesbian Rights successfully filed a complaint against the Arcadia Unified School district in California on behalf of a student who was made to use the nurse’s office for the restroom and locker room after transitioning from female to male.

In April 2016, a transgender student successfully sued the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia under Title IX when the Fourth Court of Appeals ruled that gender identity was protected under the amendment.

Not every district is planning to follow the directives.

“Holmes County Schools will not prescribe (sic) to the directions,” Holmes Superintendent Eddie Dixon wrote in a letter to district employees this week. “This is not a change in law, and we as a school district will not change our practices or policies that are currently in place.”

Gulf District Schools Superintendent Jim Norton has said his district will require students to use restroom and locker facilities consistent with the sex listed on their birth certificate. Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a Title IX lawsuit against Marion County Public Schools for a similar policy.