The Rhode Island Department of Education has released comprehensive guidelines to protect transgender students, including language urging schools to allow a student to use the bathroom that corresponds to his or her gender identity.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Rhode Island Department of Education has released comprehensive guidelines to protect transgender students, including language urging schools to allow a student to use the bathroom that corresponds to his or her gender identity.

The guidance isn't a mandate, however.

Individual school districts still have the authority to decide which policies work best for them, according to Elliot Krieger, a spokesman for RIDE. But the guidelines go a long way toward clarifying what the department considers best practices on this politically fraught subject.

In May, the Obama administration issued a landmark directive allowing transgender students to use public school bathrooms that match their gender identity. Although several southern states have already pushed back, Governor Raimondo has thrown her full support behind the missive.

Wendy Becker, interim director of Youth Pride, said Monday she is thrilled to see RIDE protect the rights of transgender youth, adding that her organization helped the department develop its guidelines.

"Many schools in the past month have called Youth Pride for assistance," she said. "They are welcoming the opportunity to provide transgender students with the respect and dignity they deserve. I have no reason to believe that school districts in Rhode Island won't follow these guidelines."

The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday commended the Department of Education for helping to ensure a uniform and lawful approach to transgender rights.

"All students deserve a supportive and non-discriminatory educational environment, and adoption of this guidance will go a long way in promoting and codifying this goal," said Steven Brown, executive director of the local ACLU. "... Treating transgender students with dignity and respect is both required under the law and the right thing to do."

The RIDE guidelines include language that protects a student's privacy. School staff can't reveal a student's transgender status to others, including parents, without the student's permission. The language also urges schools to adopt the name and pronoun of the student's choice.

Transgender students also have the right to dress in accordance with their gender identity.

Addressing the most controversial aspect of transgender rights, RIDE says "Under no circumstances may students be required to use sex-segregated facilities that are inconsistent with their gender identity."

If some students are uncomfortable with a transgender student using the same bathroom, school employees should work with students to "foster an understanding of gender identity and create a school culture that respects and values all students."

Not everyone was pleased with RIDE's guidance, however. Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a conservative policy group, said RIDE has succumbed to federal pressure and "adopted a one-size-fits-all position that may not be compatible with the morals held by many public school families."

Tim Ryan, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Superintendents, said districts would have liked more specificity, perhaps, a model plan: "It's a very challenging and sensitive political environment."

Only one local district, Cumberland, has adopted a policy protecting transgender students, an issue that has led to a legal standoff between the Obama administration and North Carolina, which recently passed an anti-transgender law. Thirteen states plus the District of Columbia ban discrimination against students on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

-lborg@providencejournal.com

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