One function of Safe Schools is to help schools where individual students are transitioning genders. When Rebecca started at her new school, Safe Schools Coalition staff took care of the "nitty-gritty", Natalie said.

"They helped with everything from how to organise enrolment so her confidentiality could be maintained to answering questions from the classroom teacher and the principal about how best to support her."



Rebecca's principal is very supportive, but her classmates do not know she is transgender. If they find out, the plan was to have a Safe Schools Coalition staff member speak to her classmates and help explain what being transgender means.

BuzzFeed News understands that Safe Schools staff will be free to continue their work advising principals and teachers on how to help individual transgender students without gaining the permission of parental bodies or individual parents.



However, from now on, if a transgender student's classmates are involved in the process – as Rebecca's would be, if she is outed – the full parental consent measures will apply.

These changes are frightening for Natalie and Rebecca, because if she is outed and the school P&C doesn't approve the program, 11-year-old Rebecca could be left to explain her identity by herself.

"Before school started this year, my daughter couldn’t sleep. She was frightened about the other kids finding out," Natalie said.

“I don’t think it’s been thought through, the implications of this change."



A spokesperson for the Department of Education confirmed that consent from parents committee and from individual parents as well would be needed for any Safe Schools Coalition discussion in the classroom.

Jo Hirst, the mother of a transgender seven-year-old who transitioned with the help of the Safe Schools Coalition, told BuzzFeed News her reaction to the changes was "horror and shock and bewilderment".