On Monday, September 21st, America First Legal (AFL) filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education regarding South Kingstown School District’s (SKSD) and North Kingstown School District’s (NKSD) transgender student policies. In the South Kingstown complaint, AFL claims that SKSD violates FERPA, Title IX, the U.S. Constitution by allowing students to socially transition without alerting their parents, and by allowing students to use facilities and play on sports teams that align with their gender identity rather than their biological sex. Similar claims are made in the complaint against NKSD.
In their press release about their complaint against SKSD, AFL wrote that they have “asked the Trump Administration to investigate SKSD and require it to rescind or revise the policies in question, make students’ records fully available to parents, and come fully into compliance with the law.
In their press release about NKSD, they wrote “America First Legal is calling on the Departments of Justice and Education to investigate NKSD, require it to rescind policies that conceal student information from parents, restore parents’ full access to their children’s educational records, and come fully into compliance with the law.”
The policies in question are those that have already been heavily scrutinized, not only in school districts throughout Rhode Island, but nationwide as well. Although the laws vary from state to state, the law in Rhode Island regarding trans students is clear, and the relevant policies in North and South Kingstown are already in compliance with both federal and state law.
Currently, there is no legal obligation for schools to go out of their way to disclose a student’s transition to their parents. In fact, a policy stating otherwise would arguably be a violation of FERPA, as explained by the National Women’s Law Center, who stress that “schools are only obligated to share information with parents and guardians under FERPA after a valid request is made.” Furthermore, policies that do force students to be outed to their parents can and do put those students at unnecessary risk. You can read more about our thoughts on these types of policies here.
Additionally, the complaints allege that NKSD and SKSD violate Title IX and requests that their current policies be changed to consist with West Virginia v. B.P.J decision, which ultimately states that it is legal to separate sports teams on the basis of biological sex . However, as we have already explained, there is no legal obligation to change any current policies as a result of this decision either, as policies that do not separate teams on the basis of sex are still in compliance with the law.
Finally, the complaints claim that NKSD’s and SKSD’s trans student policies violate the Constitution, more specifically the 1st and 14th Amendments. While we are not lawyers or Constitutional Law experts, we believe these claims are unfounded, and if anything, the outcome AFL is seeking would likely end up violating the Constitutional rights of trans students.
As frustrating and disappointing as these requests are, right now, they are only requests, and this does not necessarily mean that SKSD and NKSD will be investigated or that any current policies will change. That said, we will be keeping this on our radar and will be sure to keep you updated if and when we find out more information. We will not allow this to happen quietly, and promise to loudly continue to stand up for the trans students in Rhode Island.
