Edison among largest NJ school districts to drop state trans policy

🔳 Another NJ school district drops policy on trans students

🔳 Edison among largest districts to repeal state guidance

🔳 LGBTQ advocates criticize lack of public comment

UPDATE: At its Oct. 29 meeting, after public comments, the board voted to retain Policy 5756.

EDISON — One of New Jersey’s largest public school districts was the latest to move toward dropping the state’s recommendation on dealing with transgender students without notifying parents or guardians of a child’s preference for gender identity.

The Edison School Board of Education voted 5-3 to repeal Policy 5756 at its Sept. 30 meeting, with one of the board’s nine members absent.

A second vote would be needed to finalize the move, the schools superintendent said in a statement following the meeting, Tapinto reported.

About an hour into the session, the issue was broached by the board despite not having been on the public agenda, which advocates for LGBTQ rights have reported to the state as "troublesome."

"6-12% of Edison's population is LGBTQ and if the removal of this policy results in even one instance of school staff outing a student who lives in an unsafe home situation, we firmly believe that is one too many and, was fully preventable," Garden State Equality Director of Advocacy and Organizing Lauren Albrecht said in a longer statement to New Jersey 101.5 on Monday.

The full response is below.

One of the members who voted against the policy repeal said that while she does not agree with the policy "in the least," she did not want to act until she had read an attorney’s recommendation.

SEE ALSO: 'Bombshell' admission over NJ school trans policy 

Over a year ago, the state Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the policy for schools to honor a student’s gender preference without notifying parents of a change was merely "guidance," not a requirement.

RELATED: NJ schools trans student policy attracts some Democrat attention

In fall 2023, Hanover’s school board was the first in the state to approve rescinding state guidance policy 5756 — followed by Colts Neck and Lacey.

Read More: What NJ poll says about students' transgender identity in school

Following a law signed by then-Gov. Chris Christie in 2017, Policy 5756 was first developed in 2018 from guidelines by the state Department of Education.

In recent years, the policy has become a partisan issue as New Jersey school board participation has often become tangled with culture war issues.

In at least one district earlier this year, a school board considered readopting policy 5756 after a previous vote to repeal when there were different board members.

The full response from Garden State Equality is as follows:

"We're extremely concerned about both the procedure and end result by which the Edison Board of Education revoked transgender student guidance, which is why we activated our network on the night it happened. After learning of this development Monday night, we immediately contacted the board and Superintendent to flag for them that they did not proceed in a transparent and legal manner and to provide education on this crucial policy, and the next day, we joined with our partners at ACLU to send another formal letter advising of the negative effects of removing this policy and the potential legal ramifications of "outing" students against their will.

 

For the past week, we've been working with our partners on the ground in Edison, and particularly with our colleagues at Desi Rainbow Parents and Shiv's 3rd Eye on a letter-writing and publicity campaign to educate the Board of Education members who voted to repeal the voluntarily-adopted policy that assists school staff in the highly-nuanced and sensitive situation in which a student may disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity but is not "out" at home, which is most likely due to the student feeling safe at school and not at home.

 

All data shows that this is in the best interest of student safety and that providing a safe space for a student to come out on their own is a key component in lowering rates of LGBTQ youth homelessness.

 

This action was taken, per our review of the video and agenda, with no notice, which is in violation of New Jersey's Sunshine Act. Garden State Equality recently participated in Edison's Pride Celebration, and we have viewed Edison as a great place for LGBTQ residents for many years.

 

Revoking this policy sends a very strong message to the contrary, and this is an incongruous act for a municipality in a progressive area with a very diverse community. 6-12% of Edison's population is LGBTQ and if the removal of this policy results in even one instance of school staff outing a student who lives in an unsafe home situation, we firmly believe that is one too many and, was fully preventable. We hope that this action only reflects the politically-motivated viewpoint of these 5 Board members and not the community as a whole."

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