Transgender bathrooms ?status quo? say state officials

The issue over whether or not Iowa Civil Rights Code 216.9 includes the rights of transgender individuals to choose the restroom, locker room or other public facilities that coincide with his or her gender identity or whether or not the federal directive released in May must be adhered to, has seen its share of controversy in Fairfield over the past few months.

However, Marci Dunlap, the district?s curriculum director said, ?guidance must be followed.?

?I keep hearing, ?it?s just guidance,? but that?s what non-lawyers go on when we?re trying to enact the law,? Dunlap said. ?Guidance matters to us. There are consequences that [happen] if we don?t do what guidance tells us to.?

Dunlap said the district went through a routine department of education desk-audit in February, where the school found it needed to update certain materials dealing with its non-discriminatory statements in its public documentation.

The department of education improvement administrative consultant found errors with protected classes in the school?s nondiscrimination notice. The school?s annual notification was missing socioeconomic status, and the student handbook was missing religion, creed, gender identity, and socioeconomic status. The district?s website was also missing the word disability.

?Those were minor word changes that we went in and fixed, but the point is that, the department of education checks it,? Dunlap said. ?Those are just policies, but when practice come into question, the attention heightens, and the main thing is for us to remain compliant for the good of our kids.?

Barb Byrd, the district?s assigned department of education consultant, was unavailable for comment before publication time.

However, The Ledger interviewed Iowa Department of Education school improvement administrative consultant Cindy Butler about the importance of school district compliance.

Butler said the department of education does not check all policies every year, but if a specific district does not meet policy requirements, the district is cited and given time to fix the problem.

?School districts are expected to follow all codes and rules,? Butler said. ?As far as accreditation is concerned, it?s dependent upon more than one policy, but districts are expected to follow policies.?

Dunlap said the district follows the General Accreditation Standards for School Districts, which outlines the rules for maintaining accreditation.

?Iowa Code 281 Chapter 12 requires accredited public school districts to provide equal opportunity for all students including students in protected classes,? Dunlap said. ?I never want Fairfield to be in a situation where it has to figure out losing accreditation. I feel like that?s my responsibility, to make sure we?re being compliant with the governing bodies that make the rules. We are a public entity.?

?Accommodating for unique special needs is not a new practice, but a continuation of our mission to create a positive and safe learning environment for staff and students,? said school superintendent Laurie Noll. ?We actively work to serve all of our students and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, disability, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and socioeconomic status in our educational programs and employment practices.?

However, questions continue to loom about Iowa Civil Right Code 216.9, the interpretation of it and the federal guidance.

?Our position at the [Iowa] Department of Education is that the federal guideline that came down doesn?t really change anything,? said Staci Hupp, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Education. ?We think it?s status quo here. The federal guidance letter is inline with our interpretation of Civil Right [Code] 216.9.?

Hupp said the federal directive enforcing the rights of transgender individuals to make public restroom choices was a clarification of the law that was already being followed.

?Under our interpretation of state civil rights law, you have to let students use the restroom or locker room in which they identify with. If any student, regardless of whether they are transgender or non-transgender, feels uncomfortable with that situation, the school should allow [him or her] to use a separate facility where they feel comfortable,? Hupp said.