A victory for NC transgender students: School records will now list their chosen name
Supporter of transgender students are praising a change that will mean North Carolina public schools switch from using the legal name of students to their chosen name.
The state Department of Public Instruction notified school districts Friday that it’s updating the PowerSchool student information system to add a chosen name field that will now be used on most records. LGBTQ groups had lobbied for the change, saying that using the legal name harmed transgender students emotionally and put them at risk of being outed.
“It really protects the privacy of transgender students and respects their identity,” Craig White, supportive schools coordinator at the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality, said in an interview Monday. “It respects who they are rather than misgendering or misidentifying them.”
The change will go into effect during a system update later this month. The chosen name will now be used on most records such as state reports, student report cards and teacher grade books.
DPI says the only report that will display the legal name is official state transcripts.
LGBTQ rights expand in NC
The change is the latest in a series of victories for the state’s LGBTQ community.
Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, Greensboro, Hillsborough and other North Carolina local governments expanded their anti-discrimination ordinances, following the expiration in December of a previous bill that banned new, local anti-discrimination policies for three years expired Dec. 1.
Citing federal court rulings, the Wake County school board voted in January to expand protections to transgender students and employees in its employment and anti-harassment policies.
White said that his group had been lobbying DPI for the changes to PowerSchool for more than two years. He said it’s becoming even more critical now for the 15,000 to 45,000 transgender North Carolina K-12 students, who are at greater risk of being bullied than other students.
In April 2020, more than 300 students, educators, administrators, parents and students sent a letter to then-State Superintendent Mark Johnson urging him to update the PowerSchool system. They cited how some other states had already made the change to add the chosen name.
Last spring, DPI said it was reviewing the letter. In Friday’s email, DPI said the work to add the chosen name field is now complete.
Ending use of ‘dead names’
White praised DPI and the State Board of Education for the change, saying it will help with school districts that are politically resistant to using the chosen name.
White said that transgender students have been contacting the group since the weekend to say it’s a “world changer” for them. The anxiety and dysphoria of being confronted by their birth name — which some transgender people call their “dead name” — is something transgender students fear, according to White.
It won’t be a change for most students since their legal name and chosen name are the same, White said. But White said it will make a big difference for transgender students who will now see their affirmed name on records.
“There is no downside to this other than showing respect for students,” White said.
