Thursday, July 14, 2016
A public forum for Fairfax County Public Schools Board members to discuss how they should review new regulations concerning the treatment of transgender students has been canceled.
FCPS spokesperson John Torre said Chair Pat Hynes decided there was sufficient support from other board and community members to take the regulations to a work session and forego the forum.
The forum was scheduled to take place around the board’s regular business meeting on July 14.
The regulations, which were emailed to School Board members in the last two weeks, are meant to be a guide for administrators and staff to consistently facilitate gender identity being added to the school system’s nondiscrimination policy in May 2015.
Hynes called the regulations “comprehensive” and consistent with the policy change, while other members have been critical that they’re too limited in what they explain and leave unexplained.
The work session will allow the board to have a more substantive dialogue, and in a public setting.
Monday July 18 is the next scheduled all-day work session, beginning at 10 a.m. at FCPS headquarters on Gatehouse Road in Merrifield.
Torre said it’s possible the transgender regulations could be added to the agenda then, but he wasn’t able to confirm before print time.