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Matt Weyer, “Engaging Families in Education” (Washington: National Conference of State Legislatures, 2015), available at http://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/Documents/educ/Engaging_Families_Education.pdf. In military gear, some items have just one size (but smaller or larger people have already been excluded from military service). The parents at his school agree. “Knowing information up front helps your child and helps the parents as well,” said Lesa Holt, a parent of a Lanier senior. “If more parents were involved with their child’s education, it would help with grades and social life.” 2 As a result of parents’ involvement and Williams’ commitment to family engagement, Lanier was named a 2018 National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) School of Excellence, 3 an honor awarded to schools “in recognition of their commitment to building an inclusive and welcoming school-community where all families contribute to enriching the educational experience and overall well-being for all students.” 4 Advocates of “affirmative care” tend to downplay the risks of iatrogenic harms resulting from inappropriate transitions and minimize the seriousness of the resulting harms by describing them as merely “cosmetic” (Turban & Keuroghlian, 2018). In stark contrast to these assertions, we are seeing increasing numbers of patients who feel deeply traumatized by inappropriate transitions. They suffer from irreversible physical changes, including alterations to their genitals and sexual function, sterility, painful vaginal atrophy, chest/breast alteration and scarring, deepening of the voice, unwanted permanent changes to facial hair growth, male-pattern baldness, urinary incontinence, and other lasting effects. Apart from the distress that these changes cause, they also negatively impact many areas of their lives, including their ability to form a stable gender identity (many feel trapped in a “gender no-man’s land”), to find romantic partners and supportive social networks, to bear children, or to secure employment. The process of coming to terms with these consequences of their transition is psychologically difficult and can be profoundly painful. Given the absence of robust long-term evidence that the benefits of biomedical interventions outweigh the potential for harm, especially among young people (Heneghan & Jefferson, 2019), it is self-evident that the least-invasive treatment options should be pursued before progressing to more risky and irreversible interventions. To the extent that psychological treatments can help an individual obtain relief from GD without undergoing body-altering interventions, ensuring access to these interventions is not only ethical and prudent but also essential.

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, “PACER Center, Inc., Minnesota Statewide Family Engagement Center,” available at https://oese.ed.gov/files/2018/10/U310A180001-PACER-Center-Inc.-Abstract.pdf (last accessed January 2020).Learning Heroes, “Who We Are,” available at https://bealearninghero.org/about/ (last accessed January 2020). Christine Olmstead, “Using Technology to Increase Parent Involvement in Schools,” TechTrends 57 (6) (2013): 28–37, available at https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1040184. Churcher Clarke, A., & Spiliadis, A. (2019). ‘Taking the lid off the box’: The value of extended clinical assessment for adolescents presenting with gender identity difficulties. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 24(2), 338–352. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104518825288. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month.

The survey asked parents, teachers, and school leaders to gauge their perceptions of communication. Most parents, teachers, and school leaders reported that communication was clear and actionable and that schools provided the right amount of information. (see Figure 1) Specifically, more than three-fourths of parents, teachers, and school leaders agreed or strongly agreed that communication was actionable, and more than one-half responded that the amount of information shared with parents was “just right,” as opposed to too much or too little. In line with previous research, school leaders were the most positive in their reported levels of engagement, frequency of communication, and the value of the systems that are used. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2014–2017). Behavioral risk factor surveillance system survey data. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved September 7, 2020 from https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/data_documentation/index.htm. Politically, the phrase has come to mean that methods of administration or political beliefs in one country should not necessarily be applied to another. in the literacy practices of home and school” (New Orleans: Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 2000), available at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED439409.pdf; Gerardo R. López, Jay D. Scribner, and Kanya Mahitivanichcha, “Redefining Parental Involvement: Lessons From High-Performing Migrant-Impacted Schools,” American Educational Research Journal 38 (2) (2001): 253–288, available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/3202459?seq=1.

Sharice Stevens, parent of a Sidney Lanier High School student, personal communication with authors via phone, November 22, 2019, on file with authors. EdNavigator, “Muddled: How Confusing Information from Schools Is Failing American Families” (New Orleans: 2018), available at https://medium.com/ednavigator/muddled-78ce70407fda. If anything other than “affirmation” is viewed as GICE, it follows that the provision of psychotherapy in these clinical scenarios would be seen as harmful conversion efforts. Yet these therapeutic interventions do not aim to convert or consolidate an identity, but instead aim to help individuals gain a deeper understanding of their discomfort with themselves, the factors that have contributed to their distress, and their motivations for seeking transition (Bonfatto & Crasnow, 2018; D’Angelo 2020a). These exploratory questions are consistent with the principle of therapeutic neutrality—a cornerstone of ethical psychotherapy (Simon, 1992). In fact, both “conversion” and “affirmation” therapy efforts carry the risk of undue influence, potentially compromising patient autonomy. In contrast, the provision of a neutral, unbiased psychotherapeutic process that allows these patients to clarify their feelings and assess the various treatment options, which range from non-invasive to highly invasive, irreversible procedures, is arguably the only way that meaningful informed consent for the latter can be obtained (Levine, 2018). Using differentiated instruction is not about separating students or creating one lesson plan for many. It’s about assessing student needs throughout the year. While one lesson plan will help several students at one point, another lesson plan may not work for the rest. Assessing students’ needs does not need to be cumbersome. It can be as simple as noticing non-verbal clues in the classroom to written work. Denise Yull and others, “Can We Talk? Using Community-Based Participatory Action Research to Build Family and School Partnerships with Families of Color,” School Community Journal 24 (2) (2014): 9–32, available at https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1048538.pdf.

In 2019, the Center for American Progress surveyed more than 900 parents who were mostly representative of the public school student population, more than 400 teachers, and more than 400 school leaders, including principals and other administrators. The survey aimed to better understand what type of information the respondents believe is important for schools and teachers to communicate to parents; how often they currently receive or share that information; how often they believe that information should ideally be shared; and what types of platforms or communication tools are most helpful for sharing information. (see Appendix for more detailed information on the full survey sample and methodology) There are grade-level differences in the frequency and importance of different types of information, but there were few differences among parents by race and ethnicity or income. Hosin Sirvani, “The Effect of Teacher Communication with Parents on Students’ Mathematics Achievement,” American Secondary Education 36 (1) (2007): 31–46, available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41406096.pdf.Focus on parents and families as crucial partners in federal education programs. Parent involvement is frequently discussed at the student or school level, but parents have long advocated for educational change at the state and national levels. 72 The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act stipulates that parents must consent to an evaluation for special education, have the ability to request an evaluation, and participate in the development of an individualized education program for their child, if needed. In addition to ESSA’s Title I, which sets aside funds for parent engagement, ESSA also requires that parents are consulted during the development of state and district plans and that state report cards are provided in a language that parents understand. 73 The U.S. Department of Education should help districts adhere to this requirement, and federal education policy should consider parent input and advocacy in the creation of new programs; strengthen language about parent partnership to signal to states and districts that engagement is a priority; and provide resources and guidance for both parent engagement and parent involvement in the development of new state or district initiatives.