(C) El Paso Matters.org
This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



El Paso ISD updates student survey after parent backlash, removes question on identifying as transgender [1]

['Claudia Lorena Silva', 'More Claudia Lorena Silva', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']

Date: 2024-12-05

The El Paso Independent School District changed a survey meant to assess student needs and the policies that impact them in response to a backlash over questions related to gender identity and sexual orientation.

These changes include removing a question asking if a student identifies as transgender and limiting demographic questions to the high school level. The survey still includes a question asking high school students their gender identity and gives them the option to fill in a blank and self-identify.

Now a group of parents calling itself Alliance for Parental Rights is asking the district to cancel the EPISD Equity Assessment, claiming it violates parents’ rights by not getting their permission to survey their child and arguing that questions related to gender identity, sexuality and religious background are invasive.

Some parents said they felt EPISD did not give them enough information about the survey or enough notification to opt their students out of taking it.

EPISD sent emails and texts, and made phone calls to parents to inform them about the survey and give them the opportunity to opt-out in late October and early November, said EPISD communication director Sehban Zaidi. He said staff also connected directly with parents to provide information and address questions.

“Our aim is to always ensure that parents are well-informed in an effective way,” Zaidi said.

Some critics of the assessment have incorrectly claimed that surveys for students as young as 8 years old will include questions about gender identity and sexuality. The district previously planned to ask students in grades 6-12 questions about their sexuality and gender identity, but those questions will now be reserved for high schoolers. Students in grades 4-12 will receive some form of survey unless their parents opted them out of it.

A state leading expert on school leadership said school districts do not need to get explicit written consent from parents before conducting these kinds of surveys and that it is within a school district’s purview to make sure that all their students feel safe and supported.

Federal law requires schools to “notify parents of a survey and provide parents with the opportunity to review the materials and opt their child out of the survey if they wish. From what I can tell, parents have been notified, or at least still can be notified, and review (it) before the survey comes out,” said David DeMathews, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.

The survey will be administered to students throughout January.

The district had given families until Oct. 25 to opt their students out of taking the survey, but extended the deadline to Nov. 21 in response to the controversy.

About 2,700 out of 32,700 — roughly 8% — of students eligible to take the survey were opted out, EPISD administrators said.

EPISD initially said it would not share the questions in the survey before giving it to students, saying it would allow them to participate without “preconceived ideas or external influences.”

The district published all three surveys on its website in November, divided into elementary, middle and high school grade levels, after receiving pushback from the Alliance for Parental Rights, and after the media asked to see the survey.

“I believe that they were trying to break the law by not sharing the survey with us. … They said, ‘We’re not going to share the questions because experts say that you parents could bias the survey,’” said Daniel Reynaga, a parent to an EPISD middle school student and a member of the alliance. “It just breeds a lot of distrust.”

While some parents have spoken out against the survey, others say it is essential to ensure EPISD can complete an ongoing equity audit required under a settlement agreement that came from a 2020 lawsuit when the district previously closed elementary schools in Central El Paso. The audit aims to identify shortcomings in the district that prevent students from succeeding and provide recommendations on how to improve.

“The survey is a crucial part of any equity audit because it allows for direct qualitative feedback from a diverse range of individuals within EPISD. We’re asking them about their lived experiences, and their perceptions of fairness regarding not just EPISD’s policies, but their practices,” EPISD parent Diana Ramirez said.

Ramirez is a part of EPISD’s Equity Assessment Advisory Committee, which is made up of students, staff, teachers, parents and community organizations who gave input to help create the survey.

The alliance also raised concerns about the cost of conducting the survey. The EPISD school board voted unanimously in February to pay the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium $215,570 to conduct the assessment.

The settlement agreement requires the district to hire a third party to conduct an equity audit, costing no more than $350,000.

Ramirez said she believes much of the controversy surrounding the survey was politically motivated.

“We are seeing these attacks on the LGBTQ community at the state and federal level. We’re seeing all these bathroom bans and gender-affirming care bans. It’s sad and frustrating that LGBTQ kids in El Paso are also seeing those attacks in their local community,” Ramirez said. “This is exactly why we need an equity audit.”

Reynaga said the alliance is “parent motivated” and is concerned the survey would create division between parents and students, citing a recently signed California law banning schools from notifying parents if their child identifies as transgender. Texas has no such law.

“I believe that this data will be used to change policy and to challenge parental rights,” Reynaga said. “In California, teachers are not required to even notify parents, and that is a violation for me and for many of our group of parental rights, but yet California has managed to establish that as law.”

Though Texas does not have laws about notifying parents of a student’s gender identity, lawmakers previously attempted to ban schools from teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation.

State Republican Executive Committeewoman Christin Bentley said on social media that she would support a bill during the coming legislative session to restrict discussions related to sexual orientation in schools and require parents to opt-in rather than opt-out to any instruction related to risk avoidance or sexuality.

EPISD earlier this year conducted parent and teacher surveys as part of the audit, asking them what they thought of the district’s policies, programs and facilities. It is also holding focus groups with parents, school employees and residents to gather perspectives and experiences around EPISD policies and practices.

“While the current opt-out rate is not high, the surveys are designed to yield meaningful insights even with a smaller response pool. The three surveys, family, staff, and students, are a smaller subset of a much larger data-collection effort in service of the equity assessment,” said EPISD Chief Communications Officer Liza Rodriguez.

Community members can visit the district’s website to inquire about participating in a focus group.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/12/05/episd-removes-transgender-question-equity-student-survey/

Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/