May 24, 2024

Senate Education Committee

1021 O Street, Suite 6740

Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Opposition to AB 1955

While Students First California appreciates the bill’s authors for taking up this important issue to schools, parents, and students, the bill’s approach is misguided. Any legislation on the topic of supporting children with gender identity issues should always error on the side of involving parents.

There is a reason courts have consistently affirmed parents as having a fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of their children. Parents know and care for their children more than anyone else and are ultimately responsible for them in every setting – school, home, and elsewhere.

Notifying and involving parents in something as paramount as when a school takes an active role in socially transitioning a child is critical for the well-being of children and for maintaining trust between schools and parents. AB 1955 would do the opposite by prohibiting schools from enacting or enforcing policies to bring parents into the process of supporting their own children and would strengthen policies meant to keep secrets from parents. This bill would erode trust between schools and parents and further exacerbate enrollment issues schools are facing.

Additionally, parents of students under 18 years old in public schools have an absolute right to access all records related to their children and the editing or withholding of any of those records is prohibited(Education Codes 49069.7, 49070, and 49061). These records include the gender and name in which the child goes by at school regardless of if the gender or name matches a student’s official government documents. AB 1955 would enable and strengthen policies that violate this right.

Lastly, several teachers’ first amendment rights have been violated from forced secrecy policies which this bill would strengthen. This has led to costly litigation for school districts. AB 1955 would put schools at legal and financial risk as courts thus far have found the approach this bill takes as unconstitutional and violates the rights of both parents and teachers.

For these reasons, Students First California strongly opposes AB 1955.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Zachreson

President, Students First California