CASPER, Wyo. — The Natrona County School District Board of Trustees had no choice.
The 2024 Legislature passed a Parent Bill of Rights that would require all school districts to create similar policies that primarily affect educators.
The board met Monday at the district’s central services facility, 970 N. Glenn Road, and tried to take a middle-ground approach.
Some who spoke with the board during the public comment session didn’t like it, sometimes for completely different reasons.
Board Chairman Kevin Christopherson noted that school districts had no choice and blasted the state Legislature.
“This is ridiculous,” Christopherson said. “You can’t pass a law that’s this vague and doesn’t have any sense of what the law was written for.”
The law, the rationale and the resulting policy are all vague, Christopherson said, and it’s an insult to local school districts for them to push through the policy in such a short time before the law goes into effect on July 1. “Shame on you.”
Board member Kayla Alvey introduced the policy during its second and final reading, saying much of the content of the new policy already existed in other policies.
“Teachers are the ones that are in direct contact with students, so we made sure to keep it a little bit bigger so that teachers can get the most out of the knowledge,” Alvey said. “It’s going to be a learning curve for everybody, so we want teachers to go easy on us because this is something new.”
This policy was adopted by the Joint Interim Committee on Education. Senate File 9Wyoming Statute 21-3-135, which goes into effect July 1st.
WS 21-3-135 is described as “notifying parents regarding the educational, mental and emotional health of students, student welfare, procedures, and prohibitions of the school district.”
District 7 page document The policy begins with the following preamble: “The Natrona County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees, Natrona County School District No. 1 recognizes the right of parents to make decisions regarding the care and control of their children. This policy is intended to outline parental rights regarding student notification and records, including the rights set forth in Wyoming Statute 21-3-135. Parents and guardians will be notified annually of their right to file a complaint if they believe the rights set forth in this policy have been violated.”
State Rep. Janet Ward (R-57th House District) told the board she actively participated in developing WS 21-3-135. Ward said the bill was inspired by an incident in another school district where a young student was put on a path of “social transition” without the parents’ knowledge, violating parental rights such as using a different name and pronouns.
Ward said he liked the committee’s approach.
But the policy was written in a way that allowed school district officials to conceal students’ transition wishes from parents, which she added was one of the most important reasons the law was enacted in the first place.
“I am disappointed that the proposed definition of ‘change’ in the definition of a student’s physical, mental and emotional health and well-being does not include a preference to be referred to by a different name or pronoun. That was the whole point of Senate File 9, ‘Parent Rights in Education,’ so please consider addressing this concern,” Ward said.
Dirk Andrews, president of the Natrona County Education Association, denounced the whole thing, saying he understands that school districts have to adopt the policy but is disappointed that the Legislature decided to pass the new law without consulting educators.
“That being said, this policy will put additional strain on educators,” said Andrews, the kindergarten teacher.
Kindergarten teachers will have social studies standards that focus on the family unit and will require parents to “opt in” to teach them, he said.
“Secondly, this policy essentially violates a student’s right if educators have actual knowledge and require them to tell parents or guardians,” he said. “This creates a barrier between educators’ ability to connect with students and ends up alienating them at a time when students need us most.”
Andrews pointed out the irony in lawmakers and their stance on local control in education: “I like how Wyoming values local control, and it seems to be becoming more and more prevalent now,” he said.
Educators will likely need to undergo training because some people will try to catch them doing something wrong, Andrews added.
Jennifer Hopkins said she supports the new policy but has doubts about what Andrews and other critics are saying.
“Hopefully it won’t become too much of a big deal. I hope so,” Hopkins said. “Parents just need to be informed of what’s going on and what is being taught in certain subjects.”
Michael Steadley said he intends to make statements that do not violate the law, referring to trustees who have been told to always follow the law.
WS 21-3-135 doesn’t become law until July 1, Steady said, “so I’m happy to vote against this policy that supports what will become law that I don’t support.”
Thomas-Miler said he generally supports the policy and that the district has done a good job of supporting parents’ rights, but he disputed the assertion that the policy has little impact on teachers.
“I think it’s a bit ironic that while some members of Congress want to limit what teachers can focus on teaching, we now have policies and bills that require teachers to do more than just teach,” he said.
“In some ways, this is more like espionage than teaching.”
