On December 8, 2020, the Governing Board adopted Policy ACD - Non-Discrimination and Gender Identity (Students) . This policy is effective immediately and enhances Tucson Unified's commitment to a policy of nondiscrimination as it relates to a student's gender expression.
With an intent to recognize a student's gender identity, a key provision of this new policy is that the student may request a change to their name and/or gender as it appears in Synergy without any further documentation or permissions required.
In accordance with the policy, the student (if under 18) will be advised that their parent/guardian will be informed that a change has been made to the education record.
Because Zoom captures students' names from Synergy, this policy intends to give a student the right to change their screen name on Zoom to be consistent with their gender identity. This will avoid so-called "deadnames" that do not reflect the student's gender expression and will eliminate the need for the teacher to change it for every Zoom session.
A form for students to request a change (ACD-E1) and the required notice to the parent/guardian has been created. In the meantime, please be aware that this policy requires that school employees immediately address the student consistent with their stated gender identity.
You can see the complete policy here: Policy ACD.
Here is the process:
- Student requests for a demographic information change, including a Zoom display name and/or gender, will be referred to the school contact person or office designated by the principal. (The process for parent requests to change demographic information is unchanged).
- Form ACD-E1 will be provided to the student.
- The completed form will be emailed to the Synergy team at Trackit@tusd1.org with a cc to mary.welborn@tusd1.org
- Once the change is made, the Synergy team will send a confirming email to the school contact with a reminder for the school contact to advise the parent/guardian that the change has been made (a requirement under Policy ACD). The suggested template for the notification (which may be via email) to the parent/guardian is as follows:
Dear Parent/Guardian:
This is to notify you that [STUDENT] has made a request under Governing Board Policy ACD to change demographic information in the student's education record. The change(s) that was(were) requested is(are) [name][gender].
Policy ACD requires that the student's record be immediately changed, and that you, as the parent/guardian, be notified that such a change has been made.
If you have any questions, please contact [school contact person].
Sincerely,
- In accordance with the policy, this will change the student's name for school rosters, Zoom, emails school publications, and correspondence to the student. All school personnel are required to address the student consistent with the student's stated preference.