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Most State Policies That Address LGBTQ+ Students in Schools Are Affirming, Despite Recent Trends Toward Exclusion

Authors:

Deborah Temkin,Kristy Lao,Brissa Nuñez,Claire Kelley,Sarah Kelley,Victoria Stuart-Cassel

Publication Date:

Tuesday 22 March, 2022

Topic:

LGBTQ+

Creating school environments that support students’ health and well-being is critical for helping them thrive. For students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, non-binary, or another non-heterosexual and/or non-cisgender sexual orientation or gender identity (LGBTQ+), research demonstrates that affirming policies—which provide explicit, enumerated protections (i.e., a specific list of protections)—are associated with reduced rates of bullying and suicide, among other outcomes. Throughout 2021, however, many states proposed policies to restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ students in schools, such as transgender students’ ability to access bathroom facilities or play on sports teams that match their gender identities. These proposals represented a marked shift from an increasingly supportive policy environment.

This data story shows that most state statutes and regulations are affirming of LGBTQ+ students—that is, they aim to provide supports to LGBTQ+ students. There are several ways in which state policies can affirm LGBTQ+ students in schools, including ensuring that sexual health education is inclusive of non-heterosexual relationships, expanding definitions in teen dating violence prevention policies to cover same-sex couples, and establishing privacy policies to prevent unwanted disclosure of an individual’s sexual or gender identity. However, new policies enacted in 2020 and 2021 are largely exclusionary, establishing barriers for LGBTQ+ students to access supports or services at school.

To analyze the current landscape of state statutes and regulations that either affirm or exclude LGBTQ+ students in schools, Child Trends and EMT Associates collected a list of codified policies that explicitly reference LGBTQ+ student populations. The analysis reflects statutes and regulations that were on the books as of August 2021; it does not include statutes and regulations that were repealed prior to, or enacted after, this date. (Please refer to the Methodology section, which appears as a dropdown at the end of this data story, for more detailed language about our analysis. Descriptions and examples of all identified categories of laws can also be found in this section.)

As of August 2021, most state statutes and regulations are affirming of LGBTQ+ students in schools, although exclusionary policies increased in 2020 and 2021.

At least one state enacted statutes and/or regulations that are affirming toward LGBTQ+ students in each year from 2006 through 2021, for a total of 121 policies across 26 states. In 2019 alone, 12 states enacted affirming policies. Several states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, and Washington, enacted multiple affirming policies across several years during this timeframe.  While no states enacted exclusionary policies from 2006 to 2019 that remain codified today, eight enacted exclusionary policies in 2020 and 2021.

State policies that are affirming and exclusionary of LGBTQ+ students, as of August 2021, by number of non-repealed policies enacted per year

* Cumulative since 1979

Note: The graph reflects the current statutory and regulatory landscape when these data were collected (August 2021) and does not include statutes and regulations repealed before this date.

State statutes and regulations provide a wide range of supports for LGBTQ+ students.

Twenty-four states have anti-bullying statutes and/or regulations that include enumerated protections for LGBTQ+ students. An additional nine states have enacted policies that encourage the development of state or district model policies or professional development to support LGBTQ+ students in schools. Seven states have enacted affirming policies about culturally inclusive educational materials that include references to LGBTQ+ individuals, and seven have enacted policies about suicide prevention with specific references to supports for LGBTQ+ students.

Source: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/most-state-policies-that-address-lgbtq-students-in-schools-are-affirming-despite-recent-trends-toward-exclusion?fbclid=IwAR23ko8a7Wp8i0CDt_uU6nIM9FeCdSjDdTn9ONMuYO9_Ri2qr3acje00ghM
ChildTrends 
Child Trends is a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to producing objective, unbiased research. As such, Child Trends researchers may not engage in political activities while in the workplace or on behalf of the organization. Researchers may provide research and policy guidance to elected or appointed public officials.
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