Schools in England should inform parents when a child changes their gender identity, according to new government guidance issued this week.
The long-awaited new guidance, published Tuesday by the United Kingdom’s Department for Education, applies to schools in England and has been expected since 2018.
“Parents should not be excluded from decisions taken by a school or college relating to requests for a child to ‘socially transition,’” the guidance states.
A “social transition” can involve a student taking using a new name, new pronouns, different clothing, and using the bathrooms or playing on the sports teams of the opposite sex.
The guidance notes that there has been a “significant increase” in children questioning “the way they feel about being a boy or a girl, including their physical attributes of sex and the related ways in which they fit into society.”
However,…
