A Temecula student’s request for a record change will now trigger an automated message to parents, following the school board’s vote this week to bring back a revised parent notification policy.
At its Tuesday, June 24 meeting, the Temecula Valley Unified board voted 4-1 to pass a revised parent notification policy similar to one passed in Chino Valley Unified and one being considered by the Redlands Unified.
The policy requires the district to send an automated email to parents within three days after a student makes a change in record, which includes a change to their preferred name or pronouns. The email would be sent automatically through Infinite Campus, an online portal for parents and students to access records and other district information, when the change in record occurs.
Board President Melinda Anderson and board members Emil Barham, Joseph Komrosky, and Jen Weirsma voted in favor of the policy and board member Steve Schwartz voted against.
“I would prefer a phone call, I think that there are things that warrant a call,” Weirsma said. She said the email was a good start and that she hoped the board would continue to more forward and add a phone call in the future.
Komrosky agreed with Weirsma and said he would also like to see a policy like the one passed in Chino Valley where parents receive a call.
“I believe that is a parental right,” Komrosky said. “I am going to want the parent notification.”
While it is nice to know what your kids are up to, there are negative parts of the policy, Schwartz said, he worries it would put kids in danger.
“I go back and forth on this and I go back to being a parent and a grandparent,” Schwartz said. “…This could get them thrown out of their house.”
The original policy, passed in August 2023, saw Weirsma and Komrosky vote in favor while Schwartz voted it down. It required Temecula schools to tell parents within three days if their child identifies as transgender.
California districts, including the Chino Valley, Murrieta Valley, and Orange school boards, passed almost identical policies within weeks. Murrieta’s school board later rescinded its policy in October 2024.
The district’s legal counsel recommended the board send an email rather than adopting the Chino Valley policy, Anderson said, to avoid a Public Employment Relations Board violation.
The revision would take staff out of the equation by having an email sent automatically any time a student’s “personal” record is changed in the system, district staff said.
Any changes in the system would already be visible to parents, Anderson said.
During discussion, district staff said this was an “active step” to notify parents and that students have the right to ask for a different name or pronoun without being an actual record change.
According to a June 24 staff report, the policy aligned with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which grants parents the right to request, inspect, and receive copies of their child’s educational records.
The courts and the California Public Employment Relations Board have ruled on the issue too.
In March 2024, Chino Valley revised its parent notification policy after a San Bernardino Superior Court Judge ruled the first two parts of the policy that specifically mention gender were discriminatory.
On Tuesday night, Barham, said he supported the policy and wants to try the policy in another way to avoid legal ramifications.
“I do want to say that I appreciate the work that these other districts have done but the results of all of that have been — as we’ve picked policies out from the people who have spearheaded this — that we’ve been sued and we’ve been PERB’d,” Barham said, referring to the action taken by the Public Employment Relations Board.
The Temecula board rescinded its original parent notification policy in December in closed session after a ruling from the California Public Employment Relations Board said the rules violated the state Educational Employment Relations Act.
The ruling said the district violated employees contracts by putting the policies into play without negotiating things such as employee discipline.
Critics say the policy will force transgender students to live in fear of being outed before they are ready and would place a burden on students to navigate adult systems.
“This effectively denies (transgender students) official recognition even when they live every day as their affirmed identity,” said parent Josh Sterling during the meeting.
Sterling said the policy is the same as the previous one with a different mechanism and was not just a privacy issue but a safety one.
“(It) puts an unfair burden which requires them (students) to navigate adult systems just to be respected,” Sterling said.
Melanie Beaussart, a parent in the district, said Chino’s policy, which was presented to the board, bullies students by telling them they have 72 hours to retract their statement before their parents are called.
“It won’t change anyone’s mind,” she said.
She asked the board if someone would follow up with the students following the notification to check in on them.
In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB1955, which made such policies illegal. Chino challenged the law, filing a lawsuit the day after the bill was signed.
