A Peek into Conroe ISD's Gender Fluidity Policy

A review of similar policy from Katy ISD, thoughts on its impact, and ideas for improvement.

In a special meeting of the CISD Board of Trustees happening this Tuesday, December 3rd (agenda here), the newly elected ‘Mama Bear’ slate of trustees will be reviewing a potential introduction of new policy: FA Local Policy Student Welfare: Parental Authority and Gender Fluidity Matters.

Conroe ISD does not currently have policy FA Local, only FA Legal, which defines the Texas legal requirements of the district as it relates to ‘Parent Rights and Responsibilities’. Therefore, a gender fluidity policy will be new for the district.

Recap

CISD often compares itself to similarly sized school districts in Greater Houston, such as with enrollment numbers, tax rate, graduation rate, awards, and so on. For CISD Mama Bears, one specific district is often referenced in areas of discipline, parental rights, and gender identity - Katy ISD.

They referenced Katy ISD’s policies often throughout their campaigns for the Board, and as Katy’s FA Local Policy is named the exact same title as what is being discussed in Conroe, we can assume that the CISD Board is at least using Katy as a template. With this, we decided to review their policy and provide some personal thoughts on its potential impact.

Note, we did not yet reach out to the CISD Board for comments, as I imagine we will hear their positions during the special meeting. We may contact them during the policy drafting phase to get their feedback.

Policy Intro

If we start within Conroe ISD, creating a policy on gender fluidity first began discussion around May 2024, when Trustee Odenweller (now President Odenweller) proposed the Board implement such a policy. This was covered by several local news outlets:

Link

The Board at the time split 4-3 on the topic (as was common with most issues), and they did not move forward with the policy. Along with the personal opinions of the Board, President Hubert had mentioned it was risky to move forward with such a policy at that time, as Katy ISD had recently implemented a gender fluidity policy and were now under federal investigation for potential Title IX violations:

Feds investigate another Texas school district for its gender identity mandate

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation Monday into Katy Independent School District’s gender identity policy on the basis of gender harassment under Title IX. The investigation came nine months after the Houston Landing reported that the district adopted a policy that notifies parents if their child requests to use a different name or pronouns at school.

With an incoming Trump Administration soon to take over the White House, it is assumed these investigations will promptly end. It does not mean policies on gender fluidity will not have legal risk, but it at least means the federal government will either roll back Title IX changes made by the Biden administration or implement new regulations (similar to 2020), likely negating Title IX protections for transgender students.

Therefore, it is clear that the CISD Board is not wasting any time to get this new policy into motion.

Policy Breakdown

The Katy ISD Gender Fluidity Policy is an easy read, but here are the key components:

Key Definitions

• Biological sex is defined by official birth certificate or other government-issued record.

• Defines gender fluidity as any belief, theory, or ideology that:

  • Espouses the view that gender is merely a social construct;

  • Espouses the view that it is possible for a person to be any gender or no gender (i.e., non-binary);

  • Espouses the view that an individual's biological sex should be changed to "match" a gender different from that person's biological sex; and

  • Supports hormone therapy or other medical treatments or procedures to temporarily or permanently alter a person's body so that it "matches" a gender different from that person's biological sex.

Policy Summary

• Staff will not teach, share, instruct, train, or otherwise require any student or other District staff to adopt, support, or otherwise promote gender fluidity.

• Staff will not promote or require non-biological sex pronouns.

• District must notify parents if a child requests transgender identification.

• Pronoun changes require written parental consent.

• Staff cannot be compelled to use pronouns conflicting with their beliefs.

• Athletic facilities and teams restricted to competitions matching biological sex.

• Overnight travel accommodations are based on biological sex.

• No instructional materials or online resources supporting gender fluidity are allowed, including any use of classroom displays or communications related to gender fluidity.

Thoughts on Impact

Let’s first check recent news on Katy’s policy and then think about how this may impact CISD schools:

Students say Katy ISD's controversial gender identity policy puts staff in 'too much of a risk'

From Sept. 1 until Nov. 15 [2023], internal records show Katy ISD administrators have made 23 notifications to parents that their child either identified themselves as transgender or asked to use different names or pronouns at school…

Katy ISD students say they've since seen teachers leave the room when students talk about gender…

"The teacher can't report it because the teacher doesn't know that the student has said such things," Thornton said.

"You run too much of a risk to come to these people because even if they do want to help you, they're put in a place where they have to choose between the safety of their students and the safety of their career," Burton said. "We're so scared that we're going to wake up one morning, and we're going to hear about a kid that got hurt or attempted suicide or something horrible."

ABC13's public records request revealed no students in the district have been punished for their restroom use so far.

"I use the nurse's restrooms because I feel uncomfortable going into the women's restrooms, and I'm not allowed in the male restrooms," Thornton explained.

Reports

My first thoughts when reading Katy’s policy was that these rules will likely build a type of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” environment, and the feedback above seems to confirm this.

Teachers will be more closed off to any discussions around gender, and students will not divulge them for risk of “outing” to their parents. There will be teachers who will ignore the policy, those that will feel forced to report even if they do not agree with it, and then (let’s be honest) inexperienced teachers or administrators who may use it against children in negative ways.¹

Truthfully, my assumption is that 99.9% of teachers would not have to change their normal behavior with this policy. They work in classrooms, where the class is addressed as a whole or individual students by their first names (although we do recognize name changes are also part of gender identity). A teacher’s first response to a pronoun request will likely be, “Have you discussed this with your parents?”

Of course, their challenges are not with pronouns but with behavior. If they could get students to write their name and date on top of their paper, then they are having a good day. We also live in Texas, where “y’all” is the pronoun of choice for everything.

The main change for educators will be the requirement to report students when they say something related to their gender identity. As usual, school policy will create more work rather than resources for teachers.

Also, even if you take the count of Katy gender reports noted above (23 for one month) and spread it out across the entire school year, Katy would be averaging 230 reports in one school year. They have 96,000 students. That is .0024% of their student population that they are targeting, making this an arguably ineffective policy.

Bathrooms

As it goes for bathrooms, this has always been a non-issue based on the data. Boys do not go into the girl’s bathroom or vice-versa, and if they do, they are disciplined based on existing policy. Either way, transgender students are already avoiding student restrooms, or they make use of the nurse’s office restroom.

Athletics

Related to athletics, I actually do see where a policy such as this at least sets the boundaries. However, it is likely unnecessary when it is already Texas law (see HB 25), and Conroe ISD already updated the related policy FM Legal, Student Activities.

An interscholastic athletic team sponsored or authorized by a district may not allow a student to compete in an interscholastic athletic competition sponsored or authorized by the district that is designated for the biological sex opposite to the student's biological sex as correctly stated on the student's official birth certificate, as described below, or if the student's official birth certificate is unobtainable, another government record.

Instructional Materials

For instructional materials removing any references to gender fluidity, this may have some challenges in Conroe ISD as its history has shown. When removing ‘sexually explicit’ content from schools, it also meant inadvertently removing AP English literature from classroom shelves such as Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Poet X. Will removing books about gender fluid persons also include those beyond its assumed scope, such as books with gay or lesbian characters?

Any new policy around instructional materials or library books will need to be well defined to include language specific for gender fluidity.

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Lastly, there are many unknowns related to how this policy will impact transgender students. Although Katy ISD’s policy reinforces treating everyone with respect and enforcement of anti-bullying policies, this may place these students in danger by further alienating them from school staff or activities. This is the only policy in the school district that will target a specific group of kids, and this can have unforeseen consequences.

Priority & Ideas for Change

As priority goes, this is obviously a major concern and initiative for conservative movements within the last decade. Even with the estimates of transgender persons ranging around ~1% of the U.S. population (much less in Texas), the general public seems to think there are many more. There are also those that believe educators are attempting to promote gender change or transition students directly within schools (without evidence), fueling these debates and driving gender policies as a #1 focus for conservative school boards.

With these things in mind, we should assume Conroe ISD will adopt this policy in the coming months. Therefore, I have some thoughts on improving these policies to limit the impact on educators and students alike:

1. Require that any reporting from staff is confidential and managed through District administration. For example, if a teacher must report that a student requested a new pronoun or name, require that the teacher do so via an internal process that is handled with care through the school counselor. This will help offload these new requirements (and stress) off of teachers and onto District professionals trained for discussing these types of things with parents. Further, it protects teachers from becoming targets of parents or the public that may claim they attempted to discriminate against their child by making the report (e.g., “The teacher is transphobic, so they reported my child,” or “The teacher wants to ruin my child’s reputation, so they reported them as transgender.”)

2. Require a structured, documented counseling pathway. Similar to how parents are involved in educational progress or disciplinary actions, use this opportunity for a professional counselor to prepare and manage a joint meeting with parents that focuses on the student’s well-being. This way all facts are presented, health resources can be provided, and the school can “hand-off” the discussion to the parents properly. It documents everyone involved, gives parents transparency for what school staff are doing, and puts responsibility for the student’s care into the hands of the parents. It also adds some protections for students as it may identify if the student fears abuse at home.

   1. I know this may seem counterproductive for students who are too afraid to come “out” to their parents, but I do not see a good alternative considering that the school board is laser focused on parental rights.

3. Monitor this policy with proper reporting. As with all school board policy, it should incorporate data collection and reporting to show if the policy is working or needs amending. For example, in the article referenced above, Katy ISD had 23 reports made for students requesting pronoun change within the first few months. This is valuable information for the Board to consider. Similarly, it could also include the number of incidents involving students attempting to use a restroom not of their biological sex, or the number of books removed from classrooms or libraries due to gender fluidity content.

   1. Don’t forget to consider Board policies EFA and EFB Local to remain consistent.

4. Begin the policy in the 2025-2026 school year. This may not be a popular decision for the Board, but I do hope it is considered. The staff will need to be properly trained on the new policy. Students will need to understand its impact, and parents need to receive communication on the topic. Allow the public to consume these changes and set clear timelines on its implementation into the new school year so that when a teacher must make a report, everyone involved knows what to do.

Closing

Once we hear the CISD Board’s discussion at the next meeting, we will have more information about their plans to implement this policy and if it will mirror Katy ISD’s version. We will also review the draft policy when it becomes available.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or corrections on this topic.

Thanks for reading.

1. Although I know teachers to be some of the most caring, hard-working people on the planet, we all know a few that should have done something else with their life. Similar to any profession, when people are unhappy, they may take it out on others. It is no different between unhappy teachers and students, and I fear that these gender reports could be used by those with biases or personal agendas.