IOWA, USA — As Iowa teachers prepare for the start of another school year, while students and parents alike are learning about new requirements in the classroom.
Under Senate File 469, which took effect on July 1, written parental permission is required for a student to go by a pronoun or name not assigned at birth. It also requires that school staff notify parents if a student requests to be change this information.
The bill also sets new standards for what students are taught in schools, and also prohibits teaching gender identity from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Former Ankeny teacher Nick Covington, whose children are now in the Ballard Community School District, received a form via email earlier this month, instructing him to provide names and pronouns for his kids.
"My initial reaction upon getting the email was kind of confusion," Covington said. "A little bit of like, why is this super necessary?”
Covington believes that the new law will put teachers in a difficult position, and discourage students from advocating for themselves.
“They're kind of faced with this dual conflict, right, where now they have to be somebody else at school and at home that they aren't," he said.
Des Moines Public Schools superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts discussed SF 496 in early August with Local 5.
"Senate File 496 certainly has created a level of anxiety amongst a number of educators," Roberts said. "And primarily, because any violation of this law certainly can have an impact on teachers, on staff, on school leaders and the superintendent if there is any violation of the law."
Despite potential concerns among staff and parents like Covington, Roberts emphasized that districts will comply as best as possible.
"We remain committed to adhering to the law, it's the law. We are going to be in compliance with law. But what we're also committed to doing is to make sure we find a healthy balance with adhering to the law, without compromising the quality of education that our students deserve," he said.
Local 5 has reached out to other districts in the Des Moines metro, including Urbandale and Ankeny as well as House and Senate Republicans for comment, but has yet to hear back.