I almost lost my mind reading these. I hope it saves you some headache. I want to urge you to get in touch with your local and national lawmakers and create change because teaching these fabrications is harmful to the students, the future, and how they will think of one another as adults. The chaos these rules will create is unthinkable and I'm frustrated at my state for being so far behind the times.
Bills related to students and school staff
HB1557 - Parental Rights in Education (Don't Say Gay) - The part that most pertains to school counselors is: staff will encourage the student to share issues with their family, staff will not educate on gender identify or sexual orientation in grades K-3 (I found nothing since March 2022 that modifies this to additional grades) that is not age-appropriate, parents can decline any healthcare services that are offered. This bill is slated to be updated by the Board of Education by June 30, 2023. There was an amendment (Amendment 1, 1/19/22) that removed language that protected staff from encouraging students not to reveal information if it would result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect - so we're still supposed to encourage students to speak with their parents, as reasonable adults, even if they aren't.
SB1320 - Child Protection in Public Schools - Employees and students of a public school are not required to refer to the student preferred pronouns, and students cannot be asked for their pronouns. School personnel are prohibited from providing a preferred pronoun. School personnel are prohibited from instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation before grade 9, but charter schools are an exception. Health education shall teach that sex is "binary, stable, and unchangeable." But that's untrue! (Deep breath.) And it doesn't account for people who are intersex. (Another deep breath.)
HB1223 - Public PreK-12 Educational Institution and Instruction Requirements - This just parrots SB1320 above with tiny changes that should be ammendments to the other bill. No use of preferred pronouns, sex is that which is assigned at birth. Nothing new in this bill that I found except the school has to have some information like this on a public place like their website. Also, like in HB1557 above, staff should notify a parent if there is a change in the student's well-being or mental or emotional state, plus encourage the student to talk with their parents about their issues. New here: staff cannot instruct students on gender identity or sexual orientation before grade 9, and it has to be approved by the Board if they do.
HB1069 - Education - In terms of health education in schools, schools will stick to the material approved by the Board of Education, which parents can review in advance for their children. Information on AIDS and other STIs will not be taught until at least grade 6. Sex is to be taught in terms that are "binary, stable, and unchangeable." Abstinence will be taught for anyone outside of marriage for all school-aged students (I strained my back on that eyeroll.) and student will be taught "the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage" to emphasize avoiding "out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and other associated health problems." Is it 1950? What the? This is going back to blaming AIDS on the homosexual community and assuming spouses never cheat. Plus a baby out of wedlock? What would the neighbors think!!! (I hope you read that as sarcasm.)
See also HB1521 below
Bills related to children and parents
HB1421 - Gender Clinical Interventions - Prohibits a person's biological sex from being changed on a birth certificate. "...Requires the department (which department?) to suspend the license of a health care practitioner who is arrested for committing or attempting, soliciting, or conspiring to commit specified violations related to gender clinical interventions for a minor." Also "Prohibits a health insurance policy from providing coverage for gender clinical interventions." As I understand this bill, no minor is allowed to be given clinical interventional that is gender-confirming. A child that is permitted by one parent can be removed by the state, and no specification is made as to what happens next. Under this bill, they specify hat "gender clinical interventions" are "procedures or therapies that alter internal or external physical traits" and counselors would not fall under this umbrella. However, if we use a code like F64.0: Transsexualism (or Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescence and Adulthood or Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents and Adults), that minor could have their insurance cancelled, and if it got back to the other parent or the courts were informed somehow, it could result in the child being removed from the home or the custodial parent. There is no legislature about this for adults yet. I'm going to recommend that you give the adjacent diagnosis of F45.22: Body Dysmorphic Disorder, instead. This is inaccurate, and we're not supposed to cherry-pick diagnoses, but this may be more appropriate for our times, and safer for our clients.
Bills related to any gender and sex, without school or parental specifications
HB1521 which is also SB1674 - Facility Requirements Based on Sex - Changing facilities, restrooms, K-12 schools, universities, and correctional facilities must have binary spaces and only allow those persons access based on their sex assigned at birth. The work around is having a restroom or changing room that is single-occupant, so no stalls, which can be unisex. A person entering the "wrong" space will be considered to be trespassing. What will the do in the cases of those already having undergone gender-affirming surgery? Certainly you don't take a person AFAB and make him use the ladies' room? That would create even more confusion and uproar. And in prisons? I can't imagine that this law makes sense to the people who voted on it. This doesn't directly affect counselors, but could, based on your facility.
