New Secretary of Ed Joe Graves: School Districts don’t have “any business stepping above the parents”

Governor Kristi Noem’s new Secretary of Education has an interview in the Argus Leader that’s worth reading, pointing out how it’s not the school’s place to hide things from parents:

Q: On social media, there’s been circulation of a letter you wrote to Mitchell School District employees in August 2021 with policies on using transgender students’ chosen names and pronouns and letting them access certain facilities such as the bathroom or locker room, but also recommending that staff out trans students to their parents. Is that still your belief?

A: We absolutely need to let parents know. This is a very significant, emotional and stressful situation for kids. We need to let parents know when students are experiencing this kind of issue. To me, that’s bedrock. I don’t think educators have any business stepping above the parents and saying, “No, I know better. We’re not going to tell this parent.”

I know people disagree with me on that, but I don’t know how suddenly, we’ve come up with a new category in which we can effectively hide things from parents. It’s wrong, and it’s very much out of step with the traditions of American education. The only exemption we have (for not telling parents about an issue with their child) is when we suspect child abuse. We call that right into the Department of Social Services or other authorities.

Parents need to feel secure that they know what’s going on in their child’s education at school. They need to be a full partner in that. In fact, they need to be the primary partner in that.

Read the entire story here in the Argus Leader.

Making sure parents are in the loop is a positive development from our Dept of Ed.