URBANDALE, Iowa — Iowa school districts are continuing to make sense of the controversial education law, Senate File 496, that went into effect statewide this summer.
The Urbandale School District has already made decisions about what books and materials are allowed in schools, and now they are building a policy regarding student identities.
At the Urbandale School Board's meeting on Sept. 25, board members discussed a new policy regarding the use of nicknames in schools.
The district's policy states that if a student wants to use a name, gender identity or pronoun that is different from their school registration forms, then the school is required to report it to the child's parent.
Questions came up about the first policy proposed regarding students who are emancipated — meaning although they are minors, they have legal responsibility for themselves.
"That was changed because for applicable laws. There was some conversation around emancipated minors, and since that wasn't an agreement and according to our legal advice, they said that it does apply to that, that would be a little more flexible should that advice change," superintendent Rosalie Daca said.
The new policy also allows nicknames to be listed on the student's registration.
"We started that process this year," Daca said. "I think we need to refine that for next year in our school to make sure. But once that's in there, I don't believe we would be asking them to say it again."
The school district is now working to define some terms in the law like gender-fair, age appropriateness and multicultural.
"We really sourced from many sources and then we came to kind of craft a definition that seemed reasonable and then we brought it to the cabinet for further review," Brandon Schrauth said, director of teaching and learning for Urbandale School District.
Daca also says that she is hoping the board can come to the consensus that these are reasonable definitions so they can continue their work on these policies from there.
Daca also acknowledged that they are hearing from teachers about there concerns and are using that to make the necessary changes.