Anne Arundel schools now need parent permission to call transgender students by preferred names

Anne Arundel County Public Schools staff cannot use transgender students’ preferred names if their parents oppose it, according to an internal document reviewed by The Banner, a change that comes after conservative groups challenged the school system’s approach to gender identity.

Teacher’s union president Kristina Korona told members in an Aug. 20 email that the new guidance undermines district policy on acceptance and inclusivity and “will begin harming affected students immediately.”

Previously, the district didn’t require parental permission to use a high school student’s chosen name and pronouns corresponding to their gender identity, the internal document says. Now it does. The change comes as parents challenge the suburban school system’s gender identity policy and regulation in court and the Trump administration threatens the district’s funding.

Starting this school year, “If the parent does not agree, the school must comply with the parent’s request, including preferred name, group bathroom use and pronouns,” according to presentation slides by Ryan Voegtlin, who as assistant superintendent of student services oversees school counselors, psychologists and social workers.

A school system employee who attended the presentation shared the slides with The Banner and asked to remain anonymous because the employee feared discussing the guidance publicly would put their job at risk.

The August 2026 presentation provides a rare look at how the district’s years-old and newly controversial gender identity policy and regulation work in practice and contains information that Superintendent Mark T. Bedell has not shared with the public.

The district announced last month that it was updating its regulations to clarify that students’ gender identity could not be kept hidden from parents. However, the district did not publicly disclose its “operational guidelines” that parental permission must be obtained before staffers can use a student’s preferred name.

Anne Arundel schools spokesperson Bob Mosier said in an email to The Banner that the operational guidelines provided to staff in the presentation have never been part of district regulations. Operational guidelines describe the actions staff should take to comply with published regulations.

Mosier added that Anne Arundel was among Maryland’s first school systems to develop a framework to support LGBTQ+ students and works closely with their parents.

“We have steadfastly supported all of our students and take seriously our obligations to follow privacy laws,” Mosier wrote in an email Monday. “Our work has evolved as the issue has evolved, and that will continue to be the case.”

Korona noted that the union’s repeated requests for clarification on issues like how to distinguish between nicknames and gender-affirming preferred names — a student named Samantha who asks to be called Sam, for example — have yielded confusing responses from the district. She wrote that members have expressed distress and anger about the new guidance.

“The protection of our students’ dignity and their right to be treated with fairness and equity at school is among our highest moral obligations as educators,” she wrote in an email to union members on Aug. 23. “More than one member has told us that they will not comply.”

The school district’s gender identity policy became the focus of intense scrutiny earlier this summer after parents of an area high school student filed a federal lawsuit alleging teachers and staff lied about and hid their child’s gender transition. The couple claimed the policy conflicts with their religious beliefs and sought to opt out. They are represented by an attorney from the conservative America First Legal Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 2021 by Stephen Miller, who is an influential advisor to President Donald Trump.

Then the U.S. Education and Justice departments alleged in July that Anne Arundel schools treated gender identity as confidential medical information, violating parents’ rights to their children’s educational records. Bedell announced on Aug. 19 that the district had updated a regulation to make clear that was not the case.

“No policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights” under federal student privacy law, Bedell wrote in a letter to the community. “This includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns.”

The regulation states that every student has the right to be addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their gender identity, and instructs school staff to work with a student’s parents to develop an appropriate plan to support them. But the new internal guidance suggests that right applies only to students whose parents agree.

“When a parent is supportive and gives permission, all of the supports that are talked about in the regulation can be implemented,” one slide from Voegtlin’s presentation states.

When parents do not agree, school staff must follow the parents’ wishes, not the students’, the presentation says.

There’s no statewide rule on whether schools must notify parents about their child’s gender identity.

According to the Colorado-based Movement Advancement Project, Maryland is one of 35 states that do not require school staff to out a transgender teen to their parents. Fifteen other states require notification — some only if a student requests to use a different name, others if a student even mentions a desire to change their gender identity.

In her emails to members, Korona said staff members have expressed concern about the gulf between the regulation changes that Bedell shared with the community and internal guidance for district employees.

“Whatever this guidance intends to accomplish, it has not been clearly or properly promulgated,” she wrote on Aug. 23. “Confusion among educators, particularly in the very frenetic opening weeks of school, is a completely predictable response to this.”

She encouraged members who want to take action to email Bedell and members of the school board or post trans pride flags in their classrooms.

“We will also prepare to defend any member who faces discipline for failing to implement directions that are contradictory to Board policies and regulations and for which inadequate training has been provided,” she wrote.

“You and our students deserve far better than this.”