As more school districts adopt policies to adhere to a new state law regarding students’ chosen names, it’s been far from a simple decision for some in the Pikes Peak region.

With the passage of House Bill 1039 into law last April, all public schools must now implement a written policy outlining how staff will honor a student’s request to use a name different than their legal name. All school personnel must address students and refer to them by these names during school and extracurricular activities.

The new law intends to protect LGBTQ+ students whose chosen names differ from their legal names given at birth and reflect their gender identity. Refusing to do so now constitutes discrimination, and students subjected to it can file a school report, or even a federal civil rights complaint.

Although the law requires school districts to adopt a new policy, it does not mention a timeframe or deadline for doing so. Given the broad possibilities of how exactly policies for each school or district may look, some school boards deliberated the exact language while others approved theirs relatively quickly and others have yet to pass one.

“The bill, frankly, was written in a loose framework with a lack of definition that has caused chaos in all sorts of school districts with all sorts of perspectives and ideologies because it lacks clarity,” School District 49 attorney Brad Miller said during the district’s November board of education meeting.

Woodland Park schools to abide with students’ name choices

With legal, moral and constitutional apprehensions in mind among board members, D-49 became the latest school district in El Paso County to adopt a chosen name policy during the November meeting.

Some points of contention were the involvement or lack thereof of students’ parents in the process, a seeming lack of regard for other party’s personal beliefs and the law’s constitutionality.

Ahead of the vote, board director Deb Schmidt said HB-1039 doesn’t consider the First Amendment rights of teachers and staff with personal or religious objections to these requests and mentioned the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution that gives it precedence over state laws that conflict with it.

“Mandating against conscience based, First Amendment protections sounds, to me, like a conflict,” she said.

Board Treasurer Mike Heil said that not enough time was given before the vote to consider alternative language and that the resulting policy is somewhat muddled in its messaging with “additional barriers” added in for multiple groups with conflicting beliefs.

Board members ultimately approved policy ACA on a 3-2 vote.

Under D-49’s policy, students can request a chosen name change at their school once all their parents or guardians are notified and approve it themselves. Students will only be able to request one name change per year and be given the option to revert to their legal name. The district may deny a request if they determine the name to be vulgar, offensive or used for misrepresentation.

Teachers and staff with conscience-based objections can also be granted accommodation and be permitted to refer to students by their last name.

The policy’s language also includes a clause that voids it entirely if the law is ever found to be unconstitutional.

“I believe that our policy makes a statement that safeguards the elements that are unconstitutional,” said board vice president Jamilynn D’Avola who also voiced her opposition to HB-1039.

Policies in the Pikes Peak Region

As of December, eight of the school districts in the Pikes Peak region have adopted chosen name policies. Those who have not adopted a new policy currently have ones in place that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression, which typically is expressed or demonstrated through appearance, dress and behavior.

Members of Widefield D-3’s board expressed similar concerns regarding the constitutionality of the new law ahead of its vote in September. Members of Woodland Park RE-2’s board voiced their disapproval of the law with David Rusterholtz calling it “social psychosis” that “undermines the family.”

Academy D-20 passed its policy in late August but revised it in both November and December.

Widefield School District 3 adopts policy allowing students to use chosen name

Since the state law’s passage, local advocacy groups have attended local board of education meetings to voice what they’d like to see in its language when the local policy is passed.

Representatives from the LGBTQ+ support organization Inside Out Youth Services have publicly spoken at board meetings in D-49 and D-11 to suggest what their policies should include and offer their resources and consultation. In 2024, the organization provided services to over 200 youths, recorded over 4,000 check-ins to its community center and facilitated over 300 educational and enrichment programs in the Colorado Springs area.

Inside Out’s communications and advocacy director Ollie Glessner pointed to Adams-Arapahoe 28J’s policy as one of the better examples in the state since it gives the students, rather than their parents or guardians, authority to decide when and where to come out with their chosen identity.

They explained that this ensures parents are informed about these decisions by their children rather than their school.

“Forcing those kinds of conversations is not conducive to the mental health of those kids or those families,” they said. “Those conversations should be had in private at the discretion of the young person and the school does not need to get involved in notifying or getting the consent of those parents.”

A 2022 national study by the nonprofit organization Trevor Project reported that 32% of transgender and nonbinary youth considered their home as a gender-affirming space in their life while 51% considered school to be a gender-affirming space.

Arguing for ‘full parental consent’

The El Paso County chapter of Moms for Liberty has also been present at various school board meetings this year. The chapter’s chair Kristy Davis told The Gazette in an email that they have been providing schools with a template of the policy for them to adopt that includes “with full parental consent” in its language.

A lawsuit was filed in Brighton earlier this year by two parents following the passage of HB-1039 who allege their daughter transitioned to a boy without their knowledge and with the encouragement of a school counselor.

Regarding the exemption clause for D-49 staff and teachers, Inside Out’s Glessner acknowledged that religious freedoms and values should be honored in these cases, but that it can also counteract the law if policies are written too broadly.

“Because then anyone can opt out of using the child’s chosen name, when that is clearly not the spirit of that law,” Glessner said.

Glessner said Inside Out has met with some board members privately to discuss this topic, though they have not heard back from the majority of board members who were offered a meeting.

D-11 yet to adopt

Among the districts that have yet to adopt a new policy is Colorado Springs D-11. The district’s board of education most recently discussed a potential policy during an October work session, but no final decision was agreed upon.

Board members decided to revisit the topic after engaging with the public, discussing with the district’s legal counsel and soliciting more feedback on the best language and approach for the policy.

D-11’s board had previously discussed prohibiting staff from asking students their preferred pronouns, which created a divide in the community.

To date, this has not come to pass and a revised staff conduct policy passed in May 2023 made no mention of gender or pronouns.

In Colorado Springs school district divided over pronouns, staff conduct policy will look different than expected

D-11 board president Parth Melpakam told The Gazette in an email that the board will likely revisit the topic in early 2025 before making a final vote.

He added that they will balance their partnership with parents while ensuring that they don’t violate the new state law.

Ahead of the policy vote, D-49 board president Lori Thompson noted that a district already had a procedure in place for honoring students’ chosen names that would likely go back into effect if the new policy becomes void.

She also acknowledged the number of differing opinions, perspectives and considerations with the state-mandated policy and that settling on something that pleases everyone would be nearly impossible.

“So, just so you know, there was no way to square the circle, so we did the best we could and not everyone is going to agree on that,” she told those watching the meeting.