How CUSD Is Handling the New Transgender Bathroom Law

Originally posted at 12:53 p.m. Jan. 16, 2014.

Until it is determined whether a measure will reach the November state ballot, attempting to invalidate a new state law that allows transgender public school students to choose the gender-specific sports they want to play and which restroom to use, Capistrano Unified officials are handling such requests on a case-by-case basis, Superintendent Joseph Farley said Wednesday.

The law, which became effective Jan. 1, is the first in the nation of its kind. It allows transgendered students to use facilities that are "consistent with his or her gender identity," according to the legislation.

“The district has been very wise in this approach to this matter and also sensitive to the needs of the children,” Farley told parents at a superintendent’s forum Wednesday night.

The 50,000-student district doesn’t have many transgender students, “but we do have a few,” Farley said.

Instead of creating policies that are overbroad, he added, the district will “look at what’s best for that individual child.”

In September, one resident who supports the new law and one who doesn’t spoke before the Board of Trustees.

Farley referenced Wednesday an effort to get on the November ballot an initiative that would strike down the new law. State officials are currently calculating whether there are enough signatures to force the issue.

“We will know by Feb. 24 whether the law stands or whether it will go to an election on the matter in November 2014,” Farley said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Edited to reflect that one person in the September 2013 meeting spoke in favor of the new law and one spoke against.