A recent change designed to protect the privacy of North Carolina’s transgender public school students is drawing complaints from some conservative groups.
At the end of January, the state Department of Public Instruction updated the PowerSchool information system so that the sex for students is no longer visible unless schools give users permission to view the records. The change, which DPI says is based on federal guidance, is meant to protect transgender students from being outed if the gender they identify with is not the same as their biological gender.
“The update does not erase student sex information in the system,” Blair Rhoades, a DPI spokeswoman, said in an email. “The update instead allows for local decision makers to choose who can view that information.
