The impact school policies and practices have on students whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth was the focus of a comprehensive presentation by Rutgers Associate Professor Dr. Melinda Mangin at a recent Board of Directors meeting.

An Associate Professor in the Department of Education Theory, Policy, and Administration in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, Dr. Mangin shared a wealth of information pertaining to what it means to be transgender, best practices for supporting transgender students, and recommendations for "promoting a sense of belonging" at school.

"Schools should be inclusive spaces where all students feel they belong, including transgender and gender-expansive children," said Dr. Mangin.

Among the many terms and statistics shared by Dr. Mangin were:

• 1.4 million adults in the United States identify as transgender.
• 54 percent of K-12 students participating in a 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey reported being verbally harassed, and 24 percent were physically attacked.
• Approximately two percent of people are "intersex," meaning their physical bodies do not conform to the standard definition of male and female. 

Dr. Mangin acknowledged that habits like separating students into typical boy and girl activities are hard to break, but said there is "both a legal and educational imperative for schools to be gender inclusive."

Dr. Mangin is the recipient of a Spencer Foundation research grant titled "Educational Standards of Care for Transgender Children: How School Leaders Develop Transgender-Inclusive Elementary Schools." 

An article on the topic by Dr. Mangin was published in Phi Delta Kappan, and can be found at https://www.kappanonline.org/mangin-transgender-gender-identity-school-policies-gender-expansive/