Texas Must Promote Culturally-Sustaining School Climates Where All Students Feel Welcome
All students deserve to learn in culturally-sustaining school environments that affirm their racial, ethnic, gender and other identities. Culturally-sustaining schools create positive, safe and supportive school climates for all students to receive a high-quality education.
Classroom censorship policies have made schools less safe and less supportive for students, especially those who are significantly more likely to experience identity-based discrimination, like Black and Latino students and those who identify as LGBTQ+.
IDRA Policy Recommendations for 2025
The legislature can make sure students attend culturally-sustaining and supportive schools. IDRA urges the legislature to…
- Protect students’ civil rights by adopting protections against identity-based bullying and harassment.
- Sustain accurate and rigorous coursework, curriculum and instructional materials that reflect students’ backgrounds.
Resources
Changing Policy
Sign-On Letter: Banned Books Week, September 23, 2024
Amicus Brief: Little v. Llano County, September 11, 2024
SEAT Letter to Protect Title IX in Texas Schools, June 26, 2024
Leadership Conference Letter to President Biden in Support of DEIA, June 18, 2024
Sign-On: Support of National Library Week, April 8, 2024
Joint Statement: Opening Arguments Delivered in Federal Appeals Case Challenging Constitutionality of Texas’ Book Rating Law, November 29, 2023
Tools
Classroom Censorship Hurts Students, website
Letter to Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner: Draft Rule, Prohibited Concepts in Public Instruction – Tenn. Code Ann. §49-6-1019, August 11, 2021
Article: In-grade Retention National Trends and Civil Rights Concerns, April 2018
Communicating Effectively
IDRA partnered with other civil rights and educational equity organizations to demand that school districts immediately stop their anti-LGBTQ+ activities and policies.
- Keller ISD, August 10, 2023
- Keller ISD, November 21, 2022
- Frisco ISD, November 21, 2022
IDRA joined with other civil rights organizations to demand that transgender students across Georgia be protected by their education leaders. On Wednesday, May 4, 2022, the Georgia High School Sports Association’s Executive Committee voted 61-0-1 to prohibit transgender students in our k12 public schools from participating in gendered sports teams that do not align with their gender assigned at birth. This decision impacts transgender, nonbinary, and LGBTQ+ students in your school district among many others. We are demanding that leaders across Georgia who have policies that are supportive of LGBTQ+ students join other athletic representatives in the GHSA and vote to reverse this policy this month. A version of this letter went out last week to the following school districts: Atlanta PS, Clayton County PS, Cobb County SD, DeKalb County SD, Fulton County S, Gwinnett County PS, and Savannah-Chatham County PSS.
