The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education greenlit an update to its policy for dealing with discrimination on the basis of gender and sexuality, including clearer guidelines about what constitutes discrimination and a training requirement so staff know how to recognize and respond to it.
Title IX is a federal policy that sets standards for dealing with discrimination in schools.
Historically, the 1972 policy has been used to protect female students from discrimination in sports and the classroom. Today, Title IX covers discrimination both on the basis of gender and sexuality, meaning students and staff on the LGBTQ+ spectrum are also protected.
The Trump administration updated its Title IX policies in 2020, providing a clearer definition of sexual harassment and clarifying that harassment counts as unlawful discrimination. The new policy also requires schools to make their complaint processes more transparent.
Jeff Ambrosier said that’s exactly what the district has been working to do since it started updating its own policy. Ambrosier is the principal at the Ninilchik School and the Title IX coordinator for the district – meaning it's his job to make sure schools are in compliance.
"The policy itself hasn’t changed. But the way we conduct out business has to," he said.
For example, he said the district updated its website to make sure information about the complaint process is front and center.
District staff are now also now required to be trained in identifying and dealing with discrimination. Ambrosier said the district worked McGrath Training Solutions, a national company, and adopted an online course to train all staff starting Jan. 3.
“The main goal is if you spot something, then you report and record that incident," he said.
Ambrosier said that training is important so that people know where to go if they have to report an incident. He said he’s now working with staff who have not yet completed the training to bring them into compliance.
At a school board meeting this summer, some parents testified that they were worried about the protections Title IX extended to transgender students, part of a larger outcry about what they said was a "progressive agenda" in local schools. But at Monday’s board meeting, the final policy passed without fanfare and with full support from the board.
