Controversy continues over a newly adopted school equity code by the State Board of Education.

As accusations mount from a chorus of parental rights advocates and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle claiming the policy violates religious liberties and makes changes to curriculum without parents being involved.

That's despite repeated explanations from state officials that the updated regulations won't change what's taught in schools.

So what does the policy change?

I'm joined now by education and child welfare writer Hannah Gross.

Hannah, there has been so much uproar over this issue, and I think it would really be helpful if people just understood what this equity code is and what it means.

Are there changes to curriculum here?

Yeah.

So the equity code has been in place since 2003 to make sure all students have equal access to educational programs and activities regardless of race, gender or other protected characteristics.

And so what's different in these codes won't really make a huge difference in actual school districts.

It's just changes happening at the state level.

And so some of those changes include moving the language to focus on equity rather than equality, using gender neutral terms instead of gendered ones.

Okay.

So if I have a student who's starting school next week, what changes might they expect to see?

Or as a parent Should I anticipate anything happening differently?

I'm thinking about language used in the classroom, sports.

You know, just general how it will affect children.

Yeah.

So districts don't have to change the language used in their policies.

The biggest difference that students might see is if a district chooses to separate students when they're learning about human sexuality.

In the past, that separation would have been done on the basis of sex.

And now going forward, it would be on the basis of gender identity.

But this is only going to matter in schools where they are separating students.

Some schools choose to teach students altogether.

And that remains the same right.

That sort of home rule, as we like to call it, if those schools already have those policies in place.

Nothing changes there.

Yes.

So they won't be allowed to separate based on sex.

It would have to be based on gender.

But whether or not they choose to separate is up to the district and can remain the same as in previous years.

So talk to me about some of the pushback, because we've seen folks like Republican Senator Bucco, Mike Testa come out and say that they're going to work to repeal this.

But we've also had the Senate president and Assembly speaker, both Democrats say that, you know, they're distancing themselves from it and that they're not necessarily happy with the way that this happened.

What's going on there?

Yeah, so there's been a lot of pushback and much of the pushback is focusing on parental rights and arguing that parents should have more say over what's going on in the classroom.

And in the policy.

So it's possible some of the legislators are calling for repeal.

So this legislation for lawmakers to return to Trenton, it's to be seen what's going to happen there.

It's become sort of a political football, it seems.

Yes.

All right.

So next meeting that comes up for the board of Education is September 6th.

What are you hearing?

Because this is where they'll be taking public testimony.

Yeah.

So the state board is scheduled to meet in the morning on September 6.

And then there's going to be public testimony in the afternoon for a few hours And this is open public testimony.

So members of the public can testify about anything they want.

It doesn't need to be tied to a specific item on the agenda.

And a lot of parental rights advocates and groups are mobilizing people to show up at this meeting.

What are you hearing from parents?

I mean, how do they fall on the sides of this?

Yes.

So parents seem kind of mixed on it.

I think some of the most vocal parents are the ones who are arguing for these parental rights and for a repeal of the changes But from speaking to board members and speaking to regular parents who are attending some of the school board meetings across the state, it seems like people kind of fall on both sides All right.

Hannah Gross, education and child welfare writer for us.

Thank you so much, Hannah.

Thank you for having me.