The Delta County School Board faces growing community frustrations and is in the policy review process to adopt a state law requiring that students have the ability to change their names in school registration and that educators must respect any name changes.
Currently, only a few students change their names on school registrations.
Barbra Cocetti, the Delta High School registrar, said, “Currently we have about ten students that use a name other than the legal name that appears on the birth certificate.”
Students change their names for a variety of reasons, some of which are very personal, according to Cocetti.
“It’s usually a preferred gender name, a middle name, or a last name that they prefer to use if they have a family split,” said Cocetti.
The new law, House Bill 24-1039, only applies to instances where a name change is made to reflect the gender identity of a student.
The bill says “‘Chosen name’ means any name that a student requests to be known as that differs from the student’s legal name, to reflect the student’s gender identity.”
However, the biggest concern for the school board is parental notification.
Board President Dan Burke said, “If the student and parent sign off the name change, then the teacher will need to abide by this change.”
This policy has yet to be adopted by the board, and according to Burke, the details haven’t been fully worked out yet.
“We are still working on the proper protocols for this policy as it moves forward.”
The topic got some community attention at last month’s school board meeting with community members asking the board to solidify their position sooner rather than later.
During a school board meeting, community member and pastor Shane Keir said, “I also understand that there’s been some discussion to kids of the school having the opportunity to change their name or identity while at school. This has been handed down from the state and I understand we as a school district must comply, but I would like to see mandatory parent notification.”
