Setting the Record Straight: What the Court Really Said About Policy 5756
Schools are free to choose how they meet the law’s requirements, but they are not free to ignore them.
Let’s Set the Record Straight:
According to New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD), school boards are required to ensure that all students are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their gender identity or expression.
What Policy 5756 Does:
Policy 5756 provides expert guidance for schools to meet NJLAD requirements, offering best practices to create a safe, supportive, and nondiscriminatory environment for transgender and gender-nonconforming students. It is a tool to help schools align with civil rights protections.
What Is and Isn’t Mandatory:
Policy 5756 is not mandatory. School boards may choose to adopt or remove it.
Compliance with NJLAD is mandatory. Schools must protect students from discrimination, whether or not they use Policy 5756.
In short, schools are free to choose how they meet the law’s requirements, but they are not free to ignore them.
Exposing the Misinformation Campaign Against Policy 5756
Some anti-LGBTQ groups are pushing to eliminate Policy 5756, distorting its purpose to mislead the public. Their false narrative claims that the courts ruled Policy 5756 was never mandatory—implying deception by the New Jersey Attorney General and the media. However, what they omit is crucial: the policy itself is not mandatory, but protecting students from discrimination based on gender identity or expression is state law.
Policy 5756 provides expert guidance for school boards to meet their legal obligations under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD). If a district repeals the policy, it must still implement measures ensuring transgender students' rights, including access to facilities aligned with their gender identity. Removing Policy 5756 doesn’t exempt districts from their legal duties—it only makes compliance more difficult and increases the risk of lawsuits.
The law is clear: students must be protected, and discrimination will not be tolerated.
School boards that abandon Policy 5756 have not 'won' any battle; they have only created legal exposure and confusion. If your district has rescinded Policy 5756, stay informed on how to report violations of students' civil rights.
Contact your School’s Title IX coordinator.
Directly with the U.S. Department of Education office of Civil Rights (ED OCR)
Or other resources found on the Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network website.