Regardless of their politics, all CAIS families willingly enroll their children in this school community with full knowledge of our Mission and Core Values. Our school’s five core values—Perseverance, Curiosity, Inclusion, Courage, and Kindness—were adopted just before the Lunar New Year in 2020, after a months-long process in which all CAIS families had the opportunity to participate. The values can be found on classroom walls, school publications, the school website, and CAIS swag. They inform school policy and practices, and they are embedded in our curriculum. Prospective parents are introduced to CAIS’s core values from their first campus tour.
So it should be surprising to no one that in recent days and weeks, as we have heard increasingly disturbing and aggressive rhetoric around gender coming from our nation’s capital, the conversations we are having at CAIS are rooted in our school’s core values, and in particular the values of Inclusion, Kindness, and Courage. My colleagues and I want you to feel confident and safe in the knowledge that your children’s school will always champion these values, which have served and will continue to serve as guideposts for planning and decision making about all issues, including gender inclusion.
What does this mean, specifically? CAIS was among the first San Francisco independent schools to develop comprehensive Gender Inclusion Guidelines which have been included in the CAIS Family Handbook for nearly a decade—I encourage you to read them. Rooted in our school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Philosophy, CAIS Gender Inclusion Guidelines state our clear commitment to “providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all students, including transgender and other gender expansive students.”
The Guidelines also address a variety of specific situations including:
- Names, pronouns, and student records
- Restrooms
- Dress codes
- Sports teams and locker rooms
- Partnerships with outside organizations, global programs, and other off campus programs
Just a few visible examples of our commitment include the 19th Avenue campus redesign which includes individual all gender restrooms in the Teaching and Learning Building, and the ability for families to designate “Male,” “Female,” or “Gender Non-Binary” in our Veracross student information system. CAIS has engaged over the years with the Berkeley-based organization Gender Spectrum to provide resources and professional development for our faculty and staff.
In 2013, the California State Assembly passed AB1266, amending the Education Code to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity, and gender expression. The CAIS Board of Trustees, as members of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), is required to “assure that the school and the board operate in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, minimizing exposure to legal action.” So in addition to an ethical obligation to uphold our schools core values, we also have a legal obligation to uphold this legislation.
As de facto signatories to CAIS’s core values, I invite all enrolled CAIS families to join me in our school community’s commitment to “providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all students, including transgender and other gender expansive students.”