Natick Public Schools' PowerSchool Message Tells Staff to Hide Students' "Private Preferred Name" from Parents

This PowerSchool message directs staff to hide students' "private preferred name" from his/her parents.

Concerned staff members at Natick Public Schools reached out to Parental Rights Natick about a feature in PowerSchool (the Student Information System [SIS]) that essentially directs teachers to hide a student's "private preferred name" from his/her parents.

According to NPS staff, this "private preferred name" message is visible from the attendance taking feature of PowerSchool. Teachers can see this information for their students who are using a different identity at school vs. at home or with other "outside agencies."

When we asked the district directly about this parental exclusion PowerSchool procedure (including how many parents were actively being lied to about their child's identity at school), the superintendent and Natick School Committee chair told us to submit this through a public records request so they could best track the requested information and provide full transparency.

This response from the School Committee directed us to public records to confirm the PowerSchool procedure.

Through a public records request, we confirmed that Natick Public Schools is using this SIS parental exclusion procedure to flag "private preferred name" for students at Natick High School and Natick middle schools (although it's unclear if any current middle school students have secret gender identities). It's important to know that this SIS parental exclusion procedure is not based on any state law, so Natick Public Schools is hiding information from parents about their own children at its discretion.

This information is collected for students' NPS Gender Identity Support Plan, which can exclude parents.

Parents are best positioned to understand the needs of their own children. Natick Public Schools’ Gender Identity Policy that fails to require parental notice and consent to a minor child’s desire for social transitioning, including a name change at school, creates unnecessary risks for children by making decisions about their gender identity without the guidance of their parents.

Contact your child's principal about policy IHAM-R to opt your child out of biased and controversial gender lessons and to voice your concerns about unsafe gender procedures that direct school staff to hide your child's chosen gender identity from you.

Will you also forward this email to other concerned Natick parents with children in Natick Public Schools to sign up to receive our weekly emails?