New Jersey doesn't have statewide transgender policy, which some school districts have criticized. What do you think?
Since New Jersey currently does not have a policy addressing transgender equality in school districts statewide, individual municipalities are crafting their own to tackle the issue.
School districts like Pascack Valley, Princeton, and Cherry Hill are among those that have implemented some variation of transgender equality policy. The Highland Park Board of Education will soon vote on its own measure later this month.
But the state Department of Education has come under criticism -- most recently by school personnel in Highland Park -- for not taking steps to create uniform policy applied to all school districts in New Jersey.
Gov. Chris Christie said late last month that it was unlikely he'd sign a state transgender bathroom law, according to a previous report. New Jersey, however, is considering banning state-sponsored travel to states with religious freedom and gender bathroom laws, like North Carolina, according to a previous report.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently ruled that the "bathroom law" in North Carolina -- which mandates people use the bathroom assigned on their birth certificates -- was unconstitutional. North Carolina sued the federal government on Monday.
A spokesman for the state Department of Education said earlier this month that the DOE had no plans to tackle statewide policy.
But with more and more school districts adopting their own policies, should the state eventually tackle the issue and create a policy that would uniformly apply to all New Jersey school districts?
Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.