Non-Responding Districts (2019)

Equality California Institute invited 343 unified school districts in California to complete the Safe and Supportive Schools Survey but did not receive identifiable responses from 213 districts. We believe California’s public school districts owe greater transparency to the students, parents, teachers, staff and community members they serve. It is often quite difficult for students and their parents to understand whether a district has adopted or implemented policies related to the safety, health and well-being of LGBTQ students. It also can be challenging for advocates to easily determine whether their district is in compliance with California state law. The Safe and Supportive Schools Survey was developed precisely for this reason, and it is deeply disappointing that so many districts failed to respond.

Some of the non-responding districts provided reasons they declined to participate: not having enough time to respond, not having enough staff to collect the needed information to respond, not having the capacity or resources to engage in the programs and policies discussed or lack of overall interest in participating. Other districts ignored the survey altogether. Equality California Institute recognizes that school districts have limited capacity and resources. Thus, Equality California Institute is deeply appreciative of the participation and commitment to transparency that the responding districts displayed.

If a district is listed below, Equality California Institute encourages students, parents, educators and community members to write to the school board and administrators and ask why they did not respond. Attend a public school board meeting and encourage the district to participate fully in the next iteration of the Safe and Supportive Schools Survey. If you want assistance contacting your school board, reach out to SafeSchools@eqca.org.

Please note that five of the 130 responses were submitted anonymously; therefore, Equality California Institute was not able to remove them from the list of non-responding districts below. Your district may be listed as non-responsive but may have responded anonymously.

*Gateway Unified School District submitted relevant policies but did not submit responses to survey questions. Accordingly, Equality California Institute did not have survey responses upon which to assign a tier.