“[We] Try to Do Due Diligence to . . . Bring That Awareness”: How School-Based Mental Health Professionals Support Students with Complex Gender Identities in Schools

Abstract The National School Social Work Practice Model 2.0 calls on school social workers to cultivate a supportive school climate as one of its four core focus areas. In line with the model’s professional principle of equity, as state legislators continue to pass explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, the imperative to address gender equity in schools becomes urgent. The present study examines how school-based mental health professionals (SBMHPs) supported students with complex gender identities (e.g., transgender or nonbinary students) in schools. As part of a critical ethnography on gender in New Orleans schools, this study draws from 33 qualitative interviews with school stakeholders (N = 26) including students (n = 18) and school staff (n = 8) and analysis of written school policies across 17 schools. Results demonstrated that SBMHPs provided three types of support to youth with complex gender identities: general student support, student information tracking, and proactive education efforts. Despite numerous examples of support, potential areas of improvement were also illuminated. School social workers can take action to promote educational equity across all five professional activities posited in the model: practice, research, policy, leadership, and advocacy. Social workers must advance educational equity in schools by standing in unapologetic solidarity with youth with complex gender identities.