Name & Gender Changes and LGBTQ-Based Discrimination in the Child Welfare System

Kelsey Pacha

Training Description

This training will educate providers about federal and California (CA) state laws that protect Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) youth in care, as well as alert them to procedures for reporting anti-LGBTQ discrimination in educational, therapeutic, and child welfare contexts. Participants will review legal protections for youth in regards to placement, medical care, gender-affirming medical care and therapy, and access to sex-segregated spaces. Participants will learn procedures for how to support a client’s name and/or gender change, whether minor or adult, and how to do so when clients have a legal guardian other than a parent, or one or more parents still listed as guardians. Participants will also discuss how to make strategic choices to support name, gender, and pronoun changes among youth clients outside a court-ordered process. Participants will participate in a group assessment regarding knowledge of these laws, learn procedures for filing various types of discrimination reports, and complete a case study in small groups. They will also consider what recourse a client at their agency (or other context) may have in reporting discrimination against a fellow provider and strategize about how to support such clients in advocacy.

Learning Objective

• Test their knowledge about laws that protect LGBTQ youth in care in CA.
• Discuss laws that protect LGBTQ youth in the child welfare and educational systems in CA.
• Learn about name and gender change processes and resources to support youth clients if they are pursuing a name and/or gender change.
• Learn how to fill out name and gender change paperwork, how to file a discrimination complaint within the CA public school system, and how to make a report against mental health providers and child welfare system workers.

Agenda 

9:30am-9:40am Introductions: name, GP, professional role. Personal action plan.

9:40am-10:20am Review basic premises about LGBTQ identities and LGBTQ overrepresentation in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Define gender-affirming care, protected classes, and intersectionality.

10:20am-10:45am Legal true/false activity.

10:45am-11:15am Laws that protect foster care youth against discrimination in foster care system. Law fact sheet. All County Letters re: Medi-Cal, Gender-Affirming Care.

11:15am-11:45am Working backwards activity: What would an LGBTQ client need to do to report harassment or discrimination? What would be your role in such a report?

11:45am-12pm Break. (CEUs will not be issued for this time)

12:00pm-12:35pm Laws that protect LGBTQ youth in school. AB1266 FAQ worksheet.

12:35pm-1:30pm Name and gender change laws/procedures.

1:30pm-1:45pm Break. (CEUs will not be issued for this time)

1:45pm-2:20pm How can you advocate for your clients? (Best practices.)

2:20pm-3:10pm Case studies with filling out paperwork—three groups: Name/gender change, reporting discrimination at school, and reporting discrimination with a provider. Review how to fill out paperwork, split into groups, and small group work on case study with share-out.

3:10pm-3:30pm Q&A, evaluations, and wrap up.

Meet Our Trainer

Kelsey Pacha, MA, M.Div. is a trans man who has worked with marginalized communities for 15+ years in a variety of settings. He holds a Master of Religion and Psychology, Master of Divinity, and Certificate of Sexuality and Religion from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Psychological Services from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He is the owner of Kelsey Pacha Consulting, which supports the work of institutions and individuals in increasing their capacity for cultural humility and social justice-informed institutional change. Kelsey offers educational trainings and LGBTQ workplace policy expertise with an emphasis on practical skills, identity awareness, and personal empowerment. He regularly works with corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion officers and LGBTQ affinity groups, as well as legal, clinical, medical, and direct service (including child welfare and faith leader) personnel. For more information, visit kelseypachaconsulting.com or email info@kelseypachaconsulting.com.

This course meets the qualifications for (5.5) BBS CEUs for LCSWs and MFTs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.