Nontraditional School Enrollment in Transgender and Gender-Diverse Youth

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of online and homeschool attendance in transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) youth.

Methods: Caregivers of 12- to 17-year-olds participated in a phone survey about school attendance. Subjects included TGD youth receiving care in a gender health clinic and youth receiving care in a pediatric endocrinology/diabetes (PED) clinic.

Results: Parents of 83 TGD and 83 PED youth participated in the study. Current/past enrollment in a nontraditional school setting was higher among TGD than PED youth (37.3% vs. 19.3%; p = .01). In addition, 14.5% of TGD and 7.2% of PED youth had transferred between traditional school settings (public, private, and charter) for psychosocial reasons.

Conclusions: Approximately half of the TGD youth had either attended a nontraditional school setting or changed schools for psychosocial reasons, compared with approximately one fourth of PED youth (51.8% vs. 26.5%, p = .001). This suggests that traditional school environments present significant psychological difficulties for TGD adolescents.