Transgender Students and Name Changes.

We haven't dealt with any transgender issues yet, but we have several students who go by other names than their legal ones, for whatever reason. All staff get a list of students who prefer to go by another name, and in our computer system the name they prefer is in Quotes, listed such as - Randall "Rudy" Jones.

Good question. I don't think I have the answer...

I was going to say, get some sort of document from the prescribing doc stating that the patient goes under another name.

Or from whomever. The parents? Copy of Birth Certificate on file?

This is going to be an issue for correct med checks.

I have a transgender student and I worried about this last year. He goes by a different name than his legal name, but I hated that there was no way to change it in my system. It seems cruel to have all of my records with a name that he no longer uses. I understand the legal issues behind it, but I just don't like charting under a name that I know he doesn't identify with any longer. As far as meds, he knew that-if I wasn't here- and he needed a PRN that he would have to give his legal name for the sub to be able to find his medication.

We have physical charts and EHR. The legal name goes on the chart and in quotes we write the preferred name and for EHR we put it under nickname. We also put a note for preferred pronouns. For RXs we go by legal name because that's their official name. How I interact with the student does not relate to how I do my paperwork.

I have no experience with this, but imagine that insurance comes into play.

If a student is covered by an insurance plan and the pharmacy is submitting prescriptions for reimbursement, I would guess that the name on the prescription must match the name on the insurance policy. I doubt that insurance reflect companies accept name changes without legal documentation.

Yikes! It gets complicated.

We use legal name with preferred name in quotation marks.

We have physical charts and EHR. The legal name goes on the chart and in quotes we write the preferred name and for EHR we put it under nickname. We also put a note for preferred pronouns. For RXs we go by legal name because that's their official name. How I interact with the student does not relate to how I do my paperwork.

This sounds perfect.

I've had kids who go by their middle name and then I have a hard time locating their information in the computer and I tell them that I have to look it up by the name on their birth certificate.

This sounds perfect.

I've had kids who go by their middle name and then I have a hard time locating their information in the computer and I tell them that I have to look it up by the name on their birth certificate.

We also have kids with double last names and only go by one so we "train" the students that they need to give their full legal name so we can find their chart. I had a student go by a step-parent's last name and one who goes by their middle name as well. The practice is pretty universal and the student's don't take offense because we still respect their name preferences during communication.

Maybe down the road, birth certificates will be written to reflect gender at birth, and allow for a place to have identification changed, if and when that happens. I would assume, like a legal name change with marriage or divorce, it would need to be notarized to make it legal. That would be pretty awesome, I think as it will be part of the norm.