Montana’s top education official this month sent a letter to schools telling them to “stay compliant” with state and federal laws. The letter from Superintendent of Public Instruction Susie Hedalen references concerns schools are teaching diversity, equity and inclusion and gender identity. But it stops short of explaining what prompted those concerns. MTPR’s Austin Amestoy spoke with the Superintendent to learn more.
Austin Amestoy: Superintendent Hedalen, thank you so much for joining us today.
Susie Hedalen: Thank you for having me, Austin. I'm happy to be here.
Austin Amestoy: So Superintendent, you sent a letter to schools recently that urged them to remain in full compliance with the law. And you said in a press release at that same time it was in response to “ongoing media coverage and public concern regarding ideological activism in public schools.” Can you tell us a little bit about what you're referring to in that letter and release?
Susie Hedalen: Yes, so our schools signed an assurance, a certification that they were going to follow the federal laws as well as state laws in receipt of their funding. But also, the federal funding's directly tied to being in compliance, not teaching DEI in the classrooms and other components like that.
Austin Amestoy: Do you have reason to believe that schools are not complying with the law?
Susie Hedalen: Well, as you know, there's been some media coverage lately that has raised some concern. And I believe that most of our educators and our school leaders across the state of Montana do a fantastic job. And my goal is to make sure that we are building trust in our public school systems through transparency and parent involvement.
However, when we hear about books being taught that cross those lines and parents weren't given the opportunity to opt in, when we hear about “gender unicorns” being taught and, you know, under-the-radar and these kinds of things, I, you know — I really hope it's the one-offs and not the norm, but that's what is creating distrust and is very unfortunate.
Austin Amestoy: Our listeners may not know about what you're referring to. Can you tell us about what it is you're referring to? These instances that you mentioned, this “gender unicorn” and the book in the library and whatnot?
Susie Hedalen: Yeah, so there are different, you know — the local school boards are in charge of approving curriculum. And we also have recent legislation which OPI provides guidance to school districts on and this is just a reminder of what we've already sent out to school districts; that we have detailed information on the new legislation and laws that ensure parents have the right to opt in to their students participating in any lessons that have to do with human sexuality and identity instruction. And that was House Bill 471.
So we are just reminding schools that they need to make sure parents are made aware and not only made aware, but that they sign approval for their students to participate in any kind of instruction like that. But beyond that, even if a school is teaching diversity equity inclusion materials — DEI — the federal government said that is unacceptable if schools are accepting federal funds. So we need to make sure that they are aware of that and following these.
Austin Amestoy: Superintendent, are they, to your knowledge, teaching these things that run afoul of state or federal law?
Susie Hedalen: I do not have concrete examples and that's why I sent out a letter of a reminder, which we already do regularly. I have a weekly newsletter that goes out as well as a monthly, and we highlight the legislation. We highlight links to guidance that we provide, we offer professional development and best practices on these areas because we want all of our schools to be in compliance. We don't want anyone to be at risk of losing their funding or their accreditation status. We want our parents to trust that their students are learning reading, writing, and math when they drop them off at school.
Austin Amestoy: Superintendent, I want to drill down on some of these examples you mentioned earlier. You were on another statewide radio show recently where you said that elements of a recent educator conference held by the statewide teachers union, Montana Federation of Public Employees, were “unacceptable.” And I'm wondering what happened at that conference that you found unacceptable?
Susie Hedalen: Well, what we're gonna do at OPI is look into all of our PDU providers as well as our system. We are doing a large data modernization project here at the OPI. So with the new system that we're going to put this platform on, we're gonna look at our procedures and our protocols for anyone that is a renewal unit provider to ensure that the content of their professional development aligns with state and federal law as well.
Austin Amestoy: To be clear, we're talking about the renewal units, which are what teachers need in order to make — like maintain — their licensure, right? Which is one of the things that can be provided at this Montana Federation of Public Employees conference we're talking about. But I'm wondering, Superintendent, what happened at that conference that you found unacceptable? What prompted your comment?
Susie Hedalen: Some of the — some of the audio and some of the conversations that were held. Leaders from the NEA that were sharing strategies that do not go along with our state and federal laws.
Austin Amestoy: What were those strategies?
Susie Hedalen: And even some components of how recommending teachers different ideas on how to work around them.
Austin Amestoy: And what were those strategies that they were recommending and talking about that that you feel run afoul of law?
Susie Hedalen: I'm not gonna get into every one of the audio. There was a lot on there, and I honestly haven't even listened to all of it. But some of the ones that were concerning to me were just discussions about how to avoid or provide misinformation to parents when they question educators on DEI. That was one that I heard that I found concerning because I'm all about making sure that we are transparent with parents. Parents deserve to know what their students are learning at school.
Austin Amestoy: But to your knowledge, there's no violation happening in our public schools right now of these laws that you're referring to?
Susie Hedalen: We do not investigate schools in that manner for a violation of this. If there is, you know, there can be concerns reported to us, but we have not gone to that extent. Our goal is to support our schools in being in compliance. We want our schools to be a beacon of excellence. We want them to be performing at a high level in reading, writing, and math. We've had incredible scores come out recently. We want to celebrate the great work that our schools are doing. We don't want this negative, you know, distrust — these items that can cause distrust to be surfacing. So we just want to remind our schools to stay above board. And I want to thank the amazing educators who are the majority, as well as the school leaders and others that understand that it's important to be neutral at school.
Austin Amestoy: I want to ask you one more question about the conference. The Montana Federation of Public Employees, I asked them about your comments on air. They told me in a statement that they are following the law and district policy, state policy, and they told me that they collaborate with OPI in providing these renewal units at its conference that satisfy state requirements. So I'm wondering if you feel, based on what you've heard happened at this conference, that the Federation of Public Employees is following state and federal law.
Susie Hedalen: Like I said, we are not going to just look into one provider. We already have our staff that is working with all of our PDU providers. We have a few other providers that are missing components that have recently received letters that they need to get their information turned into us. So this process was already occurring and we are going to take it to another level to examine our PDU providers. And like I said, with the new technology we will have, it will be even easier. We need to utilize those tools as we can. And we do have a plan to meet with the MFPE group in the future to discuss where we’re at.
Austin Amestoy: Superintendent of Public Instruction Susie Hedalen, always a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you so much for your time.
Susie Hedalen: Thank you, Austin.
