How do providers do the paperwork/documentation for transgender clients and do any providers have policies concerning preferred name vs birth name, gender, pronouns, bathroom use, etc?

We do not have a written policy as of today, but we it is apart of our strategic plan for this year. Our belief is that all humans should be respected for their right to identify in any manner. The current bathroom laws only apply to public spaces, and we are not state owned. Therefore, we respect the right of a person to use his/her/their preferred bathroom.

We have never had a transgender person, however, we have had people that do not go by their legal names. In those cases, We have all official paperwork in the legal name, but while at the program we call them by their preferred name.

All paperwork, as stated, goes by legal information. When they start the job, we will honor their choices of identification-discussed during the interview process. Once you start your job, we typically do not allow (won’t say never…) you to change your name. This is because we work with children, and we feel it is detrimental to the work environment and their development to change things up in mid-stream. Basically, whoever we hired you as, that who you need to stay.
Outside of the classroom, we have single seat bathrooms that are his/hers, so they can use those if identifying differently than they were born, and do not want to use the bathroom that fits their birth identity.
You do the paperwork and handle it like you would for any consumer – they’re afforded all the same individual rights and dignities every consumer has. Binary consumers have preferred names as well – for billing or anything that requires a legal name – we all use their legal names. But for everything else you use their preferred name. The same should be done with a non-binary or transgender individual. If it’s a legal name change to their preferred name – then you use that legal name. Binary clients use pronouns as well – we all do – you use what they prefer. Unfortunately, because AR has discriminatory laws regarding restroom use – that does create a situation where they will need to use the bathroom of the sex assigned at birth. There’s no way around that when they’re in public. They can use any bathroom they want in their own home or our facility. But, if they identify as a male – you treat them as you would any male client. If they identify as a female – you treat them as you would any female client.
For all our paperwork, client or guardian indicates name, sex M/F/Other, and they can list their title if they wish. Restrooms are labeled “Restrooms” and are all single occupancy.
Typically they list legal name on all paperwork(we specify it needs to match Medicaid card, SS, etc to keep from having billing issue and if they have a nickname or something they’d rather go by, that’s just handled informally by those who work with them. No different than if someone was Timothy and wanted to go by Tim, or use a middle name, or even a nickname different than their legal name(same with staff).

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At Easterseals, for documentation of services we use the individual’s legal name (or whatever is on file with DHS and the PASSE), but when we provide services and interact with the individual, we use a person-centered approach and honor their chosen name and gender.