Worcester schools describe Pride Family Advisory Council and staff trainings to local LGBTQIA+ advisory commission

Casey Star, director of family and community engagement for Worcester Public Schools, told the Worcester Advisory Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs on July 1 that the district has launched a family-led Pride Family Advisory Council and expanded staff trainings to support LGBTQIA+ students and families. "My name is Casey Star. I'm the director for family and community engagement in the Worcester Public Schools," she said, introducing a brief presentation and a plan for further outreach.

Star said the Office of Family and Community Engagement, now three years old, supports 47 wraparound coordinators across the district and oversees programs serving students covered by the McKinney-Vento law, students experiencing homelessness and students in foster care. She described explicit district non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression and said schools "respect and use students' chosen names and gender identity." Star added that non-binary and single-use bathrooms are available in all schools and that permission slips and some other district forms have been edited to use inclusive language (replacing "son or daughter" with "student").

The district has also instituted an inclusive sex education curriculum, Rights, Respect, and Responsibilities, and partnered with the state Safe Schools program coordinated by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth to deliver free trainings. Star said those sessions have trained school adjustment counselors, deans, wellness-room instructors, culture-and-climate assistants, nurses, all wraparound coordinators and all assistant principals, and that the district plans to expand training to more staff.

Star described the Pride Family Advisory Council as a family-led group formed in the 2024–25 school year and more fully active in 2025–26. She said the council has generated a resources page on the Worcester Public Schools website, hosted guest speakers from HR, equity and health curriculum offices at members' request, developed a best-practices one-pager for schools, and helped lead family-friendly visibility events. "The council will empower and support LGBTQIA+ students and their families by helping us to have develop best practices," Star said, emphasizing community-building and family leadership.

When commissioners asked how they could assist, Star asked them to help spread the word to families with students in the district and to avoid burning out the family leaders who have been running the group. The presentation noted that the district marched in the Worcester Pride Parade in September 2025 and hosted school-based flag-raising events such as a "Popsicles for Pride" elementary celebration.

Star said the district does not yet have comprehensive outcome metrics to attribute to the trainings but highlighted practical changes—policy language updates, a resources page, and expanded staff training—as near-term indicators of progress. She agreed to share her slide deck with the commission and to follow up about meeting schedules for the Pride Family Advisory Council.

Next steps from the presentation: the commission and its members will circulate information about the Pride Family Advisory Council to recruit families and support the council's stated priorities, which include ensuring active GSAs in all secondary schools and continuing Safe Schools staff training.