The Impact of the Legal Landscape on LGBTQ + Students and their School Psychologists

The United States’ changing legal landscape over the past few years has compromised schools’ ability to explicitly support their LGBTQ + students, colleagues, and families. Many perceived the overturning of the landmark court case, Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruling on June 24, 2022 as a defining moment in limiting LGBTQ + community members’ safety, support, and protections through legal means in the United States. The ACLU identified 510 new anti-LGBTQ + legislation proposals around the country in just 2023 alone, illustrating the traction garnered in seeking to limit LGBTQ + rights. Given the additional stress LGBTQ + students, families, and colleagues may experience related to imposed legal mandates (e.g., exclusion, rejection, and discrimination) and the potential for resulting exacerbated mental health outcomes, school psychologists have an ethical obligation to be informed of the legal landscape. In this paper, we review the impact of the legal landscape on LGBTQ + students, how school psychologists may be impacted in providing services to their LGBTQ + students and schools, what school psychologists can do to support their LGBTQ + students, families, and colleagues, and current efforts being undertaken in the school psychology field to promote effective advocacy. Despite the political climate and prevalent barriers to both providing and accessing ethical care to LGBTQ + students, we call for school psychologists’ ongoing commitment to facilitating wellness among all students, inclusive of their LGBTQ + students who are experiencing heightened marginalization and exclusion in the current climate.