Students who do not identify as male or female will now have other options on enrollment forms at many Washington, D.C. area schools, one of several ways schools are working to avoid a “difficult situation” in the classroom.

Students enrolling in Arlington Public Schools will now have three options for gender: male, female and “X” – for those who are unsure. Washington, D.C. public schools will also add “non-binary” as a third option, while Alexandria City Public Schools will collect students’ preferred name and gender identity, WAMU reports.

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“From Alexandria’s perspective, the school board made the commitment a while ago,” Julie Crawford, Alexandria City’s chief of student services, told the news site. “It’s a way to make sure we’re putting this into practice.”

The intent is to help teachers navigate the confusing world of gender identity before they embarrass a student or create a “difficult situation” by saying the wrong thing. It all ties into the district’s broader “cultural competency” training, Crawford said.

“What is okay to ask? What’s confidential that the student doesn’t need to be asked about? And if you aren’t someone who has great familiarity or feels uncomfortable, knowing who can help you in school,” she said.

Schools are still required by state and federal governments to collect a student’s gender as defined by their birth certificate, but states like Maryland also allow schools to change the official record. Schools that collect preferred names and genders typically relay that information to teachers, chaperones, or parent volunteers to avoid the awkward situation of calling a student by their actual name, or referring to their actual gender, WAMU reports.

“We were able to figure out a way by thinking outside the box to say, ‘Okay, we have to still collect what the state requires, and what is the reason why we would not be able to collect an additional piece of information?’” said Marya Runkle, technology director at Alexandria City schools. “I can’t control that the state says we have to do data in a certain way. However, it is within our bounds to set up an environment in which students are respected.”

The expanded gender options follow years of debate over transgender policies in public schools sparked by the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX protections. An Obama directive ordered schools to allow students to choose their own sexual identity – with access to locker room, shower, restroom and other facilities for their chosen sex.

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The directive came with the threat of lost federal funding, and many schools complied.

Students, schools and the federal government exchanged lawsuits on various cases related to the edict, which the Trump administration has since rescinded.

The Department of Health and Human Services is now leading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX anti-discrimination laws, according to The New York Times.

A memo from the department advocated for the government’s “Big Four” – Departments of Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Labor – to adopt a definition “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.”

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the memo read. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

Transgender issues continue to boil over in local schools, as well.

The West Point School Board fired French teacher Peter Vlaming for subordination on Thursday for not using a transgender student’s preferred pronouns. The female student was in Vlaming’s class last year and transitioned to male for this school year. Vlaming told his superiors that his Christian faith prevented him from using male pronouns and offered to avoid feminine pronouns as a compromise, the Associated Press reports.

Vlaming said the offer for “mutual tolerance” was rejected, and he ultimately lost his job for views shared by “most of the world for most of human history.”

“That is not tolerance,” he said. “That is coercion.”