The city’s Department of Education is holding a hearing this evening on proposed revisions to the Citywide Standards of Discipline and Intervention Measures.

The standards of behavior, applicable to all public schools, include a Discipline Code that delineates unacceptable behavior, such as the use of weapons, cheating, and bullying, as well as the range of allowable disciplinary and intervention measures that may be taken when students engage in such behavior.

Also included in the standards is a Student Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which the document describes as promoting “responsible behavior and an atmosphere of dignity and respect.”

One of the major changes in the draft copy of the revised Discipline Code is the addition of “gender identity, gender expression” to a list of categories protected against bias harassment. Previously in the list were race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability.

“We’re aligning ourselves with current law,” a spokesman for the department, Keith Kalb, said, referring to the transgender rights bill signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg in April 2002.

Chairman of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, Pauline Park, herself a transgendered woman, said she was pleased with the addition, but she voiced some concerns.

“It is meaningless because there’s nothing in the Discipline Code that requires the DOE or schools to monitor bias harassment. They simply don’t – there are no numbers. They can’t even tell you how extensive the problem is,” Ms. Park said. Both Ms. Park and the chairwoman of the City Council’s Committee on Education, Eva Moskowitz, said the Dignity in All Schools Act, passed by the council last summer, and vetoed by Mr. Bloomberg on the ground that superceding state education laws already protect students from bullies, would require the much-needed tracking of complaints of bullying.

The vetoed measure would also require that school administrators and teachers receive training in how to recognize and deal with bullying behavior.

The council has not yet decided whether it will challenge the Bloomberg administration in court on the issue, according to Ms. Moskowitz.

Also up for revision is the addition of “headgear” to a list of “items that are unsafe or disruptive to the educational process.” Mr. Kalb said such disruptive headgear did not include items of religious expression. The hearing is scheduled for the Tweed Courthouse, 52 Chambers St., between 6 and 8 p.m. Interested parties are to be given three minutes each to speak out about the revisions.