A research team led by UW–Madison alumna Erin Gill was recently awarded a $50,000 Small Grant from the Spencer Foundation to examine how LGBTQ+-restrictive legislation affects student safety and well-being.

Gill, who earned her doctorate from the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) in 2025 and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, is leading the project alongside UW–Madison researchers Mollie McQuillan, associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis, and Benjamin Lebovitz, an ELPA doctoral candidate.

Their project, “The Educational Costs of Policy Erasure: Estimating the Impact of Escalating LGBTQ+-Restrictive Legislation on Student Safety and Mental Health,” examines how restrictive state policies shape the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning (LGBQ+) students. The study draws on eight years of legislative data and representative high school student samples from the state-level Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) across 40 U.S. states.

The project comes amid a rapid increase in legislation affecting LGBTQ+ students in K-12 schools. In recent years, states have enacted policies restricting access to school facilities and athletics, limiting discussion of gender and sexuality in classrooms, and constraining educators’ ability to honor students’ names and pronouns. According to the research team, the number of LGBTQ+-restrictive education bills introduced nationwide grew from none in 2015 to 290 in 2023.

As state policy decisions continue to reshape schools across the country, the study aims to inform future policies that advance, rather than diminish, educational equity.

In notifying the team of the award, the Spencer Foundation noted that the project was selected from approximately 1,300 grant proposals. This recognition reflects the potential of the research to build new knowledge in the field and contribute to policy and practice that support students and schools.