Education Secretary Linda McMahon said it was ‘unconscionable’ that school districts would choose to hide sensitive information of students from parents.
The Education Department (ED) is moving to take action against two school districts that allegedly hid students’ transgender identity from parents.
The school districts being probed are Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland and Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan, the ED said in a July 27 statement.
Anne Arundel is accused of improperly classifying information regarding the “gender identity” of students in school records as confidential medical information that cannot be shared with parents, according to the ED.
The ED’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) received a complaint from the parents of a girl that the school was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male while at the institution. The parents learned of this after receiving an email that referred to the daughter using male pronouns.
When parents raised the issue with the school, the principal allegedly refused to provide information regarding the “gender transition,” the ED said. The assistant principal also refused to turn over relevant records, according to the ED.
The ED said that such policies and practices “unlawfully impeded” parents’ rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
SPPO and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Civil Rights Division will take enforcement action against the school district over its failure to comply with FERPA, including judicial proceedings and cutting federal funding.
According to a 2023 policy revision document from the school district, FERPA generally prohibits schools receiving federal funding from disclosing students’ personally identifiable information.
“Accordingly, school staff may not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity unless legally required to do so with the proper authorization,” the district said.
As for Ann Arbor Public Schools, SPPO determined that its policy requiring school employees to hide a child’s “transgender status” from parents also likely violates FERPA, the ED said.
The district has been given until Aug. 10 to explain why the ED and the DOJ must not proceed with enforcement action.
In addition, the district must justify a policy that allegedly requires school officials to maintain records related to a student’s “gender identity” in a separate filing system, or face “imminent enforcement action,” according to the ED.
