The Trump administration has demanded that California and Washington explain how they will revise school policies that allow educators to withhold information about a child’s “gender transition” from parents after two federal courts concluded that California’s approach likely violates constitutional rights.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office issued the demand Thursday, telling the California Department of Education and the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to “immediately detail” their plans in light of a March U.S. Supreme Court ruling and a June order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The release did not specify a response deadline.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the department expanded its parental-rights enforcement this week against districts accused of maintaining separate records or withholding information about students’ “gender identity” from parents.
“Schools must end the practice of concealing vitally important information about students from parents who love them,” SPPO Director Frank Miller said in the July 30 announcement. “We are providing California and Washington the opportunity to explain to the Department and the families they serve how they are revising their policies to come into compliance with federal law.”
Courts undercut California policies
The Supreme Court’s March 2 ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta vacated a Ninth Circuit stay and allowed a permanent injunction protecting parent plaintiffs to remain in effect while the litigation continues.
“Under long-established precedent, parents—not the State—have primary authority with respect to ‘the upbringing and education of children,’” the Court wrote. It concluded that California policies concealing a child’s symptoms of gender dysphoria at school “likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children.”
The ruling came through an interim application rather than a final decision resolving the case. Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented and argued that the Court should have allowed the ordinary appellate process to continue before reaching the disputed issues.
On June 18, the Ninth Circuit reconsidered an earlier denial and issued a preliminary injunction protecting seven parent plaintiffs in City of Huntington Beach v. Newsom. The order blocks California from enforcing Sections 5 and 6 of Assembly Bill 1955 against those parents regarding information about their own children exhibiting symptoms of gender dysphoria. It does not block the law statewide.
The panel said the law “forbids the mandatory policies that the Constitution requires” concerning that information. AB 1955 bars school systems from requiring employees to disclose information related to a student’s sexual orientation, “gender identity,” or gender expression without the student’s consent, unless state or federal law requires disclosure.
California fights federal finding
The Education Department found on January 28 that California remained in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. SPPO said state laws, guidance and legal actions pressured districts to conceal records, including “gender support plans” stored separately from students’ cumulative files.
California issued guidance on February 11 stating that a support plan remains subject to parental inspection upon request even when a school stores it outside a student’s central file. The state maintains that AB 1955 does not override a parent’s FERPA right to request and inspect qualifying education records.
California also sued the federal government on February 11. Attorney General Rob Bonta argued that SPPO had not identified a single California school that denied a parent’s records request and accused the department of imposing new conditions on $4.9 billion in federal education funding. A federal judge temporarily blocked the department from withholding those funds while the case proceeds.
The dispute therefore extends beyond whether parents may inspect a document after requesting records. The recent constitutional rulings address whether schools may exclude objecting parents from receiving information about a child’s mental health and social transition at school in the first place.
Records from six California districts serving nearly 158,000 students showed that more than 300 children received “gender support plans” or had names or pronouns changed in school systems during the 2023-2024 school year, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported in April 2025. The underlying district responses used different categories, and most did not establish whether parents had been notified.
Washington investigation remains open
The federal government opened its investigation into Washington’s superintendent’s office on April 30, 2025. The Education Department cited an OSPI directive requiring La Center School District not to proactively share a student’s “gender identity” without the student’s consent and said the state had threatened sanctions, including possible loss of state funding, over noncompliance.
OSPI has argued that FERPA does not require proactive disclosure outside a parent’s specific request to inspect education records. It has also said information learned through an employee’s personal knowledge or observation does not become a FERPA education record unless the school uses it to create or maintain a record.
The July 30 demand says the Washington investigation remains open and that the state’s response will inform SPPO’s next steps.
Federal funding remains at stake
FERPA gives parents the right to inspect and review their minor children’s education records, request amendments and exercise control over many disclosures of personally identifiable information. The Education Department can ultimately terminate federal funding for unresolved violations after the enforcement process required by law.
The new demand does not announce a funding cutoff. It puts both states on notice that federal officials expect their policies to change after the Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit orders, while California’s separate challenge to the department’s FERPA interpretation continues.
Provided by Dallas Express
