Education Department Moves Against Two School Districts Over Hidden Gender Transitions

The U.S. Department of Education announced enforcement action against two school districts it says hid students' gender transitions from their parents, in what officials say is a violation of federal law.

According to a Department of Education statement, the department's Student Privacy Policy Office is partnering with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to pursue Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland. The department says the district classified information about a student's "gender identity" as confidential medical information that couldn't be shared with parents, even when parents asked directly.

The case that triggered the action is specific. Parents in Anne Arundel County discovered their daughter was being helped to present as male at school after receiving a school email that referred to her using male pronouns, according to the Department of Education. When the parents went to school administrators, the principal wouldn't give details about the transition and the assistant principal refused to hand over the child's records, the department says.

Separately, the department says Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan has a policy requiring employees to hide a student's "transgender status" from parents, and that the district also keeps gender-identity records in a separate filing system apart from normal student records. Ann Arbor has been given until August 10 to explain why the government shouldn't move forward with enforcement, according to the department's statement.

Both cases rest on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, a federal law that gives parents the right to inspect and request corrections to their child's school records and control who else can see them. If the districts don't comply, they risk judicial proceedings and the loss of federal funding, the department said.

What officials are saying

Education Secretary Linda McMahon framed the action in blunt terms. "As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents," McMahon said in the department's statement, adding that districts are being "put on notice" that the government will use "every tool available" to hold them accountable.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said plainly that "FERPA is not optional," and that districts trying to "bypass or distort its requirements" would face consequences.

Fox News Digital, which had exclusive early access to the announcement, reported that Secretary McMahon also cited Justice Department investigations underway in Vermont in addition to Maryland and Michigan, and referenced allegations that some districts have asked sexually explicit questions on surveys given to seventh graders. Those additional claims did not appear in the Education Department's own public statement, which focused specifically on the Anne Arundel and Ann Arbor cases.

The case for what the districts are doing

School districts that have adopted these confidentiality policies generally argue they're protecting students, particularly LGBTQ students, from parents who might react to a gender transition with rejection or even violence at home. That's a real concern for some students, and it's the underlying rationale school boards in several states have given for treating gender-identity information differently than other student records.

FERPA doesn't carve out an exception for that judgment call. The law is built on the presumption that parents, not school administrators, have the right to their minor children's educational and health-related records. A school district substituting its own judgment about what a parent should be told, without a court order or a specific legal exception, is the exact scenario FERPA was written to prevent.

Where this goes next

Anne Arundel County now faces active enforcement proceedings, which could include the district losing federal education funding if it doesn't come into compliance. Ann Arbor has a firm deadline of August 10 to respond and justify its policy before facing the same threat.

Neither district has filed a public response as of this reporting. This is a civil enforcement matter under federal education law, not a criminal case, and no charges have been filed against any school employee. Whether either district changes its policy, challenges the finding, or loses funding will depend on how they respond to the government's demands and on whether the matter ends up in front of a federal judge if the districts refuse to comply.