{"id":155317,"date":"2026-01-29T19:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155317\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:36:24","slug":"ed-dept-says-california-violated-law-by-concealing-students-gender-identity-the-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155317\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed. Dept. Says California Violated Law by Concealing Students\u2019 Gender Identity \u2013 The 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Trump administration says California schools violated parents\u2019 rights by pressuring schools to keep students\u2019 gender transitions a secret.<\/p>\n

In the decision<\/a> announced Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education told state officials that they can resolve the dispute by treating any school \u201cgender support plans\u201d as education records available for parents\u2019 inspection and let districts enforce \u201cpro-parental notification approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Gavin Newsom\u2019s failed leadership, school personnel have even bragged about facilitating \u2018gender transitions,\u2019 and shared strategies to target minors and conceal information about children from their own families,\u201d Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. The department referenced a public records request by a religious organization<\/a> showing that six California districts changed the names or pronouns of 300 students in the 2023-24 school year. The announcement doesn\u2019t spell out what penalties, if any, the state might face if it doesn\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n

But most student privacy experts say the department is misinterpreting the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act. While FERPA gives parents the right to inspect their children\u2019s education records, it doesn\u2019t compel districts to notify a parent if their child changes their gender identity at school.<\/p>\n

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RelatedThe California Mom at the Center of Trump\u2019s Crackdown on School Gender Policies<\/p>\n

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The department launched an investigation<\/a> last March, based on a request<\/a> from Julie Hamill, a conservative attorney who argued that state policies and guidance amounted to a \u201cscheme\u201d to conceal students\u2019 gender identity from parents. Now an assistant U.S. attorney, Hamill cited a Q&A document, later rescinded, that advised schools<\/a> to consult students before deciding whether to share information on their gender identity, including with their parents. Some districts, she wrote, would change students\u2019 names and pronouns in school databases, but parents would see legal names when they logged in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Federal officials also took aim at a California law, passed in 2025, which says districts can\u2019t force educators to \u201cout\u201d students against their will. Liz Sanders, spokeswoman for the California Department of Education, said officials were reviewing the department\u2019s findings and referred The 74 to previous statements. In October, the state said<\/a> the new law, known as the SAFETY Act, doesn\u2019t prohibit school staff \u201cfrom sharing any information with parents\u201d and doesn\u2019t override FERPA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s determination further escalates an ongoing, emotional debate between state leaders who say students have a right to privacy and an administration that holds such decisions are the responsibility of parents. Advocates for LGBTQ students and many educators say they\u2019re trying to protect students who might face rejection or abuse at home. But others call such actions \u201cparental exclusion\u201d policies that violate parents\u2019 constitutional rights to direct the upbringing of their children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a student is contemplating life-altering changes, the least a school can do is notify their parent or guardian,\u201d McMahon posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lydia McLaughlin, the parent whose experience Hamill cited in the letter to federal officials last January, called the news \u201cbittersweet.\u201d She spent two years<\/a> seeking emails and schoolwork from the Hart Unified High School District, north of Los Angeles, that would demonstrate how school staff were socially transitioning her child from female to male. Administrators initially refused to meet with McLaughlin and cited a 2013 state law<\/a> that protects trans students\u2019 access to programs, sports and facilities that align with their gender identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McLaughlin never filed a formal FERPA complaint with the Education Department\u2019s Student Privacy Policy Office because she ultimately got the records she was seeking after threatening to sue the district. She told The 74 last year that she believed a lot of the communication between staff members using the student\u2019s preferred male name wasn\u2019t in writing.<\/p>\n

Now in college, her child identifies as a girl, \u201cloves feminine clothes again\u201d and has returned to ballet dancing after a five-year break.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lydia McLaughlin<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long road to this moment,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cI only dreamed that there would be some sort of justice for what the school district did.\u201d<\/p>\n

FERPA experts disagree with the department\u2019s conclusion. Elana Zeide, a law professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said officials didn\u2019t point to a specific violation in which a parent was denied access to education records. And many districts still follow a legal precedent that doesn\u2019t consider staff emails<\/a> to be part of a student\u2019s official record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could not like these policies at all. You can be vehemently opposed to them,\u201d\u00a0Zeide said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean you can accuse the state of a violation when there aren\u2019t the facts to support it .\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

RelatedTrump Administration Takes on School Emails as Parental Rights Issue<\/p>\n

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But Lance Christensen, vice president of the conservative California Policy Center, called the department\u2019s announcement. a \u201cbig deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled that the federal government is finally taking federal law seriously and is interested in protecting the natural rights of parents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jorge Reyes Salinas, a spokesman for Equality California, an LGBTQ advocacy group, called the decision \u201cpart of a broader, deliberate campaign to attack transgender young people and undermine their ability to learn and thrive in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cases before the Supreme Court<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s demands come as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to hear three different cases, including one from California, focused on the same issues.<\/p>\n

In a class action case<\/a>, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez ruled in December in favor of two teachers from the Escondido Union School District, near San Diego, who said that requiring them to keep a student\u2019s gender identity private violated their Christian faith. Parents later joined the lawsuit against the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Benitez\u2019s broad ruling said that California schools must prominently display wording that says parents \u201chave a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school student child expresses gender incongruence\u201d and that school staff also have a right to \u201caccurately inform\u201d parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attorney General Rob Bonta appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which blocked the ruling. The teachers are now asking the Supreme Court to overrule the lower court, but the justices have not yet said whether they\u2019ll get involved. Florida, Montana and West Virginia filed a brief in support of the teachers and parents, saying the \u201cConstitution places the burden on states to respect fundamental rights, not on citizens to claw back the right to parent their own children.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bonta told the court that the consequences of compelling the disclosure of gender identity would be \u201cirreversible\u201d for many students. Benitez\u2019s ruling, he said, would leave teachers and other school staff confused about what they can and can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

The high court is also debating whether to hear two other cases in which parents allege that educators supported students\u2019 gender identity changes at school without their knowledge. It takes only four justices to decide whether to hear a case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeff and January Littlejohn of Florida sued<\/a> the Leon County district, alleging that Deeklake Middle School violated their rights by supporting their child\u2019s gender transition from female to male behind their backs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials said educators were following guidance, which discourages \u201couting\u201d LGBTQ students..<\/p>\n

A federal district court dismissed the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit also ruled for the school system, saying that educators\u2019 actions did not \u201cshock the conscience,\u201d in a legal sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants did not act with intent to injure,\u201d the court said. \u201cTo the contrary, they sought to help the child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"When President Donald Trump addressed Congress last March, January Littlejohn was first lady Melania Trump\u2019s special guest. (Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a similar ruling<\/a> in Foote v. Ludlow School Committee. In that case, parents said staff at Baird Middle School in Ludlow, Massachusetts, concealed that their 11 year-old identified as genderqueer at school and was using a new preferred name.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The three-judge panel wrote that while they sympathized with the parents\u2019 desire for information about their children, the law doesn\u2019t \u201crequire governments to assist parents in exercising their fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you use this article in your work?<\/p>\n

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We\u2019d love to hear how The 74\u2019s reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers. Tell us how<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The Trump administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,19442,15,4294,12887,2434,41245,100,40284],"class_list":["post-155317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-department-of-education","tag-education","tag-gender-identity","tag-k-12","tag-lgbtq","tag-linda-mcmahon","tag-news","tag-transgender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}