{"id":465005,"date":"2026-09-16T00:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465005\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T00:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:24:10","slug":"schools-cannot-alert-parents-of-child-gender-identity-unless-asked-judge-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/465005\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools cannot alert parents of child gender identity unless asked, judge orders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It remains illegal in California for a school district to force teachers and other staff to alert parents about their child\u2019s gender identity, but parents must be told when they ask about it, a judge ruled Tuesday in a widely watched case dealing with parental rights. <\/p>\n

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael Sachs, weighing both state law<\/a> and a Supreme Court order<\/a>, rejected an attempt by the Chino Valley Unified School District to reinstate its mandatory parent-notification policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no requirement that the school district, on its own, after learning of transgender issues, contact parents and let the parents know of them,\u201d Sachs said in court. At the same time, \u201cin the event a parent makes an affirmative inquiry of a minor child regarding their status, whether transgender or not, that will trigger an obligation by the school district to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the Chino Valley policy<\/a>, approved in July 2023, a school would have to notify parents of any request by a student \u201cto use pronouns that do not align with the student\u2019s biological sex or gender listed on the student\u2019s birth certificate or other official records.\u201d The same notification rules applied to the use of bathrooms or participation in sports.<\/p>\n

State Attorney General Rob Bonta immediately challenged that policy in court and it was put on hold<\/a>. In October 2024, Sachs had ruled that most of the policy was discriminatory \u2014 and therefore illegal \u2014 because it singled out a group of students for treatment that was different than the treatment of other students.<\/p>\n

As an example, he cited the possibility that a student would come out confidentially to a school counselor \u2014 and then that counselor would immediately be required to alert the parents, even against the student\u2019s wishes. <\/p>\n

A policy that could result in mandated actions by a school employee continues to conflict with the intent of a 2025 California law that barred a school system from forcing teachers to tell parents about a student\u2019s gender, Sachs concluded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s inappropriate and it\u2019s still inappropriate,\u201d Sachs said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

New rules, new rulings<\/p>\n

What has changed in the legal landscape, he added, is what happens when a parent requests information about their child\u2019s gender status or sexual orientation or any number of other issues affecting that child.<\/p>\n

Trial court rulings \u2014 affirmed by a Supreme Court majority in March \u2014 said that parents have the right to demand information about their child\u2019s gender identity at school. School staff cannot lie to parents \u2014 including matters that a student wishes to conceal from their parents. <\/p>\n

Attorney Emily Rae, representing Chino Valley, said Sachs was correct to acknowledge that parents had the right to information about their child, but that his ruling did not go nearly far enough \u2014 and that parent notification should be mandatory statewide.<\/p>\n

Chino Valley also has a separate pending court challenge to the 2025 California law, contending it is at odds with the direction of the Supreme Court, which should take precedence. <\/p>\n

Dept. Attorney General Delbert Tran, representing the state, declined to be interviewed Tuesday, but in his exchanges with Sachs, it was clear that he saw the ruling as about as much of a win as would be possible, given the Supreme Court\u2019s recent directives. <\/p>\n

He also said that supporters of parent-notification policies misstate or misunderstand the parent-teacher relationship that exists in practice and under state law. Parents, he said, have the legal right to observe classes and meet with teachers, and the expectation is that teachers will communicate freely and often with parents about a child\u2019s needs and progress. <\/p>\n

Chino Valley champions its view of parent rights<\/p>\n

Chino Valley, a school district of 26,000 students in San Bernardino County, has adopted and defended a series of policies favored by parent activists, religious conservatives and President Trump under the leadership of school board President Sonja Shaw<\/a>, a Republican currently running for the office of state superintendent of public instruction.<\/p>\n

Under her leadership, the school system has taken a stand for a flag-ban policy in schools and classrooms, widely viewed as targeting gay pride flags; for removing school library books with passages deemed to be sexually obscene, and for working to ban trans athletes from girls sports and girls locker rooms.<\/p>\n

Shaw attended Tuesday\u2019s hearing and criticized Sachs\u2019 reasoning. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he talks about a parent has a right to know now only if they ask, how do you know you\u2019re being lied to or secrets being kept?,\u201d Shaw said after the hearing. \u201cThat absolutely makes no sense.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shaw said the judge should have done \u201cwhat\u2019s right: Upheld parents\u2019 constitutional right to the upbringing of their own child.\u201d<\/p>\n

In anticipation of Sachs\u2019 ruling against the original policy, the Chino Valley school board revised the policy, expanding it to all students. Under the current policy, if any student \u201crequests a change to their official or unofficial records, parents\/guardians shall be notified to ensure that parents\/guardians are informed and involved in all aspects of their child\u2019s education.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, if a straight male student named William suddenly decided he wanted to be referred to as Robert on the class roll sheet \u2014 an official record \u2014 his parents would be notified.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Sachs accepted this version of notification because students were not singled out for different treatment on the basis of their gender. <\/p>\n

That form of the policy remains in effect.<\/p>\n

Since that time, Shaw said, the district has been \u201ctransparent\u201d with parents regarding important issues in the lives of their children. And Tuesday\u2019s ruling would not change that.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, she added, the district could assertively ask parents if they want to be informed about their child\u2019s gender issues and that permission \u2014 if given \u2014 would continue to apply as the student proceeds through grade school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It remains illegal in California for a school district to force teachers and other staff to alert parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3409,183107,2209,1776,7087,5409,15157,183106,4265,37318,14363,4574,183108,10384,68],"class_list":["post-465005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-child","tag-chino-valley-policy","tag-gender","tag-information","tag-parent","tag-policy","tag-right","tag-sachs","tag-school","tag-school-district","tag-shaw","tag-student","tag-supreme-court-order","tag-teacher","tag-tuesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465005","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=465005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}