Federal officials have launched a California Department of Education investigation to withhold tax from parents about changes in child gender identity, setting up a showdown between the state and President Trump, putting billions of dollars of federal funds at risk.
The investigation, released Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Education, essentially pits California law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in July. This prohibits schools automatically notify students of changes in gender identity and prohibit the interpretation of federal law adopted by the Trump administration from protecting teachers from retaliation to support the rights of transgender students.
U.S. Department of Education Linda McMahon said children are most protected when information from parents is not withheld.
“Teachers and school counselors should not be in the business of advising minors who are entrusted with consequential decisions about sexual identity and mental health. Their responsibilities and privileges lie with their parents or trustworthy loved ones,” McMahon said in a statement. “Not only is it immoral, it also contradicts the federal laws of California schools, which allows us to hide important information about student well-being from parents and guardians.”
The potential penalty is a loss of federal funds overseen by the education department. These include $1.33 billion annual $2.1 billion to support the education of students with disabilities, funds to offset the impact of family poverty.
Officials from the California Department of Education were not immediately available to contact us for comment early Thursday morning.
Trump issued anti-transgender orders and policies that include directives that recognize only two biological sex. This calls for reimbursement or criminalization of gender-maintaining health care for adolescents. In an order titled “The End of Radical Indoctrination in K-12 education,” Trump aimed at school policies aimed at supporting transgender, non-binary, and other non-gender students.
Atty, California. General Rob Bonta vowed last month to defend state educators and LGBTQ+ students against the threat of the Trump administration.
“California schools will remain a welcoming, inclusive and safe place for everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or immigration status,” Bonta said at the time. “The federal government doesn’t direct us to teach and we don’t write the curriculum. We do that here in California.”
California law prohibiting “forced out” was approved after a small number of school boards passed a policy requiring educators to notify parents if a child changes their name or pronoun, or if a student requests that they use the facility or participate in a program that does not match their gender on official records.
The “parent notification” policy is split across the country. On the one hand, advocates of LGBTQ+ students say they deserve what they need and have legal rights, as they deserve the opportunity to explore this personal issue in a safe space and decide when and what to communicate. However, many parents feel that they have an uncompromising right to know whether their child is changing gender identity or exploring possibilities. The school has to tell them.
In a statement, McMahon suggested that parental notices are a necessary step to prevent harmful indoctrination by school staff.
“The agency has launched today’s investigation to ensure that students are not victimized by radical transgender ideology that leads to family marginalization and irreversible medical interventions,” McMahon said.
Many educators reject such a character. Teachers say they are not looking to recruit students to change their identity. They argue that instead students are trying to accept it as is and encourage tolerance.
The Trump administration’s investigation is the latest normative step from the U.S. Department of Education, under an order to shut itself down as soon as possible, even while overturning the status quo for both K-12 and higher education.
Thursday’s actions rely on the Trump administration’s federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, or the interpretation of the FERPA, which protects the privacy of student education records from kindergarten to graduate school.
The U.S. Education Bureau has long had an office to deal with FERPA-related complaints filed by parents and others. In such cases, it is typical to revolve around the inappropriate release of personal information or inappropriate protection.
The incident is different, said Maddie Biederman, a spokesman for the U.S. Education Department.
“While a more routine case of past FERPA surveys has been about inappropriate disclosure of student privacy information, this survey is particularly concerned with the lack of disclosure of privacy information to keep parents out of the loop,” Biedermann said.
Under FERPA, schools must provide parents with the opportunity to inspect and review their child’s educational records within a reasonable period, but within 45 calendar days of the request. Parents can also request changes to these records. Also, if the school disagrees, it will be part of a permanent record of that request.
Senior department officials said that the use of FERPA enforcement in this way could be “unprecedented,” but they also argued that it was within the scope of established law.
“State laws do not override federal laws, and educational institutions that receive federal funds are subject to FERPA,” the Education Department statement said. “Vibration of FERPA could result in the termination of federal funds for an institution.”
The FERPA violation allegations were part of a lawsuit filed by the Chino Valley Unified School District last July, shortly after it signed California law in July.
Prior to state law, Southern California’s Temecula Valley, Murieta Valley and Orange District have also passed parental notice policies in recent years. In Northern California, the Anderson Union High School district in Shasta County and the Locklin Unified and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School district in Placer County passed similar rules. At least eight states have passed similar laws, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
Times staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
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