Trump Administration charges that California is violating parents' rights in schools

The Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) of the Department of Education (DOE) determined that California is in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It's a new showdown between the Trump Administration and Governor Gavin Newsom, this time accused of infringing on the rights of California parents.

FERPA is a federal law that gives parents the right to access their children's education records. According to the DOE, it is allegedly being violated by the California Department of Education (CDE), currently headed by Tony Thurmond.

According to the SPPO, the CDE is pressuring school officials to hide information about students' "gender transitions" from parents. They explained that at least 300 California students were included in 'gender support plans,' many without their parents' consent or knowledge.

"Our investigation found that the California Department of Education egregiously abused its authority by pressuring school officials to withhold information about students’ so-called ‘gender transitions’ from their parents. Under Gavin Newsom’s failed leadership, school personnel have even bragged about facilitating ‘gender transitions’ and shared strategies to target minors and conceal information about children from their own families," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.

"Children do not belong to the State—they belong to families. We will use every available mechanism to hold California accountable for these practices and restore parental rights," she added.

According to his research, California promoted policies and laws (such as the Safe Act) instructing schools not to disclose name changes, pronouns or "gender transitions" to parents without the student's consent. These policies would have caused schools and other officials to withhold key information about their children from parents.

It would have even included practices such as asking school softwareproviders to create ways to hide those changes in electronic systems. "District leaders claim State laws and CDE policies put districts in a position of having to choose between complying with FERPA or getting sued by the State," the DOE noted.

The agency also shared a case uncovered in the investigation, which involves a mother and her daughter. In a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the mother sued the school after learning that school personnel had encouraged the child to identify as transgender, asked her to keep that status secret from her family and instructed her to conceal her body with chest bandages. According to the record, school officials justified not informing the mother by invoking a "parental confidentiality policy."