U.S. Department of Education Demands Clarity on California and Washington Plans to Revise "Transgender" Policies

Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s (the Department’s) Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) demanded updated information from the California Department of Education (CDE) and the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) regarding policies governing schools’ disclosure of records to parents in light of recent rulings in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, both of which bolster the legal rights of parents. California and Washington maintain policies and guidance – and have even pursued litigation against their own school districts – to pressure schools and educators to hide student records from parents. These practices triggered the Department’s first statewide Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) investigations last year.   

Recent appeals court rulings have reinforced the Department’s commitment to protecting students from radical indoctrination in K-12 schools. In March 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed commonsense parental rights in its ruling in Mirabelli v. Olson, stating that, “under long-established precedent, parents – not the State – have primary authority with respect to the upbringing and education of children.” The Court also called out California’s policies that require educators to hide information about students’ so-called “gender transition” from their own parents, determining that such practices very likely violate parents’ constitutional rights.  

In June 2026, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in Mirabelli, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in the City of Huntington Beach v. Newsom that California state laws likely violate parents’ constitutional rights by forbidding schools from notifying parents about their child’s “gender dysphoria” and requiring that records pertaining to students’ “gender identity” be hidden from parents unless the child consents to their disclosure.  

SPPO is requesting that the CDE and OSPI immediately detail their plans to revise their policies and practices in light of these legal rulings. The agencies’ responses will inform the Department’s next steps in its ongoing investigation into OSPI and following SPPO’s finding that CDE violated FERPA, issued earlier this year.  

“Schools must end the practice of concealing vitally important information about students from parents who love them,” said Frank Miller, Director of the Student Privacy Policy Office. “We are providing California and Washington the opportunity to explain to the Department and the families they serve how they are revising their policies to come into compliance with federal law. SPPO is determined to hold educational institutions accountable and ensure the protection of parental rights.” 

The Department recognized National Parents’ Day on July 26, 2026, honoring the important role parents play in their children’s education. Throughout this week, the Department announced significant actions to enforce federal parental rights laws across the country, including an Administration-wide crackdown on school districts that are secretly “transitioning” students and hiding it from parents, new investigations in Washington and Colorado to ensure the protection of parents’ rights, and an investigation to ensure Minnesota four-year-olds are not provided with “transgender dolls” at school without a clear opt-out opportunity for parents.  

FERPA is a federal privacy law enforced by ED’s SPPO. FERPA gives parents the right to access their children’s education records, the right to request record corrections or amendments, and the right to control (with important exceptions) the disclosure of personally identifiable information in education records. Policies that instruct teachers, counselors, and other employees to hide a child’s so-called “gender transition” records from parents infringe on parents’ rights under FERPA.   

In March 2025, SPPO sent a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) to state superintendents reminding them of their compliance obligations under FERPA and designating the practice of hiding a child’s “gender identity” from that child’s parents as a “priority concern” for SPPO. Secretary McMahon attached a cover letter to the DCL, stating that “by natural right and moral authority, parents are the primary protectors of their children.”    

Violations of FERPA can result in the termination of an educational institution’s Federal funding.