The U.S. Department of Education ruled Wednesday that the California Department of Education violated federal family rights law by facilitating the gender “transition” of children while deliberately keeping parents in the dark — because apparently secrecy is now an education strategy.
According to a senior department official, California pressured school districts statewide to violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by concealing student records related to so-called “gender transitions” from parents. FERPA is supposed to guarantee parental access to education records, but California decided to rewrite that rule with a Sharpie.
“FERPA requires that schools provide access to all education records upon a parent’s request. Schools do not get to choose which records they feel like providing to parents and which ones they don’t,” the official said. “This is not only unlawful, but morally reprehensible. Children do not belong to the state. They belong to their parents.”
An investigation by the Student Privacy Policy Office found that at least 300 students in California were placed on “gender support plans,” many without parental consent or knowledge. At the direction of the California Department of Education, school officials stored these plans in “separate filing systems” specifically designed to keep parents from seeing them. Because nothing says “trust us” like hiding files.
The Education Department also noted that school personnel are often the first authority figures to engage students about confusion over sex and “gender,” and that many push children toward “social transition” through name and pronoun changes — steps that can later lead to permanent medical interventions.
In one case, a mother sued her daughter’s school after staff encouraged the girl to believe she was “transgender,” instructed her to hide it from her mother, and helped her use chest binders to flatten her breasts. When the mother asked for information, school leadership told her she was not entitled to it under California’s secrecy policy — a direct violation of FERPA.
Some of the concealment was built into student management software used statewide called Aeries. California officials reportedly asked the company to create features allowing schools to hide name changes, pronouns, and related information from parents through the parent portal. High-tech secrecy, funded by taxpayers.
California also targeted and sued school districts that refused to follow the secrecy policy and instead complied with FERPA, according to the department official. In other words, districts that followed federal law were punished for it.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said California abused its authority by pressuring schools to withhold critical information from families. She added that under Governor Gavin Newsom’s leadership, school personnel have even bragged about facilitating “gender transitions” and sharing methods to target minors and conceal information from parents. She also criticized the previous administration for ignoring the issue and endorsing policies that harmed children in the name of radical ideology.
The Education Department has now outlined corrective actions for California, including directing all school superintendents that “gender support plans” are subject to parental inspection and that there is no such thing as an “unofficial records” exception under FERPA.
The message from Washington is clear: parents have rights, schools have limits, and federal law still matters. With accountability finally being enforced, families can once again expect transparency instead of secrecy — a welcome return to common sense and a strong step toward restoring trust in education.
