(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Today, the Liberty Justice Center sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta warning that approximately 600 California school districts are actively violating federal law and the U.S. Constitution by using California’s AB 1955 to justify policies that conceal students’ gender transitions from their parents.
The letter explains that school districts creating and enforcing policies that conceal a child’s request to change names, pronouns, or gender identity at school are violating the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The Liberty Justice Center’s letter makes clear that schools hiding this information from parents burden their constitutional rights. Parents have a fundamental right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their children.
The Supreme Court’s recent order in Mirabelli v. Bonta makes clear that a conflict with California law does not justify policies that violate parents’ federal rights. In light of that ruling, the Liberty Justice Center is urging Attorney General Bonta, who was a named party in the Mirabelli case, to advise California school districts to comply with federal law and the United States Constitution.
Furthermore, FERPA guarantees parents the right to access their children’s education records maintained by schools receiving federal funds. The law defines “education records” as records that “contain information directly related to a student” and are “maintained by an educational agency or institution.” Any school-created or school-maintained records concerning a child’s social gender transition are clearly “education records” and therefore must be made available to parents.
The Liberty Justice Center’s letter warns that California cannot override those federal protections through AB 1955, which is designed to bar schools from adopting parental notification policies without a child’s consent. Federal law and the Constitution supersede conflicting state law, and school districts cannot rely on California statutes as an excuse to continue violating parents’ constitutional rights as recently recognized by the Supreme Court.
With this letter, the Liberty Justice Center is launching the Parental Action and Rights Enforcement to ensure Notice, Transparency, and Safety initiative. PARENTS is a new initiative to defend parents when government officials and school bureaucrats try to cut them out of decisions about their children. The Liberty Justice Center has been on the front lines of the parental-rights fight successfully defending Chino Valley Unified School District Board President Sonja Shaw and the district’s parental notification policy, which became the catalyst for California’s broader battle over parental rights. The Liberty Justice Center has since filed numerous lawsuits and amicus briefs defending parents’ constitutional rights and challenging efforts by California officials to exclude parents from critical decisions affecting their children.
The initiative will initially focus on California while building a nationwide legal network to defend parental rights wherever government officials attempt to exclude parents from decisions concerning their children.
With attorneys and staff based in California, PARENTS will serve as a legal watchdog and rapid-response litigation initiative for parents, school boards, and communities facing unlawful policies that hide critical information from families.
“It’s far past time for California officials and school districts to realize they can’t legally use our kids to conduct gender transition experiments at school,” said Timothy Snowball, Senior Counsel at Liberty Justice Center. “Parents have a right, both legally and morally, to direct their own children’s education. This includes knowing essential information about their health, well-being, and education.”
The U.S. Department of Education has already found California’s Department of Education to be in violation of FERPA. The Liberty Justice Center’s letter warns that by continuing to enforce AB 1955, California and its school districts risk legal liability and further federal investigation for violating parents’ rights. Schools that accept federal funding must comply with FERPA, and government officials cannot nullify those obligations through state law.
The Liberty Justice Center calls on Attorney General Rob Bonta to immediately notify California school districts that policies withholding records or information concerning a student’s gender transition from parents violate federal law and infringe upon parents’ constitutional rights.