UNITED STATES — Federal education officials are moving to enforce parental access rights in two school districts after determining that policies and practices may have kept parents from obtaining sensitive student information.
The U.S. Department of Education said it is taking action against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland and Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan, alleging the districts hid information about students’ health and well-being from parents in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.
Education Department officials said the agency’s Student Privacy Policy Office is partnering with the U.S. Department of Justice to take enforcement action against Anne Arundel County Public Schools after determining the district improperly classified information about a student’s so-called “gender identity” as “confidential medical information” that could not be shared with parents.
The Student Privacy Policy Office said it received complaints from parents in Anne Arundel County who discovered the school was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male at school after the parents received an email that referred to their daughter by male pronouns. The department said that when the parents approached school administrators, the principal declined to provide details about the student’s “gender transition,” and the assistant principal refused to turn over the child’s relevant records. The department said those policies and practices unlawfully impeded the parents’ ability to exercise their FERPA rights.
The Education Department said the Student Privacy Policy Office and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will take “appropriate enforcement action,” including applicable judicial proceedings and potential loss of federal funding, over what it described as the district’s failure to substantially comply with FERPA requirements.
Separately, the Education Department said it determined Ann Arbor Public Schools’ policy requiring school employees to hide a child’s “transgender status” from parents likely violates FERPA. The department said it has given the district until Aug. 10 to demonstrate why the Education Department and Justice Department should not move forward with enforcement.
The Education Department also said Ann Arbor must justify a policy that directs school officials to maintain records related to a student’s so-called “gender identity” in a separate filing system or face “imminent enforcement action.”
“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents. This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. “Today, ED and DOJ are putting districts on notice that we will use every tool available to hold them to account for this egregious behavior. Under the Trump Administration, ED and DOJ are working together to vigorously uphold parents’ federal protections, and we will work to ensure that no parent is ever kept in the dark about important matters relating to their children.”
“School districts that hide information from parents are violating federal law,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said. “FERPA is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action. In partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Justice will initiate enforcement proceedings with districts that fail to comply.”
FERPA is a federal privacy law enforced by the Education Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office. The law gives parents the right to access their children’s education records, request corrections or amendments, and control — with exceptions — the disclosure of personally identifiable information in education records. The Education Department said policies that instruct teachers, counselors and other employees to hide a child’s “gender transition” records from parents infringe on parents’ rights under FERPA.
In March 2025, the Student Privacy Policy Office sent a Dear Colleague Letter to state superintendents reminding them of 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 the office. The department said McMahon attached a cover letter stating that “by natural right and moral authority, parents are the primary protectors of their children.”
The Education Department said it has launched statewide investigations aimed at holding states and school districts accountable for reported illegal activity, and said it earlier issued a finding against the California Department of Education for FERPA violations that it said exposed tactics used to hide information from parents, including creating secret “gender support plans” and petitioning a student management software company to hide children’s name changes and pronouns from parents.
In June 2026, the Education Department said it partnered with the Justice Department to provide more responsive and coordinated enforcement of parental and civil rights laws, with the goal of continuing enforcement uninterrupted while cutting red tape and expediting enforcement action. The department noted that FERPA violations can result in termination of an educational institution’s federal funding.
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