- Education Department letter reminds schools to comply with parental rights policies regarding their children's records.
- Schools that fail to comply risk losing federal funds.
- The letter also insists that parents consent to student surveys about personal subjects such as sex behavior, politics.
The Department of Education is welcoming state-level educators and district superintendents back to school with a missive that doubles as a warning.
In a recent “Dear Colleague” letter signed by the DOE’s Student Privacy Policy Director Frank Miller, K-12 school administrators are sternly reminded that their schools must allow parents access to their children’s educational records.
The consequence of noncompliance: loss of federal funding.
The back-to-school letter, according to a DOE release, “comes amid rampant reports of schools withholding critical information from parents, such as maintaining records related to a child’s ‘gender’ separately in order to keep them hidden from parents.”
The DOE release goes on to say that over the past year, the agency has investigated districts for issuing sexually explicit surveys “even after parents opted their children out.”
Another allegation involves a teacher requiring students to kiss members of the same sex for a graded assignment — and that the “parental secrecy policies” instruct educators to hide records relating to “gender transition” from parents.
“Parents know what is best for their children,” said Frank Miller in the DOE release. “Yet we continue to see schools adopt policies that shut parents out of their children’s lives at school. The Department is committed to putting parents back in the driver’s seat.”
Miller goes on to say that the DOE will “fully enforce” parental rights laws to ensure moms and dads have the information and authority they need “to make decisions for their children.”
Meanwhile, the letter warns, schools and districts failing to comply with federal privacy and parental access laws risk losing federal financial assistance.
According to the DOE release accompanying the letter, the Trump administration has launched several “parental rights” investigations.
The agency, the release added, issued a finding against the California Department of Education for parental rights violations “that exposed some of the most insidious tactics used to hide information from parents, including creating secret ‘gender support plans’ that are kept in separate filing systems away from parents, and inquiring whether a student management software company could hide children’s name changes and pronouns from parents.”
The DOE has warned California that if it did not take corrective actions, it would terminate all federal education funding to the state, totaling $4.9 billion annually, reported Education Week.
Such actions prompted a February lawsuit against the Trump administration from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat.
Bonta claimed that the DOE was attempting to “coerce the state into complying with its unlawful corrective actions” by interpreting federal parental rights provisions “that far exceed the scope of the statute.”
The suit added that the DOE presented no evidence that any parental request to view their child’s gender support plan has been denied — and that the California education department had written to local administrators to remind them that such plans are education records covered by federal family privacy laws, according to Education Week.
“We will not stand by as (the Education Department) uses baseless claims to attack crucial education funding,” Bonta said in a news release.
School/gender issues have long been Trump administration talking points.
At last month’s “Back to School” gathering at the White House to tout his school choice-friendly programs, Trump accused the Biden administration of forcing “transgender insanity” upon children as young as 4 years old.
The Trump administration, added Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the event, is protecting parents’ rights to know what’s happening inside the walls of the children’s schools. “After the Biden administration allowed schools to secretly transition students without parents’ knowledge, President Trump is defending parental rights like never before.”
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump claimed that children were undergoing transition-related surgery during the school day.
But there is no evidence that a student has ever undergone gender-related surgery at a school in the U.S., nor is there evidence that a U.S. school has sent a student to receive such a procedure elsewhere, NBC News reported.
And a 2024 Pew Research Center poll found that nearly 70% of public K-12 teachers who have been teaching for more than one year said topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity “rarely or never” come up in their classrooms.
School surveys — and parental consent
Federal law, according to the recent Dear Colleague letter, asserts that parents must consent before students are required to take a “survey, evaluation or analysis” that includes such “protected areas” as:
- Political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the student’s parents.
- Mental or psychological problems of the student or the student’s family.
- Sex behavior or attitudes.
- Illegal, antisocial, self-incriminating or demeaning behavior.
- Religious practices, affiliations or beliefs of the student or student’s parents.
- Family income — except when legally required to determine participation eligibility for a program.
The letter states that teachers, counselors or school administrators who administer student surveys are authority figures. So students feel obligated to participate — and they may not think to ask for parental review.
“As a result, administering such surveys, evaluations, or analyses effectively places students in the position of deciding on their own whether they feel compelled to participate,” according to Miller’s letter.
“A student’s decision can be shaped by peer pressure, fear of repercussions for not participating, a desire to please a favored teacher, or simply the authority a teacher or school official holds.”
The DOE considers any survey addressing a protected area as “required” — making it subject to advance parental notification and written parental consent.
Ensuring parents know their classroom rights
Many schools and districts, added the letter, must do better informing parents of their legally protected rights regarding student records. Such rights should be published in school-managed tools such as school websites, school activities calendars, newsletters and student handbooks.
“A point of emphasis during our enforcement work this year will be ensuring that schools communicate these annual notifications clearly and effectively to parents,” wrote Miller.
Federal law, the letter added, requires that schools provide parents with opportunities, upon request, to inspect and review all of their child’s education records. Such records include a student’s so-called “official record” — along with “unofficial records” or “cumulative file(s).”
“All information, with certain limited statutory exceptions, that is directly related to a student and maintained by an educational agency or institution is considered part of the student’s education records which parents have the right to inspect and review,” according to the letter.
Providing student data to military recruiters
The DOE’s “Back to School” letter concludes by noting that schools receiving federal funds are required to provide military recruiters with the same access to student data given to colleges or prospective employers.
Information schools are required to provide to military recruiters includes student names, addresses, electronic mailing addresses and telephone listings, noted the letter.
But parents are allowed to opt out of sharing such data with military recruiters.