The U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice announced enforcement action Monday against Anne Arundel County Public Schools, alleging the district violated a federal student privacy law by withholding information about a student’s gender identity from the child’s parents.
The Education Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office, working with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said the district improperly classified information about a student’s gender identity as “confidential medical information” that could not be shared with parents, in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. The federal agencies said they are also considering similar action against Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan, whose policy directing staff not to disclose a student’s transgender status to parents the Student Privacy Policy Office determined likely violates the same law.
According to the federal complaint, the enforcement action stems from Anne Arundel County parents who discovered a school was using a male name and pronouns for their daughter after receiving an email that referred to the student using male pronouns. When the parents sought more information from school administrators, federal officials said, the school’s principal declined to discuss the student’s gender-related support and the assistant principal did not turn over records the parents had requested.
“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,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement announcing the action. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon added a warning aimed more broadly at school systems nationwide: “FERPA is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action.”
Anne Arundel County Public Schools said it first learned of the federal allegations through the Education Department’s July 27 press release and had not yet received formal notice, findings or supporting documentation from either agency. The district said it takes its FERPA obligations seriously but could not comment on matters involving an individual student, and that it would review any official findings with legal counsel before responding through the appropriate process.
The federal action follows a separate lawsuit filed July 8 in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland by two Anne Arundel County parents, identified in court filings as John and Jane Doe, who allege the district “socially transitioned” their child — identified as Mary Doe — without their knowledge or consent. That suit, brought by America First Legal, a conservative legal organization co-founded by White House aide Stephen Miller, challenges Anne Arundel’s Policy JQ and related regulations, which state that “every student has the right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that correspond to the student’s gender identity.” The policy does not require a legal name or gender-marker change and does not alter official school records. The Does are seeking an injunction barring school staff from referring to their child by anything other than her legal name, along with a declaration that the policy violates their constitutional rights; they have cited religious beliefs as part of their objection to the district’s approach.
The dual federal actions arrive amid a broader push by the Trump administration to scrutinize school district policies on gender identity and parental notification. Other Maryland districts, including Prince George’s, Montgomery and Frederick counties, have separately faced federal Title IX inquiries this year, according to reporting by the Baltimore Blade. LGBTQ advocacy groups have urged Maryland officials to resist the federal pressure, arguing that policies protecting transgender students’ privacy at school reduce the risk of harassment and help prevent students from being forced to disclose their gender identity to families who may not be supportive.
FERPA, enacted in 1974, generally gives parents of minor students the right to inspect and review their children’s education records and to seek corrections to records they believe are inaccurate, with some exceptions for information a school determines could pose a safety risk if disclosed. The scope of that exception — and whether it can be applied to routine communications about a student’s gender identity — sits at the center of the current dispute between the district and federal officials, who argue no such safety exception justifies withholding the information at issue in the Anne Arundel case.
The Education Department said Anne Arundel County could face judicial proceedings or a loss of federal funding depending on how the matter proceeds. The department gave Ann Arbor Public Schools until Aug. 10 to explain why enforcement action should not proceed against it as well and to justify its practice of maintaining certain gender-identity-related student records in a separate filing system.
