A large suburban school district is facing a new federal civil rights complaint alleging it violates parents' rights by directing staff to hide students' gender transitions at school.
The complaint, filed this week with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), accuses the district of running an "elaborate system" that lets students change names, pronouns, and gender identity at school without telling their parents.
According to the filing, staff are allegedly instructed to use a student's chosen name and pronouns in the classroom, while using the student's legal name and sex in any communication with families.
The complainants argue this practice keeps parents "in the dark" about critical information related to their children's mental health and wellbeing, according to Fox News.
The filing cites the district's gender identity guidance, which describes "gender support plans" developed between students and school staff to manage a social transition at school.
These documents, the complaint claims, are sometimes kept outside a student's formal education record, making them harder for parents to access under federal student privacy law.
That allegation closely tracks a March 2025 directive from the Education Department warning that keeping gender-related documents out of education records and away from parents may violate federal law.
Complainants argue the district's practices violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which gives parents the right to inspect their children's education records, and may also infringe on parents' constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children.
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They point to recent federal guidance stating that schools must allow parents to review all education records, including any documentation that a child is undergoing a gender transition at school, Edweek reported.
They also cite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that criticized policies allowing schools to conceal a child's gender transition from parents, saying such rules likely violate parental rights under the 14th Amendment.
The district has not yet publicly responded to the latest complaint, but has previously defended its gender identity policies as necessary to protect vulnerable students from discrimination and harassment.
Civil rights groups and some educators say disclosure rules that require automatic notification to parents could place transgender and nonbinary students at risk if they come from unsupportive homes.
Conservative parental-rights organizations, meanwhile, have stepped up their campaign against what they call "secret gender transitions," reporting that more than 1,200 districts nationwide have similar policies instructing staff to keep a student's transgender status from parents in some situations.
The OCR complaint could take months or longer to resolve, as federal investigators decide whether to open a formal investigation and, if so, whether the district must change its policies to keep receiving federal funds.
The case comes amid a broader national clash over gender identity in schools, with the Education Department under the current administration moving away from earlier interpretations of Title IX that treated gender identity as a protected category under sex discrimination rules, as per the Department of Education.
